Geology of the Death Valley area
The exposed geology of the Death Valley area presents a diverse and complex set of at least 23
Marine deposition occurred
The passive margin switched to
Early sedimentation
Proterozoic complex
Little is known about the history of the oldest exposed rocks in the area due to extensive metamorphism; the rock has been pressure-cooked. This somber, gray, almost featureless crystalline complex is composed of originally sedimentary and igneous rocks with large quantities of quartz and feldspar mixed in.[1] The original rocks were transformed to contorted schist and gneiss, making their original parentage almost unrecognizable. Radiometric dating gives an age of 1700 million years for the metamorphism, placing it in the early part of the Proterozoic eon.[2]
A mass of
Next, the metamorphosed Precambrian basement rocks were uplifted and a nearly 500-million-year-long gap in the geologic record, a major unconformity, affected the region.[2] Geologists do not know what happened to the eroded sediment that must have overlain the complex, but they do know that regional uplift was responsible; the area was originally below the surface of a shallow sea.
Pahrump Group
The Pahrump Group of formations were deposited from 1200 to 800 mya[5] in the Amargosa aulacogen.[3] This was after uplift-associated erosion removed whatever rocks covered the Proterozoic Complex. Pahrump is composed of, from oldest to youngest:
- Crystal Spring Formation,
- Beck Spring Dolomite,
- Kingston Peak Formation.
Outcrops of this group can be seen in a highly metamorphosed belt that extends from the Panamint Mountains to the eastern part of the Kingston Range, including an area near the Ashford Mill site.[2]
Uplift eventually exposed the crystalline complex to erosion. Arkose conglomerate and mudstone of the lower Crystal Spring Formation were formed from muddy debris derived from stream erosion of these uplands.
The Death Valley region once again rose above sea level, resulting in erosion. The Amargosa aulacogen then slowly sank beneath the seas;[3] a sequence of carbonate banks that were topped by algal mats of stromatolites were laid on top of its eroded surface.[6] Eventually these sediments and fossils became the Beck Spring Formation, which is 1,000 feet (300 m) thick.[3]
Another round of uplift exposed the Beck Spring rocks and the underlying Crystal Spring to erosion; subsequent faster subsidence of the Amargosa aulacogen broke these formations into islands in later Proterozoic time.[3] The resulting large sequence of thick conglomerate beds of pebbles and boulders in a sandy and muddy matrix that blanketed basins between higher areas is known as the Kingston Peak Formation.[6] This formation is prominent near Wildrose, Harrisburg Flats, and Butte Valley and is 7,000 feet (2,100 m) thick.[7]
Part of the Kingston Peak resembles
Crustal thinning and rifting
A new rift opened that started to break apart the supercontinent Rodinia, which North America was then a part of.[6] 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 now resides.[9]
The first formation to be deposited in this setting was the Noonday Dolomite, which was formed from an algal mat-covered carbonate bank. Today it is up to 1,000 feet (300 m) thick and is a pale yellowish-gray cliff-former.[6] The area subsided as the continental crust thinned and the new ocean widened; the carbonate bank soon became covered by thin beds of silt and layers of lime-rich 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.[6]
An
Passive margin formed
As the incipient ocean widened in the Late Proterozoic and Early Paleozoic, it broke the continental crust in two and a true
Three formations developed from sediment that accumulated on the wedge. They are, from oldest to youngest:[10]
- Johnnie Formation (varicolored shaly),
- Stirling Quartzite,
- Wood Canyon Formation, and the
- Zabriskie Quartzite.
Together the Stirling, Wood Canyon, and Zabriskie units are about 6,000 feet (1,800 m) thick and are made of well-cemented sandstones and conglomerates.[10] They also contain the region's first known fossils of complex life: Ediacara fauna, trilobites, archaeocyathas, and primitive echinoderm burrows have been found in the Wood Canyon Formation.[11] The very earliest animals are exceedingly rare, occurring well west of Death Valley in lime-rich offshore muds contemporary to the Stirling Quartzite.[11] Good outcrops of these 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.[9] Prominent outcrops are located 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 3 miles (4.8 km) deep that accumulated slowly on the nearshore ocean bottom.[9]
A carbonate shelf forms
A carbonate shelf started to develop over the sandy mudflats early in Paleozoic time. Sediment accumulated on the new but slowly subsiding continental shelf all through the 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.[12] At the time, the Death Valley area was within ten or twenty degrees of the Paleozoic equator.[12] 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, forming the (in order of deposition);
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.[12]
An intervening period occurred in the Mid
Deposition of carbonate sediments resumed and continued into the Triassic. Four formations were deposited during this time (from oldest to youngest);
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.[12]
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.[12] Lime-rich 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.[12] 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 20,000 feet (6,100 m) thick and are buried below much of the Cottonwood, Funeral, Grapevine, and Panamint ranges.[10] 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 adjacent ocean. An area of great compression called a
Compressive forces built up along the entire length of the broad continental shelf. The
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.[13] One of these relatively small granitic plutons was emplaced 67–87 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.[14] 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.[13]
A long period of uplift and erosion was concurrent with and followed the above events, producing a major unconformity.
