Geology Underfoot in Death Valley and Owens Valley

by Sharp, Robert P.

• ISBN13: 9780878423620
• ISBN10: 0878423621
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-10-01
• Publisher: Mountain Pr

Summary

Eastern California boasts the greatest dryland relief in the contiguous United States, between 14,499-foot Mt. Whitney in the Sierra Nevada and minus-282-foot Badwater Basin in Death Valley. That relief offers a rich variety of environments--and spectacul

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
The Geology of Eastern California	1	(6)
Part I Death Valley and Vicinity	7	(168)
1 An Intrepid Explorer The Mojave River	9	(10)
2 A Collector of Volcanic Ashes Ancient Lake Tecopa	19	(8)
3 It's Coal Seam, It's a Dike, It's a Welded Tuff! The Resting Spring Pass Volcanic Tuff	27	(6)
4 A Lunar Landscape The Trona Pinnacles of Searles Lake	33	(8)
5 A Huge Bathtub without a Drain Pleistocene Lake Manly and the Salt Pan	41	(14)
6 Dynamic Desert Landforms Alluvial Fans and Debris Cones	55	(12)
7 Youthful Tectonism Fault Scarps in Fans	67	(12)
8 Rocks Split Asunder Salt Weathering	79	(8)
9 A Tale of Two Mysteries Turtlebacks and Missing Rocks	87	(12)
10 True Grit Sandblasted Stones on Ventifact Ridge	99	(8)
11 A Diversionary Tale Gower Gulch	107	(12)
12 Nature's Crafted Mosaics and the Tanning Process Desert Pavement and Desert Varnish	119	(10)
13 Wind at Play in Nature's Sandbox The Mesquite Dunes	129	(10)
14 A Cut-and-Fill Saga Mosaic Canyon	139	(14)
15 A Big Explosion Ubehebe Crater	153	(8)
16 Wind at Work The Sailing Stones of Racetrack Playa	161	(14)
Part II Owens Valley and Vicinity	175	(122)
17 The Falls of an Ice Age Fossil Falls on Glacial Owens River	177	(8)
18 A Story of Desiccation Once-Blue Owens Lake	185	(10)
19 A Frightful Earthquake The Owens Valley Shock of 1872	195	(8)
20 A Buried, Weathered Giant The Alabama Hills	203	(8)
21 Basins and Ranges The Waucobi Lakebeds	211	(8)
22 The Oldest Living Things Bristlecone Pines and the Rocks They Prefer	219	(6)
23 Dating an Old Glaciation The Big Pumice Cut	225	(8)
24 A Disappearing Fault The Hilton Creek Fault	233	(8)
25 East Meets West Glacial Moraines at Convict Lake	241	(10)
26 A Crack Runs through It The Earthquake Fault and Inyo Craters	251	(8)
27 Fun and Games on Living Volcanoes Mammoth Mountain and Long Valley Caldera	259	(12)
28 Columnar Jointing at Its Best Devils Postpile	271	(8)
29 An Ominous Ooze Obsidian Dome	279	(10)
30 Mountains of Glass The Mono Domes	289	(8)
Glossary	297	(11)
Sources of Supplemental Information	308	(5)
Index	313