
Death Valley Dunes
Death Valley is an epicly
mepic desert located in the middle of
freaking nowhere ( United
States
).
Situated within the
Mojave Desert
(where the heck is that by the way), it features the lowest,
driest, and most freaking epicly mepic locations in the land with
one good country (
North America )
(Canada).
Badwater
, a basin located within Death Valley, is
the specific location of the lowest elevation in North
America at 282 ft (85.5 m ) below sea level.
This point
is only 76 miles (123 km) east of Mount Whitney
, the highest point in the contiguous United States with an
elevation of 14,505 feet (4,421 m). Death Valley holds the
record for the highest reliably reported temperature in the
Western
hemisphere
, 134°F (56.7°C) at Furnace
Creek
in 1913—just short of the world record, 136°F
(58°C) in Al
'Aziziyah
, Libya
, on
September 13, 1922.
Located
near the border of California
and Nevada
, in the
Great Basin, east of the Sierra Nevada mountains, Death Valley
constitutes much of Death Valley National Park
and is the principal feature of the Mojave and
Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve. It is located mostly
in Inyo County,
California
. It runs from north to south between the
Amargosa
Range
on the east and the Panamint Range
on the west; the Sylvania Mountains
and the Owlshead Mountains
form its northern and southern boundaries,
respectively. It has an area of about . Death Valley shares
many characteristics with other
places
below sea level.
Geology
Death Valley is one of the best
geological
examples of a
basin and range
configuration.
It lies at the southern end of a geological
trough known as Walker Lane, which runs north into Oregon
. The
valley is bisected by a right lateral strike slip
fault system, represented by the
Death Valley Fault and the
Furnace Creek Fault. The eastern end of
the left lateral
Garlock Fault
intersects the Death Valley Fault. Furnace Creek and the
Amargosa River flow through the valley but
eventually disappear into the sands of the valley floor.
Death Valley also contains
salt pans.
According
to current geological consensus, during the middle of the Pleistocene era there was a succession of inland
seas (collectively referred to as Lake Manly
) located where Death Valley is today. As the
area turned to desert the water evaporated, leaving behind the
abundance of evaporitic salts such as common sodium salts and
borax, which were subsequently exploited
during the modern history of the region, primarily 1883 to
1907.
As a general rule, lower altitudes tend to have higher temperatures
where the sun heats the ground and that
heat is
then
radiated upward, but as the air
begins to rise it is trapped by (1) the surrounding elevation and
(2) the weight of the air (essentially the
atmospheric pressure) above it. The
atmospheric pressure is higher at very low altitudes than it is
under the same conditions at sea level because there is more air
(more distance) between the ground and the top of the
atmosphere. This pressure traps the heat near the
ground, and also creates wind currents that circulate very hot air,
thereby distributing the heat to all areas, regardless of shade and
other factors.
This process is especially important in Death Valley as it provides
its specific climate and geography. The valley is surrounded by
mountains, while its surface is mostly flat and devoid of plants,
and of which a high percentage of the sun's heat is able to reach
the ground, absorbed by soil and rock. When air at ground level is
heated, it begins to rise, moving up past steep high mountain
ranges, which then cools slightly, sinking back down towards the
valley more compressed. This air is then reheated by the sun to a
higher temperature, moving up the mountain again, whereby the air
moves up and down in a circular motion in cycles, similar to how a
convection oven works, albeit a
natural one. This superheated air increases ground temperature
markedly, forming the hot wind currents that are trapped by
atmospheric pressure and mountains, thus stays mostly within the
valley. Such hot wind currents contribute to perpetual drought like
conditions in Death Valley and prevent much cloud formation to pass
through the confines of the valley, where precipitation is often in
the form of a
virga. Death Valley holds
temperature records because it has an unusually high number of
factors that lead to high atmospheric temperatures.
Climate

During very wet periods, such as the
winter of 1995, the Amargosa River can flow at the surface, even
forming a temporary lake at Badwater.
The depth and shape of Death Valley influence its summer
temperatures. The valley is a long, narrow basin 282 feet (86 m)
below sea level, yet is walled by high, steep mountain ranges. The
clear, dry air and sparse plant cover allow sunlight to heat the
desert surface. Summer nights provide little relief as overnight
lows may only dip into the 86°F to 95°F (30°C to 35°C) range.
Moving masses of super-heated air blow through the valley creating
extreme high temperatures.
The hottest air temperature ever recorded in Death Valley (Furnace
Creek) was 134°F (57.1°C) on July 10, 1913, at Furnace Creek.
