1) occurred in the Middle Miocene as a result of footwall uplift associated with east-west extension. Fossils include brachiopods, colonial and solitary corals, gastropods, pelmatozoan ossicles, and stromatoporoids. 1 and 2; Miller and Pavlis, 2005). 29 Nopah Formation In summary, the turtlebacks are antiformal structures that strike and dip toward the northwest, exposed along the range front bordering Death Valley. from. Smooth, polished marble walls enclose the trail as it follows the canyon's sinuous curves. This fuel was then transported to mines in The Argus Range, 25 miles to the west, to feed smelting and ore extraction operations. Consists of conglomerates, sandstones, calcareous mudstones, algal limestones, and tuffaceous sandstones, fossil mammals include Protitanops, Mesohippus, Colodon, Teletaceras, Protoreodon, Pambromylus, and Leptomeryx found in red calcareous mudstone in the lower section of this formation. No fossils. 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. Quartzite, conglomeratic quartzite, siltstone, shale and minor limestone and dolomite beds. 11 Artist Drive Formation Detachment faults (italicized): TDTucki Detachment; EFEmigrant Detachment; HFHarrisburg fault; HCHanaupah Detachment. 1) on the west side of the White Mountains. 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. Unnamed limestone formation, 725 feet thick, consists of interbedded chert and limestone in thin beds and in about equal proportions. The Badwater Basin is a salt flat adjacent to the Black Mountains that descends to the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet (86m)[4] below sea level. Hunt and Mabey (1966) recognized this structure and correlated it with the Amargosa Thrust of Noble (1941). As shown in the tectonostratigraphic summary of Figure 3, the Miocene Black Mountain intrusives were formed during Basin and Range extension, as indicated by their ages relative to age ranges of exhumation associated with extensional tectonic denudation. A prediction of this model is that there is a detachment fault underneath the Panamint Range; this will be addressed later in this paper. 36 Johnnie Formation The lower section contains Early Mississippian coral and the cephalopod Cravenoceras. This interpretation is similar to one shown by Hunt and Mabey (1996) in a cross section near Hanaupah Canyon (their fig. The hottest temperature ever officially recorded was in Death Valley at 134F, or 56.7C. Middle (?) 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. It features megabreccia and other rock formations, petroglyphs, and wildlife of various kinds, including bighorn sheep. Figure 6 is a cross section constructed from the data in Figures 2 and 4, approximately along the line illustrated by Hunt and Mabey (1966), profile A in Figures 4 and 5. A hapsiphyllid tetracoral, Triplophyllites was collected immediately south of Rest Spring. Upper part contains Rainstorm Member traced regionally across parts of southern Nevada and southeastern California. b. Dolomite, with some limestone, at base, shale unit in middle, massive dolomite at top. A better interpretation is that the Hanaupah detachment does indeed correlate with the Tucki detachment and that this detachment tracks up the flank and over the top of the Panamint Range, just like the Tucki detachment tracks over the top of Tucki Mountain. Summaries have been published by Snow and Lux (1999), Calzia and Rm (2000), and Knott et al. Death Valley National Park CA, NV Mosaic Canyon Topographic map (600kb PDF) for Mosaic Canyon NPS - Dan Kish Distance: 4 mi (6.4km) out and back, round trip. Papoose Lake Member is mostly dark-gray dolomite with distinctive brownish-gray to grayish-orange burrow mottles; sparse limestone and silty dolomite beds. As mentioned in the Introduction, Stewart (1983) suggested that the Panamint Range forms the hanging wall of a fault system that transported the Panamints westward from a position on top or east of the Black Mountains. 4. From these data, Hunt and Mabey (1966) assume that about a third of the fill [of Death Valley] is Quaternary and that the rest is Tertiary (Hunt and Mabey, 1966, p. A72). Streptelasmatid corals: Grewingkia, Bighornia, Brachiopods. 196, 10100 Burnet Road (R2200), Austin, Texas 78758-4445, USA. Round Trip Time: 1.5 to 4.5 hours depending on route. 