Geology Of The Death Valley Area
Crustal thinning and rifting
Late Precambrian Noonday Formation scoured in Mosaic Canyon by episodic flow. (USGS photo)
At the same time the Earth was apparently in a severe glaciation (see above), a rift started to open and a sea flooded the subsiding region. The rifting zone was part of a system of zones responsible for breaking apart the supercontinent Rodinia and creating the Pacific Ocean. One of the three arms of the local rifting zone, the Amargosa Rift, failed to split the continent. A shoreline similar to the present Atlantic Ocean margin of the United States (with coastal lowlands and a wide, shallow shelf but no volcanoes) lay to the east near where Las Vegas, Nevada, now resides.
The first formation to be deposited was the Noonday Dolomite. It was formed from an algal mat-covered carbonate bank. Today it is up to 1000 feet (300 m) thick and is a pale yellowish-gray cliff-former. The area subsided as the continental crust thinned and the Pacific widened; the carbonate bank soon became covered by thin beds of silt and layers of limy ooze. These sediments in time hardened to become the siltstone and limestone of the Ibex Formation. A good outcrop of both the Noonday and overlying Ibex formations can be seen just east of the Ashford Mill Site.
An angular unconformity truncates progressively older (lower) parts of the underlying Pahrump Group starting in the southern part of the area and moving north. At its northernmost extent, the unconformity in fact removed all of the Pahrump, and the Noonday rests directly on the Proterozoic Complex. An ancient period of erosion removed that part of the Pahrump due to its being higher (and thus more exposed) than the rest of the formation.
Passive margin formed
As the incipient Pacific widened in the Late Proterozoic and Early Paleozoic, it broke the continental crust in two and a true ocean basin developed to the west. All the earlier formations were thus dissected along a steep front on the two halves of the previous continent. A wedge of clastic sediment then started to accumulate at the base of the two underwater precipices, starting the formation of opposing continental shelves.
Three formations developed from sediment that accumulated on the wedge. They are, from oldest to youngest:
Johnnie Formation (varicolored shaly),
Stirling Quartzite,
Wood Canyon Formation, and the
Zabriskie Quartzite.
Together the Stirling, Wood Canyon, and Zabriskie units are about 6000 feet (1800 m) thick and are made of well-cemented sandstones and conglomerates. They also contain the region’s first known fossils of complex life: Ediacara fauna, trilobites, archaeocyathas, primitive echinoderm burrows and tracks have been found in the Wood Canyon Formation. The very earliest animals are exceedingly rare, occurring well west of Death Valley in limy offshore muds contemporary to the Stirling Quartzite. The developmental pace increased in Wood Canyon times, for this sandy formation preserves a host of worm tubes and enigmatic trails. Ultimately, in late Wood Canyon sediments the first animals with durable shells emerge to open the earliest copiously fossiliferous period, the Cambrian (see Cambrian Explosion). Good outcrops of these three formations are exposed on the north face of Tucki Mountain in the northern Panamint Mountains.
The side road to Aguereberry Point successively traverses the shaly Johnnie Formation, the white Stirling Quartzite, and dark quartzites of the Wood Canyon Formation; at the Point itself is the great light-colored band of Zabriskie Quartzite dipping away toward Death Valley. Parts of this sequence are also prominent between Death Valley Buttes and Daylight Pass, in upper Echo Canyon, and just west of Mare Spring in Titus Canyon. Before tilting to their present orientation, these four formations were a continuous pile of mud and sand three miles (5 km) deep that accumulated slowly on the nearshore ocean bottom.
A carbonate shelf forms
Striped Butte in Butte Valley. Steeply tilted limestone beds of the Permian Anvil Spring Formation. A major fault behind the butte separates it from Precambrian Noonday and Johnnie Formation rocks, about billion years older. (USGS photo)
The sandy mudflats gave way about 550 Ma to a carbonate platform which lasted for the next 300 million years of Paleozoic time. Sediment accumulated on the new but slowly subsiding continental shelf for an extremely long time; all through the remaining Paleozoic and into the Early Mesozoic. Erosion had so subdued nearby parts of the continent that rivers ran clear, no longer supplying abundant sand and silt to the continental shelf. At the time, the Death Valley area’s position was then within ten or twenty degrees of the Paleozoic equator. So the combination of a warm sunlit climate and clear mud-free waters promoted prolific production of biotic (from life) carbonates. Thick beds of carbonate-rich sediments were periodically interrupted by periods of emergence, creating the (in order of deposition);
Carrara Formation,
Bonanza King Formation,
Nopah Formation, and the
Pogonip Group.
