I have driven through Searles Lake, near the Ridgecrest area previously for work. Out there is the Searles Valley that was once a lakebed and contains a large salt deposit. On top of that salt deposit is the worst smelling mineral facility that digs up and creates various minerals from the lakebed. The California geological map places this material as the youngest material on the surface within the valley. I would want to know what is underneath. With this being a lake bed I would like to know what, over time, has been deposited here and what, if any, signs of the age of the earth we could uncover. A sample could be taken from the surrounding mountains to gain an insight into what would lie under the now dry lake bed. I wonder what types of fossils could be found from the lakebed to show what might have lived there in the past. Could there also be a us for radiometric dating on older samples taken from the depths of the lake bed that could further help date the area? If you have ever been through this area, it is desolate and the small town located there is the only interesting thing to see on the surface. But I wonder what secrets lie underneath.
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