Week 7 - Death Valley - Ryan Klassy

Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park - Retrieved from: https://cdn.photographylife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ZabriskiePointValley.jpg

During my field trip to Death Valley, I came across many points that were of geologic interest to me. Of them all, none were m ore beautiful to me than what I saw at Zabriskie Point. This area seems to tell such a beautiful story of erosion by water, despite the extreme lack of water in the area. I can only imagine what this place looks like under heavy flood waters; the waters that have given this landscape the shape it has today.

As I look over the hills, I wonder what these different colors are from. I assume that the lighter and darker colors are different types of rocks. I might want to look for a geologic map of the area as a start. As I look at the geologic map, though, I see that they aren't showing me the layers in the cross-section view that I need, so I look online and find another map, a stratographic map, that shows me the layers of rock as they were deposited and shows me what time periods these were laid down in.

Finding the stratographic map allows me to see the composition of the darker material that was deposited above the lighter material. Erosion has carved most of the dark sediments away, at least in the foreground of this photo, but in the back you can see much more of the darker sediments that have yet to be eroded away.

As time moves on, will this eventually all be light colored sediment with all the dark sediments washed away?

On my field trip I saw a sign that mentioned how parts of Death Valley are below sea level. I would like to know what elevation Zabriskie Point are, so I would find a topographic map. The first place I would look is on the Death Valley National Park's website. I find that the area is actually slightly above sea level at 713 ft.

Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park - Retrieved from  https://www.hikespeak.com/img/DV/Zabriskie/Zabriskie_Point_IMG_3872.jpg

Bonus photo! As I was on my hike I stumbled upon this other area at Zabriskie Point. Just when I thought I couldn't have any more questions, I see this! Look at the slope of those layers! I see that there has clearly been some uplift here. Now I want to know what caused these layers of strata to lift like this? The colors are beautiful. I would like to know which colors correspond to which time periods. I see that they are very different in thickness. Which time periods were causing the wider bands and which for the narrow bands? I do believe my stratographic map from earlier might help me with this.

I wonder if I can correlate the lengths of time to the thickness of the layers? I suppose different sediments could have been deposited faster or slower, so thickness of layers won't necessarily tell me how long that took to happen.

So many questions, and from only one quick stop in one small section of death valley!