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. Contains basalt, alluvial and lacustrine deposits and vertebrate trace fossils in the lacustrine strata (e.g. To understand more about structural evolution of Death Valley, it is useful to consider the area's position in relation to structural provinces that have been defined in western North America. This age is an important constraint on initiation of Basin and Range extension, as the Bat Mountain Formation is interpreted to have been deposited in a basin formed during the early stages of extension (Cemen et al., 1999). a. Shaly and silty units increase in abundance in the upper part of the formation. Figure 3 is a tectonostratigraphic chart showing a compilation of Neogene geologic events in the Death Valley region. 19 Keeler Canyon Formation Triassic Basement geometry below Death Valley shows a steep-sided basin nearly 5000 m deep. It lies underneath the extensional allochthons on the east side of the range, surfacing along the west side of these allochthons in the east-dipping Harrisburg fault zone mapped by Hodges et al. (2002), in this case supplemented from the map of Hunt and Mabey (1966). Late Precambrian a. This extension occurred in the Miocene (Cemen et al., 1999; Wernicke et al., 1988b). Top ways to experience Golden Canyon and nearby attractions. To accommodate as many events as possible, the time scale (from Gradstein et al., 2004) is shown with a variable vertical scale, logarithmic from 1000 yr to 1 m.y., then a linear scale from 1 to 5 m.y. 16 Hunter Mountain Pluton From here an easy 1/4 mile walk leads into the canyon narrows . Regional topography of western North America, showing location of Death Valley and tectonic domains. Thickness uncertain because of faulting; estimate 750 feet. Here, detachment faults that dip to the west, like the Emigrant fault at Tucki Mountain, have been mapped by Cichanski (2000). 3). Places of interest in the Death Valley area are mostly located within Death Valley National Park in eastern California. 4) with that at Tucki Mountain. When the Death Valley pull-apart basin started to form ca. 22 Perdido Formation The fourth and final event occurred quite recently, geologically speaking. 3) near the top of the section (Hillhouse, 1987). The dolomite was later deeply buried by younger sediment. The Inyo Mountains, south of the White Mountains, are bounded to the east by the East Inyo fault zone, which links via the Hunter Mountain fault to the Panamint Valley. Cambrian This cross section, like Figure 6, uses topographic data from the DEM and outcrop geology from Workman et al. Time: 2.5 - 3 hours, round trip. These volcanics correlate across Death Valley with the Rhodes Tuff and Sheepshead Andesite in the southern Black Mountains (TC+RT, Fig. Fault dips along the southwest flanks of the turtlebacks are steep, e.g., 50 at Badwater as shown in Figure 9. A partial mastodon tusk has been reportedly found in the sedimentary deposits of Lake Rogers. No fossils. 2; Hodges et al., 1987; Wernicke et al., 1988b). Mosaic Canyon is a canyon in the north western mountain face of the valley which is named after a stream-derived breccia sediment with angular blocks of dolomite in a pebbly matrix. Mesquite Spring is located in the northernmost part of Death Valley. 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. Natural Bridge Canyon is found on the east side of the park and is one of the few canyons with an official trailhead. In the stratigraphic column, formations from the north and west of the area are on the left so that left to right is equivalent to north and west to south and east. The Pahrump Group is found in the western Panamint Range and southern Black Mountains region, in a configuration that Wright et al. Generally classified as a quartz monzonite porphyry but in the area of Skidoo, it is mostly gneissic but in part porphyritic and has fluidal structures with dark phenocrysts of biotite. Ordovician b. Cemented gravel; playa deposits, much volcanic debris, perhaps 5,000 feet thick. In Snow and Wernicke's (2000) reconstruction, this correlation is used to restore the Panamint Range to a position adjacent to the Nopah Range. Miller and Pavlis (2005) give an excellent overview of current data and understanding of the turtlebacks. Itinerary. Pressure and heat transformed the stone into the metamorphic rock we call marble. b. Mapped as 1 unit (Lee Flat, Perdido and Tin together). (2000). Their paper was published in the same year as Hunt and Mabey's (1966) seminal paper that mapped the geology of Death Valley. A simple average of their compilation yields dimensions of 15.2 km wide by 1550 m relief. Compiled