These are overlain by sediments of ancestral Lake Tecopa, which include the Lava Creek B tuff (0.62 Ma; number 2 in Fig. The Panamint Range is more symmetric, with perhaps a slightly steeper western flank. The above summary of younger deposits in the Death Valley region highlights some of the structurally important inferences that can be drawn from these sections. 1). Over time, the sediments compressed into limestone and a related calcium-magnesium carbonate called dolomite. The younger age is further confirmed by occurrence of one of the Mesquite Spring tuffs (3.13.35 Ma; numbers 7 and 8 in Fig. The Black Mountains display an asymmetric east-tilted geometry that is typical of a rift-flank uplift (Watts, 2001). At Lake Hill, the lower unit contains the cephalopod Armenoceras and several species of the brachiopod Lepidocyclus. 92328, Download the official NPS app before your next visit. This pan was first created by the drying-up of 30-foot (9.1m) deep Recent Lake 2000 to 3000 years ago. It was named after a line in the 1934 National Park Service guide book to Death Valley National Monument, which stated that "Only the devil could play golf" on its surface, due to a rough texture from the large halite salt crystal formations.[5]. This particular form of desert varnish takes With an elevation several feet above the valley floor at Badwater, the Devil's Golf Course remains dry, allowing weathering processes to sculpt the salt there into complicated formations. From the 1930s through the 1960s the springs provided water for the successful talc mines in the nearby Ibex Hills. Interpretations of the geology of Death Valley have played an important role in the development of models of continental extension, particularly for models that incorporate large-magnitude extension accommodated by low-angle detachment faults (Wright and Troxel, 1973; Hamilton, 1988; Wernicke et al., 1988a; Snow and Wernicke, 2000; Hayman et al., 2003). Topography (USGS DEM, 2009) in gray shades fills in spaces where there are no Cenozoic sediments. Basement geometry below Death Valley shows a steep-sided basin nearly 5000 m deep. Occur in small bars and embankments; locally cemented with lime carbonate caliche. A siltstone/shale formation that is exposed in the northern part of Panamint Range in the Tucki Mountain Region. Typically located at the end-depositional sites in basin interiors. The three turtleback structures in the Black Mountains, as pointed out by Miller and Pavlis (2005), are keys to understanding tectonic evolution of the area. from. This is the greatest topographic relief in the conterminous U.S. This paper was sponsored by the PLATES project at UTIG. Beds contain tabuliar-planar and trough cross bed sets, and Skolithus burrows. There are different horizontal linear features on the northeast flank of the butte that are ancient shorelines from this lake. 12 Titus Canyon This dolomite has been correlated to the Noonday Dolomite (Hunt and Mabey, 1966; Williams et al., 1976), which is also found in the footwall of the Black Mountains detachment fault at Copper Canyon and Mormon Point (Williams et al., 1976), although Miller and Pavlis (2005) question details of this correlation. An alternation of shaly and silty members with limestone members transitional between underlying clastic formations and overlying carbonate ones. Mon-Fri 7am-5pm PT. In the second category, based on the pull-apart model developed by Burchfiel and Stewart (1966), strike-slip faults penetrate deeply into the crust and drive extension between their terminations (Wright and Troxel, 1984; Topping, 1993; Serpa and Pavlis, 1996; Miller and Prave, 2002). Mosaic Canyon's polished marble walls are carved from the Noonday Dolomite and other Precambrian carbonate rocks. "[12] While the origin of the name is unknown, it has become a tradition for visitors to attach teakettles to the sign with messages written on them. 6). This two-stage structural evolution of extensional faulting followed by strike slip is also seen in the Panamint Valley (Andrew and Walker, 2009) and, north of the Inyo Range, in the White Mountains (Stockli et al., 2003) and central Walker Lane belt (Oldow et al., 2008). Lower contact with Eurkeka Quartzite is major disconformity; upper contact with Laketown Dolomite (Silurian) in eastern park of quadrangle is disconformable, in western part of quadrangle, upper contact with Hidden Valley Dolomite reported as gradational and