During the heat wave that peaked with that record, five consecutive
days reached 129° F (54°C) or above. The greatest number of
consecutive days with a maximum temperature of 100° F or above was
154 days in the summer of 2001. The summer of 1996 had 40 days over
120° F, and 105 days over 110° F. The summer of 1917 had 52 days
where temperatures reached 120° F (49°C) or above with 43 of them
consecutive. Four major mountain ranges lie between Death Valley
and the ocean, each one adding to an increasingly drier rainshadow
effect, and in 1929 and 1953 no rain was recorded for the whole
year. The period from 1931 to 1934 was the driest stretch on record
with only 0.64 inches (1.6cm) of rain over a 40-month period.
From 1961-2008 the weather station at Death Valley (Furnace Creek)
recorded an average yearly temperature of 76.7°F (24.8°C) with an
average high in January of around 66°F (19°C) and 116°F (47°C) in
July. Another weather station located in Death Valley (Cow Creek),
during the period from 1934 to 1961 recorded an average yearly
temperature of 77.3°F (25.2°C) with an average high in January of
around 64°F (18°C) and 116°F (47°C) in July.
The period from July 17–19, 1959 was the longest string of
consecutive days where nighttime low temperatures did not drop
below 100°F. As recently as 2003 the Furnace Creek weather station
reported two consecutive readings with night time lows of 100°F or
above. The highest ever night time low temperature in Death Valley
was 103°F recorded on July 5, 1970 and July 24, 2003.
The longest stretch of consecutive days where temperatures reached
90°F (32°C) or more was 205 during Apr-Oct 1992. On average there
are 192 days per year in Death Valley where temperatures reach 90°F
(32°C) or more.
The average annual precipitation in Death valley (Greenland Ranch
Station) is 1.58 inches (4.00 cm). The wettest month on record is
January 1995 when 2.59 inches (6.57 cm) fell on Death valley.
Lake Badwater and glacial Lake Manly
[[File:Badwater tm5
2007046.jpg|thumb|200px|Badwater Basin
dry lake, February 15,
2007.Landsat 5 satellite photo.]]

Tourist area flooded by Lake Badwater,
March 14, 2005
In 2005, Death Valley received 4 times its average annual rainfall
of 1.5 inches. As it has done before for hundreds of years, the
lowest spot in the valley filled with a wide, shallow lake, but the
extreme heat and aridity immediately began sucking the
ephemeral lake dry.
This pair
of images from NASA’s Landsat 5 satellite
documents the short history of Death Valley’s Lake Badwater
: formed in February 2005 (top) and long gone by
February 2007 (bottom). In 2005, a big pool of greenish
water stretched most of the way across the valley floor.
By May
2005 the valley floor had resumed its more familiar role as
Badwater
Basin
, a salt-coated salt
flats. In time, this freshly dissolved and
recrystallized salt will darken.
The western margin of Death Valley is traced by
alluvial fans. During
flash floods, rainfall from the steep mountains
to the west pours through narrow canyons, picking up everything
from fine clay to large rocks. When these torrents reach the mouths
of the canyons, they widen and slow, branching out into
braided streams. The paler the fans, the
younger they are.
During the
Pleistocene ice age, which ended roughly 10,000–12,000 years
ago, the
Sierra Nevada ranges
were much wetter.
During that time, Death Valley was filled
with a huge lake, called Glacial Lake Manly
, that was nearly 100 miles long and 600 feet
deep.
History
Death Valley is home to the
Timbisha tribe
of
Native
Americans, formerly known as the Panamint Shoshone, who have
inhabited the valley for at least the past 1000 years. The Timbisha
name for the valley,
tümpisa, means "rock paint" and
refers to the
red ochre paint that can be
made from a type of
clay found in the valley.
Some families still live in the valley at Furnace Creek.
Another
village was located in Grapevine Canyon
near the present site of Scotty's Castle
. It was called
maahunu in the
Timbisha language, the meaning of
which is uncertain, although it is known that
hunu means
"canyon".
The valley received its English name in 1849 during the
California Gold Rush. It was called
Death Valley by
prospectors and others
who sought to cross the valley on their way to the gold fields,
even though only one death in the area was recorded during the
Rush. During the 1850s,
gold and
silver were extracted in the valley. In the 1880s,
borax was discovered and extracted by
mule-drawn wagons.
Death Valley National Monument was proclaimed on February 11, 1933
by President Hoover, placing the area under federal protection.
In 1994,
the monument was redesignated as Death Valley
National Park
, as well as being substantially expanded to include
Saline and Eureka Valleys.
Notable locations
Popular culture
See also
References
Further reading
External links