from Wright et al. The main visitor center of the park is located here as well as the Oasis at Death Valley resort complex. Ammonites, smooth-shelled brachiopods, belemnites, and hexacorals. *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. The Walker Lane belt was originally defined by Stewart (1988) as the triangular zone of high topographic relief separating the Sierra Nevada from the Great Basin, with its southern limit the Garlock fault. Jurassic (134 Ma, 156 Ma, 178 Ma, 182 Ma) Base of member is marked by the regionally extensive "silty unit". a. Gear List. It should be noted that 3 formations have been given unofficial names: Warm Spring Granite, Skidoo Granite, and Strozzis Ranch Rhyolite. 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 ). Saratoga Springs (.mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}354054N 1162525W / 35.68167N 116.42361W / 35.68167; -116.42361[11]) is a desert oasis located in southern Death Valley National Park. This deformational event shifted the crust vertically, creating thinning and thickening of some sedimentary layers as they were being deposited. The rock unit being folded is the Noonday Dolomite, a Neoproterozoic carbonate unit that exhibits gorgeous ductile deformation in Mosaic Canyon. Vertebrates, titanotheres, etc. Aguereberry Point /.r.br.i/[1] is a promontory and tourist viewpoint in the Panamint Range, within Death Valley National Park in Inyo County, eastern California. the dolomite member contains conical calcareous fossils including metazoan small shelly fossils of Cloudina in another member there are rare occurrences of the trace fossil Planolites. Breccia is an Italian word meaning gravel. Modern geologists have documented four major deformational events that faulted and folded the Amargosa Chaos. c. Interbedded limestone, silty limestone, silstone, sandstone, and shale. Darwin Falls is a waterfall located on the western edge of Death Valley National Park near the settlement of Panamint Springs, California. Booming Dunes: For reasons not yet fully understood, sand sliding down the slipface of a dune can produce booming noises at startling volumes. It overlies Mississippian carbonates and has not been directly dated. 3) found near the top of the section (Knott et al., 2005). Running water scoured away at the fault-weakened rock, gradually carving Mosaic canyon. Telescope Peak can also be seen from here which is 11,331 feet (3,454m) above sea level. Open grooves in the ventifacts are called flutes. Evolution of Death Valley is best described as a two-stage process. Ninemile Formation is absent in most locations in the eastern part of the map area. The upper part of this limestone is highly fossiliferous and characterized by the corals Syringopora and Zaphrentites. Wowzers. Wildrose Canyon has 2 campgrounds above the kilns, Thorndyke at 7,490 feet and Mahogany Flat at 7923 feet. The Lower Limestone Member was collected and is described as predominantly limestone of intermediate grays, in 1- to 3-foot beds, much of it containing silt, sand, or siliceous pebbles; interstratified with shale, partly carbonaceous; small, dark-gray spheroidal chert nodules in limestone near base. a. a. Near the end of this extensional phase and lasting until ca. 20 Bird Spring Formation Airspace above the valley is part of the Panamint Military Operating Area, restricted to US military use. 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. It is an endorheic basin that can form a lake after heavy rain. Miocene Unit is 50-200 m thick. No fossils. Two hours after sundown, walk 30 minutes into the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes outside Stovepipe Wells. Total thickness of formation 1,200-1,500 feet. 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. A poorly preserved brachiopod assemblage has been found. Sharp edges of ventifacts called Kanters are formed when two or more facets (planar surfaces) intersect. This fault pattern is not consistent with a low-angle detachment fault underlying Death Valley that would link the Black Mountains and Panamint Range, with the Black Mountains the footwall of the detachment and the Panamints the hanging wall. 18 to 5 Ma, low-angle Basin and Range extension transported allochthons consisting of Late Proterozoic through Early Paleozoic miogeoclinal section along detachment surfaces that, as extension continued, were exhumed from mid-lower crustal levels to the surface. An alternating bluish-gray limestone and thin light-gray bands of marble with fusilinids and crinoid columnals in the upper section. No fossils reported Plant life includes common reeds, bulrush and saltgrass. 