Development of a 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, 65–30 Ma) was a time of repose; neither igneous nor sedimentary rocks of this age are known here.
Large volcanic eruptions, originating near the
Extension produces the Basin and Range
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.[5] 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 formation of a large and still-growing region of relatively thin crust; the region grew an average of 1 inch (2.5 cm) per year initially and then slowed to 0.3 inches (0.76 cm) per year in the last 5 million years.[17] Geologists call this region the Basin and Range Province.
Extensional forces causes rock at depth to stretch like
The Furnace Creek Fault system, located in what is now the northern part of Death Valley, started to move about 14 Ma and the Southern Death Valley Fault system likely began to move by 12 million years ago.
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.[22] The rocks that would become the Panamint Range may have been stacked on top of the rocks that would become the Black Mountains and the Cottonwood Mountains. Under this interpretation, as the Black Mountains began to rise, the Panamint/Cottonwood Mountains slid westward off of them along low-angle normal faults, and starting around 6 Ma, the Cottonwood Mountains slid northwest off the top of the Panamint Range.[15] There is also some evidence that the Grapevine Mountains may have slid off the Funeral Mountains. Another interpretation of the evidence is that the Black and Panamint Mountains were once side by side and were pulled apart along normal faults. These normal faults, in this view, are steep near the surface but become low angle at depth; the mountain blocks rotated as they slid to produce the tilted mountains seen today.[17]
Total movement of the Pamamint block between the Garlock and Furnace Creek Faults is 50 miles (80 km) to the northwest, giving birth to Death Valley in the process.[23] A few of the 20 to 25 degree-sloped surfaces along which this mass of 20,000 to 30,000 feet (6,100 to 9,100 m) of rock slipped, are exposed in Death Valley.[24] These features are called "turtlebacks" due to their turtle shell-like appearance.
Volcanism and valley-fill sedimentation
Igneous activity associated with the extension occurred from 12 to 4 Ma.
Sediment filled the subsiding Furnace Creek Basin as the area was pulled apart by Basin and Range extension. The resulting 7,000-foot (2,100 m)-thick 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.[27] Boron, which is abundant in this formation, is dissolved by ground water and flows out onto the northern end of the Death Valley playa.[30] Today this formation is most-prominently exposed in the badlands at Zabriskie Point.[31] Additional subsidence of the Furnace Creek Basin was filled by the four-million-year-old Funeral Formation, which consists of 2,000 feet (610 m) of conglomerates, sand, mud and volcanic material.[27] Another smaller basin to the south was filled by the Copper Canyon Formation around the same time.[27] Footprints and fossils of camels, horses, and mammoths are in all three of these Pliocene formations.[22]
About 2–3 Ma, in the
Lake Manly and its sister lakes started to dry up about 10,000 years ago as the alpine glaciers that fed the rivers that filled the lakes disappeared and the region became increasingly arid.[33] Fish that had migrated into the lake system from the Colorado River started to die off; the only survivors are the minnow-sized Death Valley pupfish and related species that adapted to living in springs.[33] Ancient weak shorelines called strandlines from Lake Manly can easily be seen on a former island in the lake called Shoreline Butte.[32]
Formation of the Walker Lane - part of an incipient plate boundary?
