False color image of Death and Panamint valleys area from space. The smaller linear valley is Panamint Valley and the larger one is Death Valley. The mountain range between Death and Panamint valleys is the Panamint Range and the Black Mountains bound the other side of Death Valley. (NASA image)
The exposed geology of the Death Valley area presents a diverse and complex set of at least 23 formations of sedimentary units, two major gaps in the geologic record called unconformities, and at least one distinct set of related formations geologists call a group. The oldest rocks in the area that now includes Death Valley National Park are extensively metamorphosed by intense heat and pressure and are at least 1700 million years old. These rocks were intruded by a mass of granite 1400 Ma (million years ago) and later uplifted and exposed to nearly 500 million years of erosion.
Marine deposition occurred 1200 to 800 Ma, forming thick sequences of conglomerate, mudstone, and carbonate rock topped by stromatolites, and possibly glacial deposits from the hypothesized Snowball Earth event. Rifting thinned huge roughly linear parts of the supercontinent Rodinia enough to allow sea water to invade and divide its landmass into component continents separated by narrow straits. A passive margin developed on the edges of these new seas in the Death Valley region. Carbonate banks formed on this part of the two margins only to be subsided as the continental crust thinned until it broke, giving birth to a new ocean basin. An accretion wedge of clastic sediment then started to accumulate at the base of the submerged precipice, entombing the region's first known fossils of complex life. These sandy mudflats gave way about 550 Ma to a carbonate platform which lasted for the next 300 million years of Paleozoic time.
The passive margin switched to active margin in the early-to-mid Mesozoic when the Farallon Plate under the Pacific Ocean started to dive below the North American Plate, initiating a subduction zone; volcanoes and uplifting mountains were produced as a result. Erosion over many millions of years formed a relatively featureless plain. Stretching of the crust under western North America started around 16 Ma and is thought to be caused by upwelling from the subducted spreading-zone of the Farallon Plate. This process continues into the present and is thought to be responsible for producing the Basin and Range province. By 2 to 3 million years ago this province had spread to the Death Valley area, ripping it apart and giving birth to Death Valley, Panamint Valley and surrounding ranges. These valleys partially filled with sediment and, during colder periods during the current ice age, with lakes. Lake Manly was the largest of these lakes; it filled Death Valley during each glacial period from 240,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago. By 10,500 years ago these lakes were increasingly cut off from glacial melt from the Sierra Nevada, starving them of water and concentrating salts and minerals. The desert environment seen today developed after these lakes dried up.
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part ofthevalley and eventually disappear into the sands ofthevalley floor. DeathValley also contains salt pans. According to current geological consensus...
"Shoreline Butte: Ice age DeathValley". DeathValleyGeology Field Trip Shoreline Butte. Department ofthe Interior. Archived from the original on 2015-04-30...
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linear "racetrack" imprints. It is located above the northwestern side ofDeathValley, in DeathValley National Park, Inyo County, California, U.S. Racetrack...
in DeathValley. Millions of years prior to the actual sinking and widening ofDeathValley and the existence of Lake Manly (see GeologyoftheDeath Valley...
Long Valley, CA". Cali Hot Springs. Retrieved 2024-04-16. Sharp, Robert P.; Allen F. Glazner (1997). Geology Underfoot in DeathValley and Owens Valley. Missoula...
California by County GeologyoftheDeathValleyareaGeologyofthe Lassen volcanic areaGeologyof Point Lobos areaGeologyofthe Yosemite area Mining in California...
Thegeologyofthe Grand Teton area consists of some ofthe oldest rocks and one ofthe youngest mountain ranges in North America. The Teton Range, partly...
part ofthegeological phenomenon in which rocks move and inscribe long tracks along a smooth valley floor without animal intervention. The movement of the...
DeathValley National Park, DeathValley, Inyo County, California, noted as the lowest point in North America and the United States, with a depth of 282 ft...
Devils Hole is a geologic formation located in a detached unit ofDeathValley National Park and surrounded by the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge...
valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other...
the lake covered much ofDeathValley with a surface areaof 1,600 square kilometres (620 sq mi). Water levels varied through its history, and the chronology...
for the Grand Canyon, the Great Basin and DeathValley. Pacific Mountain System – the coastal mountain ranges and features in the west coast ofthe United...
Mojave Desert California (the High Desert); and parts of western Arizona, southern Nevada, and a small portion of Utah. DeathValley, California Amargosa Desert...
sediment from the mountains and evaporites from the sea were deposited (see geologyofthe Canyonlands area for detail).: 383 Most ofthe formations were...
metropolitan area, which includes the Lehigh Valley, is currently Pennsylvania's third-most populous metropolitan area after those of Philadelphia and...
The Ubehebe Craters are a volcanic field in the northern DeathValleyof California, consisting of 14–16 craters in a 3-square-kilometre (1.2 sq mi) area...
Geology Underfoot in DeathValley and Owens Valley, Sharp, Glazner (Mountain Press Publishing Company, Missoula; 1997) ISBN 0-87842-362-1. Geologic map...
History ofthe Islands of California. University of California Press. Sharp, R. P., & Glazner, A. F. (1997). Geology Underfoot in DeathValley and Owens...
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