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. Wright et al. The Basin and Range extensional detachment tracks over the top of the range, with extensional allochthons perched on the eastern flanks of the range. b. Cemented gravel, silty and saliferous playa deposits; various salts, especially borates, more than 5,000 feet thick. 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). 7 Warm Spring Granite Mostly resistant, gray, white, and tan, rhyolitic lava flows and volcanic domes, and subordinate ashflow and airfall tuff. c. In NTS area, consists of (from top to base) the Antelope Valley Limestone, Ninemile Formation, and the Goodwin Limestone). Stromatolites occur at several localities within the limestone deposits. This particular form of desert varnish takes Toward the end of this episode of tectonic denudation, deposition of the predominantly volcanic Artist Drive Formation began. These recent studies indicate that strike-slip faulting and extension occurred in separate phases. The second phase was the development of Death Valley as a pull-apart basin, with higher-angle faults and transtensional motion. The petroglyphs here are made possible because many of the rocks in these arid conditions have desert varnish on them. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Park Service. Unit is from 6 to 150 m thick. 33 Zabriskie Quartzite This matches well with fault dips of 4554 mapped by Miller (1991) along the base of the Badwater turtleback, so it is logical to assume that the eastern flank of the basin is a high-angle fault. WMWhite Mountains; IRInyo Range. * 4 Members* Diatoms and plants give the Miocene age. Lee et al. (1999) as 200 10 kA. Death Valley National Park, California. (1974) do not suggest that the turtlebacks themselves are mullion structures, but a comparison with oceanic megamullions suggests that this is what they are. Over time, the sediments compressed into limestone and a related calcium-magnesium carbonate called dolomite. Several springs overflow into pools totaling 6.6 acres (2.7 ha) in area, making the site the third largest marsh in the park. The gneiss displays mylonitic fabric consistent with westward displacement of the extensional allochthons (McKenna and Hodges, 1990). Dates. b. The pools provide habitat for several endemic species, including the Saratoga Springs pupfish. The last two columns in Figure 3 show tectonic events and interpreted tectonic regimes. 2) and geology from the digital map of Workman et al. One of the data points used in structural restorations comes from a thrust complex, preserved in one of the Basin and Range allochthons in the northern Panamint Range, which correlates with a thrust complex of similar geometry in the Nopah Range (Snow and Wernicke, 2000). Length: 4.5 miles, to the fork in the canyon Difficulty: Moderate. camel, horse, bird, carnivore). Devil's Golf Course can be reached from Badwater Road via a 1.3-mile (2.1km) gravel drive, closed in wet weather. c. Widely exposed in map area. *5 Members* The upper member contains conodonts, microgastropod steinkerns, sponge spicules, and fish remains. These sediments are important recorders of tectonic development of Death Valley, but their chronostratigraphy was poorly known in 1966 because of the mostly endemic fauna in these deposits and limited radiometric age control. The dip on the eastern side of the basin is 50. Late Pleistocene No fossils. 6). The falls themselves support several small fern gullys. 2). Massive quartzite, with thin-bedded quartzite at base and top, 350 feet thick. 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). In Figure 11 a sinusoidal function with these dimensions is included in the cross section across Badwater. The Neoproterozoic-Cambrian section in Death Valley consists of (in ascending order) the Pahrump Group (Crystal Spring Formation, Beck Spring Dolomite, and Kingston Peak Formation), the Noonday Dolomite, the Johnnie Formation, the Stirling Quartzite, the Wood Canyon Formation (with the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary), the Zabriskie Quartzite, and part of the Carrara Formation (Nolan, 1924 . Natural Bridge Canyon: On the east side of the park . Further south, between the Copper Canyon and Mormon Point turtlebacks, the Mormon Point Formation is also in fault contact with basement rocks, in