conformable. Quartz grains are usually fine- to medium-grained. Cambrian In between many of the dunes are stands of creosote bush and some mesquite on the sand and on dried mud, which used to cover this part of the valley before the dunes intruded (mesquite was the dominant plant here before the sand dunes but creosote does much better in the sand dune conditions). Using this very rough estimate of 1.81 Ma (base of Quaternary) for a third of the section and assuming a constant sedimentation rate, the base of the section would be at 5.4 Ma. HIKING NOT ADVISED AFTER 10 AM IN THE SUMMER. Holocene - Pleistocene These megamullions are similar to those seen at oceanic spreading centers. In the 1930s, geologist Levi F. Noble studied the faulting and folding in the area, dubbing it the "Amargosa chaos" due to the extreme warping of the rock. c. Widely exposed in map area. Total thickness uncertain because of faulting; estimated 2,000 feet. In the White Mountains northwest of Death Valley, Stockli et al. b. Dolomite, with some limestone, at base, shale unit in middle, massive dolomite at top. a. 30 Racetrack Dolomite The event that commenced at 15.6 Ma included 16 westward tilt of the Inyo Range and 5300 m of uplift of the eastern flank, at a rapid rate of 1.9 mm/a. 1 Alluvial fan and lacustrine deposits Mostly loose shingled pebble-size gravel; little sand or silt; few cobbles. 27 Eureka Quartzite b. Holocene+Pleistocene= Fan gravel; silt and salt on floor of playa, less than 100 feet thick. Also, crinoidal columnals, fragments of cephalopods, and gastropods have been found from the Ash Meadow area. No fossils reported Group is about 410 m thick in the Dry Mountain area of the Cottonwood Mountains, 384 m thick in the Panamint Range, 320 m thick in the Nopah Range, 360 to 700 m thick in the Spring Mountains and souther Sheep Range, 957 m thick in the Pahrangat Range, and 1,050 m in NTS area. The Walker Lane belt and ECSZ therefore together form a single strike-slip zone, which will be referred to as the ECSZ in this paper. This eastward propagation continues today with strike slip in the ECSZ, which will become the full plate boundary if the San Andreas fault ceases activity in western California and the plate boundary continues its eastward migration (Faulds et al., 2005). a. 14 Skidoo Granite As shown in Figure 7, these rocks are found in the footwall of detachments elsewhere in the Death Valley region and their greenschist-grade metamorphism in the Panamint Range (Labotka and Albee, 1990) is also consistent with deep burial and subsequent exhumation like at these other detachments. *3 Members* a large, cliff-forming carbonate unit with three members (Dunderberg/Halfpint Members, Smokey Member) basal shale and silty limestone beds of this formation are persistently fossiliferous characterized by trilobites, conodonts, and the brachiopod Linnarssonella - Dunderberg/ Halfpint Members are divided into seven facies and contain sponge Hintzespongia, spicule-like elements of Chancelloria, eocrinoid fragments, lingulid and acrotretid brachiopods, trilobites, and single-element species of paraconodonts and protocondonts - Smokey Membercharacterized by the black and buff colored banded dolomite also contains stromatolites and thrombolites within packstones and grain stones, a dark dolomite above the middle of the Nopah Formation contains small-silicified Trempleauan gastropods, a singular mollusk Matthevia, and trilobites. Rocks now in the crest of the range were metamorphosed to greenschist facies, representing 10 km burial, in the Jurassic, with retrograde metamorphism associated with granitic intrusions in the Cretaceous (Labotka and Albee, 1990). 252. The scarce springs and surrounding lush oases support thriving plant communities and attract a wide variety of animals. 7), probably because this section is the oldest that covers the entire area. Jurassic (134 Ma, 156 Ma, 178 Ma, 182 Ma) Thickness uncertain because of faulting; estimate 750 feet. Mesquite Spring is located in the northernmost part of Death Valley. (2000). 7) is a platformal carbonate deposited unconformably across a Neoproterozoic rift basin that marks the onset of Proterozoic through Paleozoic miogeoclinal deposits of the western North American passive margin ( Wright et al., 1978 ). 29 Nopah Formation This extension occurred in the Miocene (Cemen et al., 1999; Wernicke et al., 1988b). In Snow and Wernicke's (2000) reconstruction, this correlation is used to restore the Panamint Range to a position adjacent to the Nopah Range. 