These sediments were lithified into limestone and dolomite after they were buried and compacted by yet more sediment. Thickest of these units is the dolomitic Bonanza King Formation, which forms the dark and light banded lower slopes of Pyramid Peak and the gorges of Titus and Grotto Canyons.
An intervening period occurred in the Mid Ordovician (about 450 Ma) when a sheet of quartz-rich sand blanketed a large part of the continent after the above-mentioned units were laid down. The sand later hardened into sandstone and later still metamorphosed into the 400 foot (120 m) thick Eureka Quartzite. This great white band of Ordovician rock stands out on the summit of Pyramid Peak, near the Racetrack, and high on the east shoulder of Tucki Mountain. No American source is known for the Eureka sand, which once blanketed a 150000 square mile (390000 km) belt from California to Alberta. It may have been swept southward by longshore currents from an eroding sandstone terrain in Canada.
Deposition of carbonate sediments resumed and continued into the Triassic. Four formations were deposited during this time (from oldest to youngest);
Ely Springs Dolomite,
Hidden Valley Dolomite,
Lost Burro Formation, and the
Tin Mountain Limestone.
The other period of interruption occurred between 350 and 250 Ma when sporadic pulses of mud swept southward into the Death Valley region during the erosion of highlands in north-central Nevada.
Although details of geography varied during this immense interval of time, a north-northeasterly trending coastline generally ran from Arizona up through Utah. A marine carbonate platform only tens of feet deep but more than 100 miles (160 km) wide stretched westward to a fringing rim of offshore reefs. Limy mud and sand eroded by storm waves from the reefs and the platform collected on the quieter ocean floor at depths of 100 feet (30 m) or so. The Death Valley area’s carbonates appear to represent all three environments (down-slope basin, reef, and back-reef platform) owing to movement through time of the reef-line itself.
All told these eight formations and one group are 20000 feet (6100 m) thick and are buried below much of Cottonwood, Funeral, Grapevine, and Panamint ranges. Good outcrops can be seen in the southern Funeral Mountains outside the park and in Butte Valley within park borders. The Eureka Quartzite appears as a relatively thin, nearly white band with the grayish Pogonip Group below and the almost black Ely Springs Dolomite above. All strata are often vertically displaced by normal faulting.
Change to active margin and uplift
The western edge of the North American continent was later pushed against the oceanic plate under the Pacific Ocean. An area of great compression called a subduction zone was thus formed in the early to mid Mesozoic, which replaced the quiet, sea-covered continental margin with erupting volcanoes and uplifting mountains. A chain of volcanoes pushed through the continental crust parallel to the deep trench, fed by magma rising from the subducting oceanic plate as it entered the Earth’s hot interior. Thousands of feet (hundreds of meters) of lavas erupted, pushing the ocean over 200 miles (300 km) to the west.
Compressive forces built up along the entire length of the broad continental shelf. The Sierran Arc, also called the Cordilleran Mesozoic magmatic arc, started to form from heat and pressure generated from the subduction. Compressive forces caused thrust faults to develop and granitic blobs of magma called plutons to rise in the Death Valley region and beyond, most notably creating the Sierra Nevada Batholith to the west. Thrust faulting was so severe that the continental shelf was shortened and some parts of older formations were moved on top of younger rock units, creating a confusing mess for geologists to sort out.
Skidoo townsite in 1906.
