Death Valley Field Trip- Mitchell Trenka

Death Valley Dunes

These sand dunes are created by the weathering and erosion. Flash floods actually help send a lot of water rushing down mountain slopes grinding the rocks even more. This dune field includes three types of dunes: crescent, linear, and star shaped. And the highest dune is around 100 ft. My question is how does all this sand stay in the same area why aren’t their just bare rocks instead of all that sand staying in one place.

Racetrack Playa

This area is located on a very flat dry lake bed burrowed in-between two mountain ranges. This dry lake bed has flashes of life when heavy rain-washed water down from the surrounding mountains forming a very shallow lake. This water then evaporates and leaves that cracked texture you see in the pictures. The thing that makes this place so interesting is the mysterious moving of rocks in this lake bed. There are rocks that have slid as much at 2900 ft. Yet no person has every seen these rocks move. My question is where do the rocks that slide actually come from in the pictures, I have seen it doesn’t seem to have an abundance of rocks.

Split Cindercone

Less than 300,000 years ago magma filled a chamber underneath the earths crust. That magma began to rise up taking advantage of weaknesses found in the crust. Once it made its way out it created a fiery eruption sending molten basalt everywhere. Mu question is if this volcano is still active or has the chance to become active again. I also would like to know the rock types found around the cone.