2 Playa Salt Deposits Death Valley is a pull-apart basin, as originally proposed by Burchfiel and Stewart (1966), formed in the last 3 m.y. Fundulus and Cyprinodon osteichthyes fish and a number of turtle scutes and rodent teeth and skull have been found. It features megabreccia and other rock formations, petroglyphs, and wildlife of various kinds, including bighorn sheep. 4) commenced prior to intrusion of the 10.6 Ma Little Chief stock, which was intruded to 3 km below the contemporary surface. The Noonday Dolomite has since been tilted from uplift. The Panamint Valley basin runs between the Panamint Range to the east and Argus and Slate ranges to the west for 65 miles (105km). Unit is from 6 to 150 m thick. 25 Hidden Valley Dolomite Death Valley National Park is one of many units within the National Park service established because of its underlying geologic theme. periodically flows at the surface. If there's a moon,. Box 579 . Those missing 20 formations have not yet been added to our Stratigraphy Collection. Granitic intrusions and volcanics, not known to be represented by sedimentary deposits. Near the end of this extensional phase and lasting until ca. Later addition of magnesium changed the limestone, a rock made of calcium carbonate, to dolomite, a calcium-magnesium carbonate. Crinoid stems abundant, Including large types. 32 Carrara Formation a. Lacustrine and alluvial fan deposits found throughout the valley surface. A prediction of this model is that there is a detachment fault underneath the Panamint Range; this will be addressed later in this paper. Papoose Lake Member is mostly dark-gray dolomite with distinctive brownish-gray to grayish-orange burrow mottles; sparse limestone and silty dolomite beds. It is intriguing that the ocean megamullion matches fairly well with the shape of the basement surface of the Badwater turtleback. Shaly and silty units increase in abundance in the upper part of the formation. The strong link between Pacific-North America plate motion and structural evolution of the ECSZ is emphasized by this synchronous timing. Practical Details. Although the ECSZ today accommodates 25% of Pacific-North America relative motion, timing of initiation of this shear zone is poorly known. There is a Conglomerate Member, an Upper Limestone Member, a Shale Member, and a Lower Limestone Member. b. The main extensional detachment surface is gently folded into the arched topographic surface of Tucki Mountain (Wernicke et al., 1988b). Dates. The Devil's Golf Course is a large salt pan on the floor of Death Valley. 1. 3 Ma, these basins were uplifted in the footwall of the Black Mountains fault block, which is why they now lie high above the valley floor. (1994) provide an interpretation of eruption volume versus time, which the sawtooth pattern in Figure 3 schematically follows. It would appear that, as the southern portion of the San Andreas fault joined up to the northern Gulf of California, the large-scale restraining bend in the San Andreas fault formed by the Mojave Block (Fig. contains the lowest dry point in North America. Ash beds, conglomerate, marl beds, mudstone, tephra beds. Vegetation in the area is sparse, largely confined to hearty sagebrush. Based on these comparisons, I suggest that the turtlebacks are megamullions formed as a result of strike-slip faulting in Death Valley. Periodic flash floods carry rocky debris (sediment) eroded from Mosaic Canyon and the surrounding hillsides toward the valley below. 33 Zabriskie Quartzite Hells Gate is a point of interest located in Death Valley National Park, at the intersection of Daylight Pass Road and Beatty Road. As also discussed earlier, the Panamint Range is a large, almost symmetric anticlinal structure, with no high-angle faults along the western side of the range. The dip of the steeper portion of the west side of the basin is 30, and the surface projection of this portion is close to faults at the base of the alluvial fans on the west side of Death Valley (Hunt and Mabey, 1966; USGS Quaternary faults database), again suggesting that the basin is fault-bounded, as shown in Figure 9. The ProterozoicCambrian boundary is within the Wood Canyon Formation (Corsetti and Hagadorn, 2000). The cross section of Figure 9 with, superimposed at Badwater, a generalized cross section across an oceanic megamullion structure (megamullion data