The plutons in the park are Jurassic and Cretaceous aged and are located toward the park’s western margin where they can be seen from unimproved roads. One of these relatively small granitic plutons was emplaced 6787 Ma and spawned one of the more profitable precious metal deposits in the Death Valley area, giving rise to the town and mines of Skidoo (although these gold deposits were quite small compared to the larger California goldfields west of the Sierra Nevada Mountains). In the Death Valley area these solidified blobs of magma are located under much of the Owlshead Mountains and are found in the western end of the Panamint Mountains. Thrusted areas can be seen at Schwaub Peak in the southern part of the Funeral Mountains.
A long period of uplift and erosion was concurrent with and followed the above events, creating a major unconformity. Sediments worn off the Death Valley region were shed both east and west and carried by wind and water; the eastern sediments ended up in Colorado and are now famous for their dinosaur fossils. No Jurassic to Eocene sedimentary formations exist in the area except for some possibly Jurassic-age volcanic rock around Butte Valley. Large parts of previously deposited formations were removed; probably by streams that washed the sediment into the Cretaceous Seaway that longitudinally divided North America to the east.
Development of a flood plain
After 150 million years of volcanism, plutonism, metamorphism, and thrust faulting had run their course, the early part of the Cenozoic era (early Tertiary, 6530 Ma) was a time of repose. Neither igneous nor sedimentary rocks of this age are known here. A relatively featureless plain was created from erosion over many millions of years. Deposition resumed some 35 Ma in the Oligocene epoch on a flood plain that developed in the area. Sluggish streams migrated laterally over the surface, laying down cobbles, sand, and mud. Outcrops of the resulting conglomerates, sandstone, and mudstone of the Titus Canyon Formation can be observed in road cuts at Daylight Pass on Daylight Pass Road, which becomes State Route 374 a short distance from the pass. Several other similar formations were also laid down.
Extension creates the Basin and Range
Full extent of the Basin and Range. (NPS image)
Starting around 16 Ma in Miocene time and continuing into the present, a large part of the North American Plate in the region has been under extension by literally being pulled apart. Debate still surrounds the cause of this crustal stretching, but an increasingly popular idea among geologists called the slab gap hypothesis states that the spreading zone of the subducted Farallon Plate is pushing the continent apart. Whatever the cause, the result has been the creation of a large and still-growing region of relatively thin crust.
While rock at depth can plastically thin like stretched silly putty, rock closer to the surface responds by breaking along normal faults into downfallen basins called grabens and small mountain ranges known as horsts that run parallel to each other on either side of the graben. Geologists therefore call this region the Basin and Range. Normally the number of horsts and grabens is limited, but in the Basin and Range region there are dozens of horst/graben structures; each roughly north-south trending. A succession of these extend from immediately east of the Sierra Nevada, through almost all of Nevada, and into western Utah and southern Idaho.
The rocks that would become the Panamint Range were stacked on top of the rocks that would become the Black Mountains and the Cottonwood Mountains. In the next several million years, the Black Mountains began to rise, and the Panamint/Cottonwood Mountains slid westward off the Black Mountains along low-angle normal faults. Starting about 6 Ma, the Cottonwood Mountains slid northwest off the top of the Panamint Range. There is also some evidence that the Grapevine Mountains may have slid off the Funeral Mountains. Some geologists are not satisfied that we have enough evidence to believe that the mountains were stacked on top of each other, but were rather stacked adjacent to each other.
The deep Death Valley basin is filled with sediment (light yellow) eroded from the surrounding mountains. Black lines show some of the major faults that created the valley. (USGS image)
The expanding Basin and Range started to pull apart the Death Valley area 3 Ma in the Pleistocene, and by about 2 Ma Death Valley, Panamint Valley and their associated ranges were formed. Complicating this is right-lateral movement along strike-slip faults (faults that rub past each other so that a theoretical observer standing on one side who is facing the other sees it move right). These fault systems run parallel to and at the base of the ranges. Very often the same faults move laterally and vertically, simultaneously making them strike-slip and normal (i.e. oblique-slip). Torsional forces, probably associated with north-westerly movement of the Pacific Plate along the San Andreas Fault west of the region, is responsible for the lateral movement. Most of the vertical movement on normal faults in the valleys of the Death Valley area has manifested itself by the downward movement of their grabens.
