Ubehebe
He found this region so complexly faulted and folded, that he named this part of Death Valley the 'Amargosa chaos'. It was not until geologists learned that this region had suffered from extraordinary tension that pulled great blocks of crust apart, that the background was laid to understand the intricate structure of the Amargosa Chaos.
Modern geologists have documented four major events (deformational events) that faulted and folded the Amargosa Chaos.
The first event metamorphosed Death Valley's Precambrian basement rocks and was quite ancient, possibly occurring as long as 1,700 million years ago.
The second event began while layered younger Precambrian sediments were being deposited on top of the beveled surface of older metamorphic basement rocks. This deformational event shifted the crust vertically, creating thinning and thickening of some sedimentary layers as they were being deposited.
The two events responsible for the chaotic appearance of the Amargosa Chaos didn't occur until over half a billion years later, during Mesozoic or Early Tertiary time.
This third event folded the layered Precambrian and Cambrian sedimentary rocks.
The fourth and final event occurred quite recently, geologically speaking. This phase of deformation coincided with severe crustal stretching that created the deep valleys and high mountains of this part of the Basin and Range province.
In just a few million years, during Late Miocene to Pliocene time, older rocks were intensely faulted and sheared. In some areas all that remains of some thick rock layers are lens-shaped pods of rock bounded on all sides by faults.
Other layers have been sliced out of their original sequence altogether.
Artist's Drive and Palette
Artist's Palette
Artist's Drive
Artist's Drive rises up to the top of an alluvial fan fed by a deep canyon cut into the Black Mountains. These colors are caused by the oxidation of different metals (red, pink and yellow is from iron salts, green is from decomposing tuff-derived mica, and manganese produces the purple).
Called the Artist Drive Formation, the rock unit provides evidence for one of the Death Valley area's most violently explosive volcanic periods.
The Miocene-aged formation is made up of cemented gravel, playa deposits, and much volcanic debris, perhaps 5,000 feet (1500 m) thick. These are part of larger-scale features that are also hexagonally-shaped and can be seen from Dante's View nearly 6000 feet (1800 m) above.
The saucers are formed after the salty pan begins to dry and the salt crystals expand.
Badwater is a salt flat that is beneath the face of the Black Mountains that contains the lowest elevation in North America at 86 meters (282 ft) below sea level. (It is often mistakenly described as the lowest elevation in the Western Hemisphere, but that is actually Laguna del Carbon in Argentina at -105 meters (-344 feet)).
Unlike at the Devils Golf Course, significant rainstorms flood Badwater, covering the salt pan with a thin sheet of standing water. While flooded, some of the salt is dissolved, then is redeposited as clean, sparkling crystals when the water evaporates.
Charcoal Kilns
Charcoal kilns, Death Valley NP
The Charcoal Kilns were built in 1867 and were used to reduce pinyon pine and juniper trees to charcoal in a process of slow burning in low oxygen.
This fuel was then transported to mines in Death Valley to feed smelting and ore extraction operations.
The kilns were abandoned three years after they were built but were restored in 1971 by Navajo Indians from Arizona.
Pinion Pine and Juniper trees dominate the landscape here with bushes of Mormon Tea in between.
Dante's View
Dante's View with Badwater Basin in the background
From Dante's View one can see the central part of Death Valley from a vantage point 5,500 feet (1,700 m) above sea level. From here Badwater Basin can be seen, which contains the lowest dry point in North America.
Telescope Peak can also be seen from here which is 11,331 feet (3455 m) above sea level. This is the greatest topographic relief in the conterminous U.S.
The mountain that Dante's View is on is part of the Black Mountains which along with the parallel Panamint Range across the valley form what geologists call a horst and the valley that is called a graben.
This canyon was formed through a process of cut and fill which included periodic erosive floods followed by long periods of deposition and uplift. Later addition of magnesium changed the limestone, a rock made of calcium carbonate, to dolomite, a calcium-magnesium carbonate.
Far below the surface, high pressure and temperature altered the dolomite into the metamorphic rock, marble. The Noonday Dolomite has since been tilted from uplift.
Mosaic Canyon was named for a rock formation known as the Mosaic Breccia.
During periods of heavy rain, water washes down from nearby mountain slopes onto the playa, forming a shallow, short-lived lake. Racetrack stones only move once every two or three years and most tracks last for just three or four years.
Saratoga Springs
The bubbling waters of Saratoga Springs rise near the southern boundary of Death Valley National Park.
Several springs feed three large open water ponds measuring 6.6 acres (2.7 ha) in size, the third largest marsh habitat in the park behind the Saline Valley marsh in the western portion of the park and Cottonball Marsh in central Death Valley.
This rare desert wetland supports a rich community of plants and animals. Five rare invertebrate species also occur at Saratoga Springs and include the Amargosa Tryonia Snail, the Amargosa Spring Snail, the Saratoga Springs Belostoma Bug, the Amargosa Naucorid Bug, and the Death Valley June Beetle.
Salt Creek
Much of Salt Creek is usually dry at the surface and covered by a bright layer of salt which was created by many flooding and subsequent evaporation of water that periodically flows at the surface.
Over time the small amount of solutes in the water accumulate to form this linear salt pan. The highest strandline is one of the principal clues that geologists use to estimate the depth of the lake that once filled Death Valley.
The gray rocks lining the walls of the western end of Titus Canyon are Cambrian age (570-505 million years old) limestones. By the end of the Precambrian, the continental edge of North America had been planed off by erosion to a gently rounded surface of low relief.
Leadfield is a ghost town near Titus Canyon where in the 1920s prospectors mined for ore after hearing exaggerated claims that ore would be easy to find and the living conditions in the area would be easy to endure.
At one of the bends in the canyon mega breccia can be seen and several different types of flowers including the sacred datura inhabit the area.
Ubehebe Crater
Ubehebe Crater - Panoramic view
Ubehebe Crater is a large volcanic crater located at the north tip of the Cottonwood Mountains 37°0′35″N 117°27′1″W / 37.00972°N 117.45028°W / 37.00972; -117.45028 that is half a mile (one kilometer) wide, 500 to 777 feet (150 to 237 m) deep, and 4-7 thousand years old (Native American artifacts in the area indicate that 6000 years is the most likely age although estimates of 2000 years are common). It started after a large column of debris were thrown skyward began to collapse.
Within Ubehebe small alluvial fans have been built on the crater wall along with talus slumps from debris flows. Some of these have been expanded or even merged by sandblasting.
Non-stop winds on this ridge are concentrated and compressed at the top of the hill and are very fast as a result.