from Tucholke and Lin, 1998). This cross section, like Figure 6, uses topographic data from the DEM and outcrop geology from Workman et al. This interpretation is similar to one shown by Hunt and Mabey (1996) in a cross section near Hanaupah Canyon (their fig. The first restoration at 3 Ma removes the graben formed as a result of pull-apart basin formation; strike slip, which would be perpendicular to the page (Topping, 1993), is not incorporated. c. White, pink, and red orthoquartzite; laminated to thick-bedded, commonly cross-bedded, and well cemented; has skolithos. Pleistocene-Pliocene The small, narrow valley where the creek and falls are located features a rare collection of riparian greenery in the vast desert and is home to indigenous fauna such as quail. This canyon was formed through a process of cut and fill which included periodic erosive floods followed by long periods of deposition and uplift. (2002; Fig. a. These observations imply that details of the structural connection between Tucki Mountain and the east end of the Funeral Mountains must be reexamined, although a probable Early Miocene age of the Tucki Mountain section can still be used to date extension at Tucki Mountain (Cemen et al., 1999). The Basin and Range extensional detachment tracks over the top of the range, with extensional allochthons perched on the eastern flanks of the range. Erosion over the millennia since the eruption revealed multi-colored stripes on the crater walls dating to the Miocene. The scale of this core complex, 3040 km wide by 60 km long with an amplitude of 4 km, is larger than other well-known core complexes like the Snake Range and Whipple core complexes (Block and Royden, 1990). Over time the small amount of solutes in the water accumulate to form this linear salt pan. Eocene and Paleocene Cross section across the Panamint Range and Black Mountains, profile C in previous location maps. If the detachment system along the east side of the Panamints is the one along which the Panamints moved, as in the model of Stewart (1983), then there is a correlation problem. The crust responds to this force by sending a large and long roughly v-shaped block of crust down which forms the bedrock of the valley floor (see Basin and Range). and a different linear scale from 5 to 25 m.y. Un road trip en van dans l'ouest des tats-Unis, un city trip New York City ou Chicago, des randonnes dans les montagnes rocheuses du Colorado. The Wood Canyon also marks the base of the Paleozoic succession that, in the Death Valley region, commonly forms Basin and Range extensional allochthons like the Funeral Mountains and Nopah Range (McAllister, 1976; Burchfiel et al., 1983; Hamilton, 1988). Lack of preserved basinal section equivalent to the Black Mountains Artist Drive Formation and younger formations across the top of the Panamint Range suggests that the range was a high by 8 Ma, although the northwestern flanks were low enough at 10 Ma to begin accumulation of Nova Basin sediments (Fig. Along the eastern base of the Panamint Range, between Trail and Hanaupah Canyons (TC and HC, Fig. Topography is gray-shaded with illumination from the north for areas above sea level. Numerous trilobite trash beds in lower part yield fragments of olenellid trilobites. (1999). *9 Members* alternating siliciclastic and carbonate facies lower four (of the nine) members and the lower part of the fifth member contain Early Cambrian olenellid trilobites. Death Valley, Another important detachment surface is exposed at Tucki Mountain, located at the north end of the Panamint Range on the west side of Death Valley (TM on Fig. From 1.8 billion-year-old metamorphic rocks exposed in the Black mountains, to recent playa sediments deposited in the valley basins, Death Valley possesses a superb geologic record. a. Consists of a lower lagoonal or mudflat limestone. Ordovician Late Miocene (12 Ma), 8 Copper Canyon Formation This modified model for evolution of Death Valley suggests a strong link between timing and style of deformation in the basin with the developing Pacific-North America plate boundary, particularly eastward propagation of this boundary. 