Much of the extra local stretching in Death Valley that is responsible for its lower depth and wider valley floor is caused by left lateral strike-slip movement along the Garlock Fault south of the park (the Garlock Fault separates the Sierra Nevada range from the Mojave Desert). This particular fault is pulling the Panamint Range westward, causing the Death Valley graben to slip downward along the Furnace Creek Fault system at the foot of the Black Mountains, creating the lowest dry point in the Western Hemisphere at Badwater.
Volcanism and valley-fill sedimentation
The less than 300000 year old Split Cinder Cone was created by magma that followed a fault line. That same fault has since moved right laterally, tearing the small volcano in half. (Tom Bean, NPS image)
Artist’s Palette got its colors from volcanic deposits
Igneous activity associated with the extension occurred from 12 to 4 Ma. Both intrusive (plutonic/solidified underground) and extrusive (volcanic/solidified above ground) igneous rocks were created. Basaltic magma followed fault lines to the surface and erupted as cinder cones (such as Split Cinder Cone) and lava flows. Other times, heat from magma migrating close to the surface would superheat overlaying groundwater until it exploded not unlike an exploding pressure-cooker, creating blowout craters and tuff rings such as the roughly 2000 year old Ubehebe Crater complex (photo) in the northern part of the park.
Some lakes formed before the area was pulled apart by Basin and Range extension. Most notable among them was a large lake geologists call Furnace Creek Lake, which existed from 9 Ma to 5 Ma in a dry climate (but not as dry as today’s). The resulting Furnace Creek Formation is made of lakebed sediments that consist of saline muds, gravels from nearby mountains and ash from the then active Black Mountain volcanic field. Today it can be seen exposed in the badlands at Zabriskie Point (see that article for further details).
Sedimentation after the creation of the Death and Panamint grabens (basins) wasnd still isoncentrated in their resulting valleys from material eroded from adjacent horsts (ranges). The amount of sediment deposited has roughly kept up with this subsidence, resulting in retention of more or less the same valley floor elevation over time.
About 23 Ma, in the Pleistocene, continental ice sheets expanded from the polar regions of the globe to cover lower latitudes far north of the region, starting a series of ice ages. Alpine glaciers formed on the nearby Sierra Nevada, but even though no glaciers touched the Death Valley area, the cooler and wetter climate meant that rivers flowed into the valleys of the region year round. Since the valleys in the Basin and Range region formed by faulting, not by river erosion, many of the basins have no outlets, meaning they will fill up with water like a bathtub until they overflow into the next valley. So during the cooler and wetter pluvial climates of the ice ages, much of eastern California, all of Nevada, and western Utah were covered by large lakes separated by linear islands (the present day ranges).
The Lake Manly lake system as it might have looked during its last maximum extent 22000 years ago. Arrows indicate river water flow, gray lines are current highways, and red dots are towns. (USGS image)
Lake Manly, the lake that filled Death Valley as late as 10500 years ago, was the last of a chain of lakes fed by the Amargosa and Mojave Rivers, and possibly also the Owens River. It was also the lowest point in the Great Basin drainage system. At its height during the Great Ice Age some 22000 years ago, water filled Lake Manly to form a body of water that may have been 585 feet (187 m) deep, about 8 to 10 miles (15 to 16 km) wide, and 90 miles (145 km) long. But the saltpans seen on the valley floor are from the 30-foot-deep (10-m-deep) Holocene lake, which dried up only a few thousand years ago. The Devils Golf Course forms a small part of this salt pan; Badwater Basin forms another. Panamint Valley had a lake of its own, which geologists call Lake Panamint. Ancient weak shorelines called strandlines from Lake Manly can easily be seen on a former island in the lake appropriately called Shoreline Butte.