The Quaternary tectonics of the Death Valley area show the increasing impact of right-lateral strike-slip faulting. Death Valley itself is currently an active
According to
Table of formations
This table of formations exposed in the Death Valley area lists and describes the exposed
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 2,000 feet (600 m) thick | |||
Funeral fanglomerate | Cemented fan gravel with interbedded basaltic lavas, gravels cut by veins of calcite (Mexican onyx); perhaps 1,000 feet (300 m) thick | Diatoms, pollen | ||
Tertiary | Pliocene | Furnace Creek Formation | Cemented gravel, silty and saliferous playa deposits; various salts, especially borates, more than 5,000 feet (1,500 m) thick | Scarce |
Miocene | Artist Drive Formation | Cemented gravel; playa deposits, much volcanic debris, perhaps 5,000 feet (1,500 m) thick | Scarce | |
Oligocene | Titus Canyon Formation | Cemented gravel; mostly stream deposits; 3,000 feet (900 m) thick | titanotheres , etc.
| |
Eocene and Paleocene | sedimentary deposits
|
|||
Cretaceous and Jurassic | Not represented, area was being eroded | |||
Triassic | Butte Valley Formation of Johnson (1957) | Exposed in Butte Valley 1 mile (1.6 km) south of this area; 8,000 feet (2,400 m) of metasediments and volcanics | Ammonites, smooth-shelled 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 3,000 feet (900 m), top eroded. | Beds with 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 1,000 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, Caninia cf. C. cornicula .
| |
Devonian | Middle and Upper Devonian | Lost Burro Formation | Limestone in light and dark beds 1 to 10 feet (0.30 to 3.05 m) thick give striped effect on mountainsides. Two quartzite beds, each about 3 feet (0.91 m) thick, near base, numerous sandstone beds 800 to 1,000 feet (240 to 300 m) above base. Top 200 feet (60 m) is well-bedded limestone and quartzite. Total thickness uncertain because of faulting; estimated 2,000 feet (600 m). | Brachiopods abundant, especially 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 300 to 1,400 feet (90 to 430 m). | Crinoid stems abundant, Including large types. Favosites. |
Ordovician | Upper Ordovician | Ely Springs Dolomite | Massive black dolomite, 400 to 800 feet (120 to 240 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 (110 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 (30 m) thick at base, upper 1,200 feet (370 m) is dolomite in thick alternating black and light hands about 100 feet (30 m) thick. Total thickness of formation 1,200 to 1,500 feet (370 to 460 m). | 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 1,000 feet (300 m) below top of formation, 2 brown-weathering shaIy units, upper one fossiliferous, Total thickness Uncertain because of faulting; estimated about 3,000 feet (900 m) in Panamint Range, 2,000 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 1,000 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 (0.61 m) thick. Thickness more than 150 feet (46 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 (160 m) thick contains lowest olenellids in section; top unit of dolomite and quartzite 400 feet (120 m) thick.
|
A few scattered olenellid trilobites and Scolithus ? tubes.
| |
Stirling Quartzite | Well-bedded quartzite in beds 1 to 5 feet (0.30 to 1.52 m) thick comprising thick members of quartzite 700 to 800 feet (210 to 240 m) thick separated by 500 feet (150 m) of purple shale, crossbedding conspicuous in quartzite. Maximum thickness about 2,000 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 4,000 feet (1,200 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 1,000 feet (300 m). | Scolithus ? tubes
| |
Unconformity
|
||||
Kingston Peak(?) Formation | Mostly diamictite, sandstone, and shale; some limestone arid dolomite olistoliths near middle.[39] At least 3,000 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 (150 m) Identification uncertain. | None | ||
Pahrump Series | Crystal Spring Formation | Recognized only in Galena Canyon and south. Total thickness about 2,000 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
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 | Na2CO3·H2O | Questionably present on floodplain in Badwater Basin, would be expected in marshes of carbonate zone in Cottonball Basin. |
Gaylussite | Na2Ca(CO3)2·5H2O | 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 | Na2SO4·10H2O | 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 | 2CaSO4·H2O | As layer capping massive gypsum along west side of Badwater Basin and as dry-period efflorescence in floodplains. |
Gypsum | CaSO4·2H2O | 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)2·4H2O | Questionably present in efflorescence on floodplain in chloride zone. |
Polyhalite | K2Ca2Mg(SO4)4·2H2O | Questionably present on floodplain in chloride zone. |
Celestine | SrSO4 | Found with massive gypsum. |
Kernite | Na2B4O7·4H2O | Possibly present in Middle Basin in surface layer of layered sulfate and chloride salts. |
Tincalconite | Na2B4O7·5H2O | Probably occurs as dehydration product of borax. |
Borax | Na2B4O7·10H2O | Floodplains and marshes in Cottonball Basin. |
Inyoite | Ca2B6O11·13H2O | Questionably present (X-ray determination but unsatisfactory) in floodplain in Badwater Basin. |
Meyerhofferite | Ca2B6O11·7H2O | Found in all zones in Badwater Basin and in rough silty rock salt in Cottonball Basin |
Colemanite | Ca2B6O11·5H2O | Questionably present (X-ray determination but unsatisfactory) in floodplain in Badwater Basin. |
Ulexite | NaCaB5O9·8H2O | Common in floodplain in Cottonball Basin; known as "cottonball" |
Proberite | NaCaB5O9·5H2O | 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
References
- ^ Harris 1997, p. 630.