this case the Mormon Point turtleback (Hayman, 2006; MP, Fig. In these models, the low-angle detachment faults are dominant, with the Panamint Range moving 80 km west from an original position east of the Black Mountains and strike-slip faults as upper crustal edges of the detachment system. (1988a), and Snow and Wernicke (2000). b. Well-bedded quartzite in beds 1-5 feet thick comprising thick members of quartzite 700-800 feet thick separated by 500 feet of purple shale, crossbedding conspicuous in quartzite. Typically located at the end-depositional sites in basin interiors. DATA AND EXPLANATIONS OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN FIGURE 3, Jackson School of Geosciences, Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin, J.J. Pickle Research Campus, Bldg. Cretaceous (67 Ma, 87 Ma) The following list of geologic formations and corresponding ages represents what has been collected in the park and are available for viewing at our curatorial facility. Skolithos) and some interbedded bioturbated silstones. Ubehebe Crater is the largest of more than a dozen of in the Ubehebe Craters field. This eastward propagation is likely to continue with the Pacific-North America plate boundary ultimately moving to the ECSZ, with motion on the San Andreas fault ceasing (Faulds et al., 2005). 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. Tucki Mountain at the north end of the range (Fig. Mosaic Canyon's polished marble walls are carved from the Noonday Dolomite and other Precambrian carbonate rocks. 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. Top 200 feet is well-bedded limestone and quartzite. Late Proterozoic sediment in the hanging wall of the detachment consists of Wood Canyon Formation. In the White Mountains northwest of Death Valley, Stockli et al. Interbedded shale, quartzite, and dolomite in the upper part of the Wood Canyon Formation in the ridge along the north side of Blackwater Wash.Circa 1960. In lower beds: Protopliomerops , Kirkella , Orthid brachiopods. 18 Owens Valley Formation Search for other works by this author on: This site uses cookies. 18 to 5 Ma, involved Basin and Rangestyle low-angle extension with fault blocks made up predominantly of Paleozoic sediments moving on detachment faults that exhumed rocks from mid crustal levels. 37 Noonday Dolomite This formation contains one of the best stratigraphically documented trilobite faunas in North America. 1) developed and has forced deformation to the east, into the ECSZ. Furnace Creek is a spring, oasis, and village that sits on top of a remarkably symmetrical alluvial fan. Ordovician The Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes are at the northern end of the valley floor and are nearly surrounded by mountains on all sides. This relative timing can be seen in Figure 3, where events associated with Basin and Range extension predate deposition of most of the Artist Drive through Funeral Formations. Limestone beds contain ooids, oncoids, and are stromatolitic. As I said earlier, it's a big driving day and you will spend a lot of time in your car. Most of this formation (lower 2/3 to ) is cliff-forming, medium-dark-gray, burrow-mottled, irregularly thin-to-thick-bedded dolomite with common planar laminations; includes nodules and lenses of dark-grey to dark-brown chert. Through exploratory holes drilled by the Pacific Coast Borax Company, prior to Death Valley becoming a national monument in 1934, it was discovered that the salt and gravel beds of the Devil's Golf Course extend to a depth of more than 1,000 feet (300m). Further justification for the detachment geometry shown in Figure 7 comes from the southwestern flanks of the Panamint Range. *5 informal divisions* diatoms have been found The oldest outcropping basin deposit consists of flat-lying basalt as old as 5.12 Ma (Calzia and Rm, 2000). Similar rock travel patterns have been recorded in several other playas in the region but the number and length of travel grooves on The Racetrack are notable. As groundwater exploded into steam due to the heat of magma underneath, an empty pit was left behind and the debris spread around the field. 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. 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. In the Black Mountains, the detachment surface tracks over the top of the Badwater turtleback and is covered by Late Miocene to Pliocene sediments of the Artist Drive Formation.

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