Stream gradients increased on flanking mountain ranges as they were uplifted. These swifter moving streams are dry most of the year but have nevertheless cut true river valleys, canyons, and gorges that face Death and Panamint valleys. In this arid environment, alluvial fans form at the mouth of these streams. Very large alluvial fans merged to form continuous alluvial slopes called bajadas along the Panamint Range. The faster uplift along the Black Mountains formed much smaller alluvial fans due to the fact that older fans are buried under playa sediments before they can grow too large. Slot canyons are often found at the mouths of the streams that feed the fans, and the slot canyons in turn are topped by V-shaped gorges. This forms what looks like a wineglass shape to some people, thus giving them their names, “wineglass canyons”.
Table of formations
This table of formations exposed in the Death Valley area lists and describes the exposed formations of the Death Valley National Park and the surrounding area.
System
Series
Formation
Lithology and thickness
Characteristic fossils
Quaternary
Holocene
Fan gravel; silt and salt on floor of playa, less than 100 feet (30 m) thick.
None
Pleistocene
Fan gravel; silt and salt buried under floor of playa; perhaps 2000 feet thick (600 m).
Funeral fanglomerate
Cemented fan gravel with interbedded basaltic lavas, gravels cut by veins of calcite (Mexican onyx); perhaps 1000 feet (300 m) thick.
Diatoms, pollen.
Tertiary
Pliocene
Furnace Creek Formation
Cemented gravel, silty and saliferous playa deposits; various salts, especially borates, more than 5000 feet (1500 m) thick.
Scarce.
Miocene
Artist Drive Formation
Cemented gravel; playa deposits, much volcanic debris, perhaps 5000 feet (1500 m) thick.
Scarce.
Oligocene
Titus Canyon Formation
Cemented gravel; mostly stream deposits; 3000 feet (900 m) thick.
Vertebrates, titanotheres, etc.
Eocene and Paleocene
Granitic intrusions and volcanics, not known to be represented by sedimentary deposits.
Cretaceous and Jurassic
Not represented, area was being eroded.
Triassic
Butte Valley Formation of Johnson (1957)
Exposed in Butte Valley 1 mile south of this area; 8000 feet (2500 m) of metasediments and volcanics.
Ammonites, smooth-shelled brachiopods, belemnites, and hexacorals.
Pennsylvanian and Permian
Formations at east foot of Tucki Mountain
Conglomerate, limestone, and some shale. Conglomerate contains cobbles of limestone of Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, and Permian age. Limestone and shale contain spherical chert nodules. Abundant fusulinids. Thickness uncertain on account of faulting; estimate 3000 feet + (900 m +), top eroded.
Beds with fusulinids, especially Fusulinella
Carboniferous
Mississippian and Pennsylvanian
Rest Spring Shale
Mostly shale, some limestone, abundant spherical chert nodules. Thickness uncertain because of faulting; estimate 750 feet (230 m).
None.
Mississippian
Tin Mountain Limestone and younger limestone
Mapped as 1 unit. Tin Mountain Limestone 1000 feet (300 m) thick, is black with thin-bedded lower member and thick-bedded upper member. Unnamed limestone formation, 725 feet (221 m) thick, consists of interbedded chert and limestone in thin beds and in about equal proportions.
Mixed brachiopods, corals, and crinoid stems. Syringopora (open-spaced colonies) Caninia cf. C. cornicula.
Devonian
Middle and Upper Devonian
Lost Burro Formation
Limestone in light and dark beds 110 feet (0.33 m) thick give striped effect on mountainsides. Two quartzite beds, each about 3 feet (1 m) thick, near base, numerous sandstone beds 8001000 feet (240300 m) above base. Top 200 feet (60 m) is well-bedded limestone and quartzite. Total thickness uncertain because of faulting; estimated 2000 feet (600 m).
Brachiopods abundant, especially Spirifer, Cyrtospirifer, Productilla, Carmarotoechia, Atrypa. Stromatoporoids. Syringopora (closely spaced colonies).
Silurian and Devonian
Silurian and Lower Devonian
Hidden Valley Dolomite
Thick-bedded, fine-grained, and even-grained dolomite, mostly light color. Thickness 3001,400 feet (90430 m).
Crinoid stems abundant, Including large types. Favosites.
Ordovician
Upper Ordovician
Ely Springs Dolomite
Massive black dolomite, 400800 feet (120240 m) thick.