- ^ a b c d e f Harris 1997, p. 631.
- ^ a b c d e f g Collier 1990, p. 44.
- ^ "Saratoga Springs". Death Valley geology field trip. USGS. Archived from the original on 2011-09-30. Retrieved 2010-11-25.
- ^ a b Harris 1997, p. 611.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harris 1997, p. 632.
- ^ Collier 1990, p. 45.
- ^ "Glaciers in the Tropics?: Late Precambrian time". Death Valley National Park through time. United States Geological Survey. Archived from the original on 2010-06-04. Retrieved 2010-12-05.
- ^ a b c This article incorporates public domain material from A Mudflat to Remember: Latest Precambrian and Early Cambrian time. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2010-12-05.
- ^ a b c d Harris 1997, p. 634.
- ^ a b This article incorporates public domain material from The Earliest Animal: Latest Precambrian and Early Cambrian time. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2010-12-05.
- ^ a b c d e f g h This article incorporates public domain material from Death Valley, Caribbean-style: Middle Cambrian to Permian time. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2010-12-05.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Harris 1997, p. 635.
- ^ a b c d This article incorporates public domain material from The Earth Shook, The Sea Withdrew: Mesozoic time. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2010-12-05.
- ^ a b c d This article incorporates public domain material from Quiet to Chaos: Cenozoic Time. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2010-12-05.
- ^ a b Collier 1990, p. 48.
- ^ a b Collier 1990, p. 55.
- ^ Collier 1990, pp. 11, 55.
- ^ Collier 1990, p. 53.
- ^ Collier 1990, p. 54.
- ^ a b Collier 1990, p. 24.
- ^ a b c Kiver 1999, p. 278.
- ^ Kiver 1999, p. 279.
- ^ Sharp 1997, p. 87.
- ^ "Split Cinder Cone". Death Valley geology field trip. USGS. Archived from the original on 2011-09-30. Retrieved 2011-05-05.
- ^ Harris 1997, p. 616.
- ^ a b c d Collier 1990, p. 49.
- ^ "Ubehebe Crater". Death Valley geology field trip. USGS. Archived from the original on 2010-05-31. Retrieved 2010-11-25.
- ^ a b Kiver 1999, p. 280.
- ^ Collier 1990, p. 20.
- ^ "Zabriskie Point". Death Valley geology field trip. USGS. Archived from the original on 2010-08-20. Retrieved 2010-11-25.
- ^ a b Sharp 1997, p. 41.
- ^ a b c d Kiver 1999, p. 281.
- ^ Sharp 1997, pp. 43, 49.
- .
- .
- doi:10.1130/L464.1.
- ^ USGS contributors. "Rock Formations exposed in the Death Valley area". United States Geological Survey. Archived from the original on 2011-08-08. Retrieved 2011-05-05.
{{cite web}}
:|author=
has generic name (help) (adapted public domain table) - S2CID 56030098.
- ^ 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)
Bibliography
- Collier, Michael (1990). An Introduction to the Geology of Death Valley. Death Valley, California: Death Valley Natural History Association. LCN 90-081612.
- Harris, Ann G.; Tuttle, Esther; Tuttle, Sherwood D. (1997). Geology of National Parks (5th ed.). Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7872-5353-0.
- Kiver, Eugene P.; Harris, David V. (1999). Geology of U.S. Parklands (5th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-471-33218-3.
- Sharp, Robert P.; Allen F. Glazner (1997). Geology Underfoot in Death Valley and Owens Valley. Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Publishing. pp. 41–53. ISBN 978-0-87842-362-0.