41 formations are listed with a number correlating them to the original reference used to describe and locate them. Limestone beds contain ooids, oncoids, and are stromatolitic. The age of fill in Death Valley is not directly observed. Medium grained leucocratic granodiorite consisting of sodic plagioclase, quartz, microcline, and muscovite; locally, a minor amount of biotite and a trace of garnet are observed. By night, it's otherworldly. Two hours after sundown, walk 30 minutes into the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes outside Stovepipe Wells. In the first stage, lasting from ca. Tectonostratigraphic chart for the Death Valley area. per group (up to 4) Small Group Guide Tour: Death Valley Day Tour with Sunset and stars Viewing. Brachiopods abundant, especially Spirifer , Cyrtospirifer , Productilla , Carmarotoechia , Atrypa. Tucki Mountain at the north end of the range (Fig. 4), the canyon cuts through mylonized dolomite. Scolithus ? Half-day Tours. Noteworthy among the geologic features of the Death Valley region of eastern California is an extensively exposed accumulation of sedimentary rock and sill-forming diabase, Precambrian in age, as much as 5,500 m thick, and essentially unmetamorphosed. As discussed earlier, the present-day contact between the Artist Drive Formation and basement of the Badwater surface is faulted, but the geometry shown in this restoration shows that the Artist Drive Formation could have been originally deposited on basement, with faulting seen today a result of postdeposition emergence of the Badwater turtleback. The depositional base of the oldest of these northern Black Mountains formations, the Artist Drive, is not seen. Abundant large gastropods in massive dolomite at top: Palliseria and Maclurites, associated with Receptaculites. Further south, a strike-slip fault has been mapped by Zhang et al. Thickness about 1 000 feet but variable because of shearing. Metaluminous ash-flows and associated rocks derived from the Timber Mountain caldera complex at 11.6-11.4 Ma. Topography is colored with a nonlinear scale ranging from pale blues below sea level through greens and browns to white of the Sierra Nevada peaks. a. a. Unit is 30 to 350 m thick in the NTS area, 70 m thick in the Montgomery Mountains, 106 m thick in the Dry Mountain area, Cottonwood Mountains. This desert butte was once an island in a lake that filled Death Valley several times during the Pleistocene ice ages. b. The Dolomites (Italian: Dolomiti [dolomiti]; Ladin: Dolomites; German: Dolomiten [dolomitn] (); Venetian: Doomiti [doomiti]: Friulian: Dolomitis), also known as the Dolomite Mountains, Dolomite Alps or Dolomitic Alps, are a mountain range in northeastern Italy.They form part of the Southern Limestone Alps and extend from the River Adige in the west to the Piave Valley (Pieve di . Contains basalt, alluvial and lacustrine deposits and vertebrate trace fossils in the lacustrine strata (e.g. Wildrose Canyon has 2 campgrounds above the kilns, Thorndyke at 7,490 feet and Mahogany Flat at 7923 feet. The tiny grains of quartz and feldspar that form the sinuous sculptures that make up this dune field began as much larger pieces of solid rock. (2009), in a detailed analysis of the Inyo Mountains, report a phase of normal faulting starting at 15.6 Ma and initiation of strike-slip faulting on the Hunter Mountain fault at 2.8 Ma. Goniatite coquina beds, formed chiefly of the cephalopod Cravenoceras hesperiam, occur within this formation. Along the road to the canyon stands Leadfield, a ghost town dating to the 1920s. Although the mines themselves were worked intermittently until about 1900, there is no clear evidence that the charcoal kilns were operational after 1879. The northern nose of the Panamints is formed by an extensional core complex, Tucki Mountain (Hodges et al., 1987; Wernicke et al., 1988b). East of Death Valley, the Tecopa Basin (TB, Fig. Rocks in the footwall of the detachment are Late Proterozoic Pahrump Group and Johnnie Formation. These low hills are composed of clastic sediments of the Confidence Hills Formation (Wright and Troxel, 1984), with an age range of 1.72.2 Ma (Knott et al., 2005). It should be noted that 3 formations have been given unofficial names: Warm Spring Granite, Skidoo Granite, and Strozzis Ranch Rhyolite. Most of the so-called 'sailing stones' are from a nearby high hillside of dark dolomite on the south end of the playa. From here an easy 1/4 mile walk leads into the canyon narrows . b. 4). Scarce fossils. Pliocene (3.3 3.5 Ma) Pennsylvanian Walking into Mosaic Canyon is like walking into a museum. Mostly thick-bedded arid massive dark-colored dolomite, thin-bedded limestone member 500 feet thick 1 000 feet below top of formation, 2 brown-weathering shaIy units, upper one fossiliferous, about 200 arid 500 feet, respectively, below thin-bedded member. *5 Members* The upper member contains conodonts, microgastropod steinkerns, sponge spicules, and fish remains. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Park Service. The canyons of Death Valley National Park are justly famous for their geologic complexity and beauty, and Mosaic Canyon is one of the most beautiful that you can hike on a short trip to the park. Titus Canyon is a narrow gorge in the Grapevine Mountains near the eastern boundary of Death Valley National Park. Following a right-hand bend and broader left turn, the canyon further constricts at 1.25 miles, forming orange- and gray-tinted narrows. This implies that there should be a detachment fault underneath the Panamint Range. 28 Pogonip Group This cross section includes the thickness of Cenozoic sediment fill as determined by Blakely and Ponce (2002; Fig. Ventifact Ridge is a part of a basaltic lava flow. The Lippincott Member (?) The steeply dipping faults seen in Figure 9 make interpretation of Death Valley as a pull-apart basin more realistic than the low-angle fault interpretation. Visitors can hike on trails to the bottom or around the rim. Today, however, these formations all show significant structural dip, such as the 30 NE dip of the Furnace Creek Formation seen at Zabriskie Point (Greene, 1997). Widely distributed fusilinids. Uper part is mostly cliff-foming, orange to gray silty limestone, and lower part contains mostly clastic rocks. Dunderberg Shale Member consists of reddish-brown to greenish-brown shale, thin-bedded limestone, and some siltstone; trilobite fragments are common. These consist of sediments of the Pahrump Group, Noonday Dolomite, and Johnnie Formation, along with some outcrops of Proterozoic basement (Fig. Several thin limestone layers near the top of the formation at Quartz Spring are fossiliferous. A partial mastodon tusk has been reportedly found in the sedimentary deposits of Lake Rogers. All these formations were deposited in basins formed by Basin and Range low-angle extension; in the model presented here, the floor of these basins was in some areas the exhumed Basin and Range detachment surface. 4) contains some useful timing information. Elevation Gain: 535 ft to 834ft (163m to 254m) The ECSZ was originally defined by Dokka and Travis (1990a) based on mapping of strike-slip faults in the Mojave Desert, and included the Death Valley area (i.e., north of the Garlock fault) as its northern limit. Recent work, especially tephrochronology (Sarna-Wojcicki et al., 2001) and argon-argon radiometric dating, has greatly increased our knowledge of the ages of these deposits. Booming Dunes: For reasons not yet fully understood, sand sliding down the slipface of a dune can produce booming noises at startling volumes. The falls themselves support several small fern gullys. But due to the uplift when the next flood hit the area it would deeply cut the streambed which forms stairstep-shaped banks. The park visit started Monday with a trip to Mosaic Canyon on the Panamint side. A recent phase of this propagation was opening of the Gulf of California and initiation of the San Andreas fault as the plate boundary at 56 Ma (Lonsdale, 1989; Atwater and Stock, 1998). Nearly black to grayish-yellow dolomite; some chert nodules; base marked by brownish-weathering shaly and cherty limestone and dolomite; incipiently to highly contact metamorphosed. An alternating bluish-gray limestone and thin light-gray bands of marble with fusilinids and crinoid columnals in the upper section. Also, since varnish is created at a predictable rate, it is possible to date petroglyphs based on the amount of re-varnishing that has taken place since the marks were made. Cross sections in Figures 6, 8, and 9 are labeled A, B, and C. APAguereberry Point; ARArgus Range; BWBadwater; BMBlack Mountains; CCCopper Canyon; CHConfidence Hills; CMCottonwood Mountains; DPDarwin Plateau; DVDeath Valley; EMEagle Mountain; FMFuneral Mountains; FPFuneral Peak; GMGrapevine Mountains; GRGreenwater Range; HCHanaupah Canyon; HMHunter Mountain; IRInyo Range; KRKingston Range; MPMormon Point; NDFZNorthern Death Valley fault zone; NRNopah Range; PRPanamint Range; PVPanamint Valley; SDFZSouthern Death Valley fault zone; TBTecopa Basin; TCTrail Canyon; TMTucki Mountain; TPTelescope Peak.
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