Streptelasmatid corals: Grewingkia, Bighornia. Brachiopods.
Middle and Upper (?) Ordovician
Eureka Quartzite
Massive quartzite, with thin-bedded quartzite at base and top, 350 feet (105 m) thick.
None
Lower and Middle Ordovician
Pogonip Group
Dolomite, with some limestone, at base, shale unit in middle, massive dolomite at top. Thickness, 1,500 feet (460 m).
Abundant large gastropods in massive dolomite at top: Palliseria and Maclurites, associated with Receptaculites. In lower beds: Protopliomerops, Kirkella, Orthid brachiopods.
Cambrian
Upper Cambrian
Nopah Formation
Highly fossiliferous shale member 100 feet thick at base, upper 1 200 feet is dolomite in thick alternating black and light hands about 100 feet thick. Total thickness of formation 1,2001,500 feet.
In upper part, gastropods. In basal 100 feet (30 m), trilobite trash beds containing Elburgis, Pseudagnostus, Horriagnostris, Elvinia, Apsotreta.
Middle and Upper Cambrian
Bonanza King Formation
Mostly thick-bedded arid massive dark-colored dolomite, thin-bedded limestone member 500 feet (150 m) thick 1000 feet (300 m) below top of formation, 2 brown-weathering shaIy units, upper one fossiliferous, about 200 arid 500 feet (150 m), respectively, below thin-bedded member. Total thickness Uncertain because of faulting; estimated about 3000 feet (900 m) in Panamint Range, 2000 feet (600 m) in Funeral Mountains.
The only fossiliferous bed is shale below limestone member neat middle of formation. This shale contains linguloid brachiopods and trilobite trash beds with fragments of “Ehmaniella.”
Lower and Middle Cambrian
Carrara Formation
An alternation of shaly and silty members with limestone members transitional between underlying clastic formations and overlying carbonate ones. Thickness about 1000 feet (300 m) but variable because of shearing.
Numerous trilobite trash beds in lower part yield fragments of olenellid trilobites.
Lower Cambrian
Zabriskie Quartzite
Quartzite, mostly massive arid granulated due to shearing, locally it) beds 6 inches (15 cm) to 2 feet (60 cm) thick ‘ trot much cross bedded. Thickness more than 150 feet (45 m), variable because of shearing.
No fossils.
Lower Cambrian and Lower Cambrian (?)
Wood Canyon Formation
Basal unit is well-bedded quartzite above 1,650 feet (500 m) thick ‘ shaly Unit above this 520 feet (75 m) thick contains lowest olenellids in section; top unit of dolomite and quartzite 400 feet (120 m) thick.
A few scattered olenellid trilobites and archaeocyathids in upper part of formation. Scolithus? tubes.
Stirling Quartzite
Well-bedded quartzite in beds 15 feet (30150 cm) thick comprising thick members of quartzite 700800 feet (210240 m) thick separated by 500 feet (150 m) of purple shale, crossbedding conspicuous in quartzite. Maximum thickness about 2000 feet (600 m).
None.
Johnnie Formation
Mostly shale, in part olive brown, in part purple. Basal member 400 feet (120 m) thick is interbedded dolomite arid quartzite with pebble conglomerate. Locally, fair dolomite near middle arid at top. Thickness more than 4000 feet (1200 m).
None.
Precambrian
Noonday Dolomite
In southern Panamint Range, dolomite in Indistinct beds; lower part cream colored, upper part gray. Thickness 800 feet (240 m). Farther north, where mapped as Noonday(?) Dolomite, contains much limestone, tan and white, and some limestone conglomerate. Thickness about 1000 feet (300 m).
Scolithus? tubes.
Unconformity
Kingston Peak(?) Formation
Mostly conglomerate, quartzite, and shale; some limestone arid dolomite near middle. At least 3000 feet (900 m) thick. Although tentatively assigned to Kingston Peak Formation, similar rocks along west side of Panamint Range have been identified as Kingston Peak.
None.
Beck Spring Dolomite
Not mapped; outcrops are to the west. Blue-gray cherry dolomite, thickness estimated about 500 feet Identification uncertain.
None.
Pahrump Series
Crystal Spring Formation
Recognized only in Galena Canyon and south. Total thickness about 2000 feet (600 m). Consists of basal conglomerate overlain by quartzite that grades upward into purple shale arid thinly bedded dolomite, upper part, thick bedded dolomite, diabase, and chert. Talc deposits where diabase intrudes dolomite.
None.
Unconformity
Rocks of the crystalline basement
Metasedimentary rocks with granitic intrusions.
None.
Table of salts
This False-color radar image shows central Death Valley and the different surface types in the area. Radar is sensitive to surface roughness with rough areas showing up brighter than smooth areas, which appear dark. This is seen in the contrast between the bright mountains that surround the dark, smooth basins and valleys of Death Valley. The image shows Furnace Creek alluvial fan (green crescent feature) at the far right, and the sand dunes near Stove Pipe Wells at the center. (NASA image)
Mineral
Composition
Known or probable occurrence
Halite
NaCl
Principal constituent of chloride zone and of salt-impregnated sulfate and carbonate deposits.
Sylvite
KCl
With halite.
Trona
Na3H(CO3)22H2O
Carbonate zone of Cottonball Basin, especially in marshes.
Thermonatrite
Na2CO3H2O
Questionably present on floodplain in Badwater Basin, would be expected in marshes of carbonate zone in Cottonball Basin.
Gaylussite
Na2Ca(CO3)25H2O
Carbonate zone and floodplain in Badwater Basin.
Calcite
CaCO3
Occurs as clastic grains in sediments underlying salt pan and as sharply terminated crystals in clay fraction of carbonate zone and in sediments underlying sulfate zone.
Magnesite
MgCO3
Obtained in artificially evaporated brines from Death Valley; not yet identified in salt pan; may be expected in carbonate zone of Cottonball Basin.
Dolomite
CaMg(CO3)2
identified only as a detrital mineral; may be expected in carbonate zone.
Northupite and/or tychite
Na3MgCl(CO3) and/or Na6Mg2(SO4)(CO3)4
An isotropic mineral, having index of refraction in the range of Northupite and Tychite, has been observed in saline facies of sulfate zone in Cottonball Basin.
Burkeite
Na6(CO3)(SO4)2
Sulfate zone in Cottonball Basin.
Thenardite
Na2SO4
Common in all zones in Cottonball Basin and in sulfate marshes in Middle and Badwater basins.
Mirabilite
Na2SO410H2O
Occurs on floodplains in Cottonball Basin immediately following winter storms.
Glauberite
Na2Ca(SO4)2
Common on floodplains except in central part of Badwater Basin; sulfate zone in Cottonball Basin.
Anhydrite
CaSO4
As layer capping massive gypsum 1 mile (2 km) north of Badwater. Possibly also as dry-period efflorescence on floodplains.
Bassanite
2CaSO4H2O
As layer capping massive gypsum along west side of Badwater Basin and as dry-period efflorescence in floodplains.
Gypsum
CaSO42H2O
In sulfate caliche, layer in carbonate zone, particularly in Middle and Badwater basins, in sulfate marshes and as massive deposits in sulfate zone.
Bloedite
Na2Mg(SO4)24H2O
Questionably present in efflorescence on floodplain in chloride zone.
Polyhalite
K2Ca2Mg(SO4)42H2O
Questionably present on floodplain in chloride zone.
Celestine
SrSO4
Found with massive gypsum.
Kernite
Na2B4O74H2O
Possibly present in Middle Basin in surface layer of layered sulfate and chloride salts.
Tincalconite
Na2B4O75H2O
Probably occurs as dehydration product of borax.
Borax
Na2B4O710H2O
Floodplains and marshes in Cottonball Basin.
Inyoite
Ca2B6O1113H2O
Questionably present (X-ray determination but unsatisfactory) in floodplain in Badwater Basin.
Meyerhofferite
Ca2B6O117H2O
Found in all zones in Badwater Basin and in rough silty rock salt in Cottonball Basin
Colemanite
Ca2B6O115H2O
Questionably present (X-ray determination but unsatisfactory) in floodplain in Badwater Basin.
Ulexite
NaCaB5O98H2O
Common in floodplain in Cottonball Basin; known as “cottonball”
Proberite
NaCaB5O95H2O
A fibrous borate with index of refraction higher than ulexite occurs on dry areas in Cottonball Basin following hot dry spells and in surface layer of smooth silty rock salt.
Soda niter
NaNO3
Weak, but positive chemical tests obtained locally.
See also
Death Valley National Park
Places of interest in the Death Valley area
Notes
^ Harris et al., Geology of National Parks, 632. section 3, paragraph 1
^ “A Mudflat to Remember”. Death Valley National Park through time. USGS. http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/parks/deva/time4.html. Retrieved 2005-07-06. , paragraph 1
^ Harris et al., Geology of National Parks, 632, section 3, paragraph 2
^ Harris et al., Geology of National Parks, 632, section 3, paragraph 3
^ Harris et al., 634, section 4, paragraph 1
^ “The Earliest Animal”. Death Valley National Park through time. USGS. http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/parks/deva/time5.html. Retrieved 2005-07-06. , paragraph 1
^ “A Mudflat to Remember”. http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/parks/deva/time4.html. , paragraph 3
^ “Death Valley- Caribbean-style”. Death Valley National Park through time. USGS. http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/parks/deva/time6.html. Retrieved 2005-07-06. , paragraph 1
^ “Death Valley- Caribbean-style”. http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/parks/deva/time6.html. , paragraph 4
^ “Death Valley- Caribbean-style”. http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/parks/deva/time6.html. , paragraph 2
^ Harris et al., Geology of National Parks, 634, section 5, paragraph 2
^ “The Earth Shook, The Sea Withdrew”. Death Valley National Park through time. USGS. http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/parks/deva/time7.html. Retrieved 2005-07-06. , paragraph 2
^ Harris et al., Geology of National Parks, 634635, section 6, paragraph 1
^ “Granite”. Death Valley National Park through time. USGS. http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/parks/deva/time7.html. Retrieved 2005-07-06. , paragraph 1
^ “Granite”. http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/parks/deva/time7.html. , paragraph 2
^ Harris et al., Geology of National Parks, 635, section 6, paragraph 1
^ “Quiet to Chaos”. Death Valley National Park through time. USGS. http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/parks/deva/time8.html. Retrieved 2005-07-06. , paragraph 1
^ Harris et al., Geology of National Parks, page 635, section 8, paragraph 1
^ Harris et al., Geology of National Parks, page 611, paragraph 1
^ “Forces Driving Mountain Building in Death Valley”. Death Valley National Park through time. USGS. http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/parks/deva/time8.html. Retrieved 2005-07-06. , paragraph 3
^ “Recent Geologic Changes”. Death Valley National Park through time. USGS. http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/parks/deva/time8.html. Retrieved 2005-07-06. , paragraph 1
^ Kiver, Eugene P.; David V. Harris (1999). Geology of U.S. Parklands (5th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 278279. ISBN 0-471-33218-6. , “General Geology”, paragraph 3
^ Harris et al., Geology of National Parks, 616, paragraph 2
^ Sharp, Robert P.; Allen F. Glazner (1997). Geology Underfoot in Death Valley and Owens Valley. Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Publishing. pp. 4153. ISBN 0-87842-362-1.
^ Hunt, C.B., and Mabey, D.R., 1966, General geology of Death Valley, California, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 494. (adapted public domain table)
References
USGS: Death Valley National Park through time (some adapted public domain text), , , , , , , , (viewed November 5, 2004, last modified 01/13/04)
USGS Death Valley geology field trip , (viewed November 5, 2004, last modified 01/13/04)
USGS/NPS: Rock Formations exposed in the Death Valley area (adapted public domain table)
External links
Proceedings on Conference on Status of Geologic Research and Mapping, Death Valley National Park
Tertiary Extensional Features, Death Valley, Eastern California
Categories: Geology of California | Death Valley | Regional geology of the United StatesHidden categories: Featured articles
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