Date-ing

We drove to China Ranch from Death Valley today. China Ranch is a date farm in Tecopa, CA, and is the coolest little escape from the barren wastelands of the desert. Upon arrival we were treated to date-shakes, which were SO GOOD. And make no mistake, there was no shortage of date jokes and puns.

For the next couple days we will stay in a bed and breakfast within the ranch. We will sleep in giant tepees that had beds inside them. It is an interesting juxtaposition of the tepees next to the date palms and then desert canyons on the horizon. There is no internet or cell service, so we are completely off the map!

Drop it Low

We know that there is a race between erosion and tectonics in the valley, so we wanted to quantify each to see who is winning. We took gravity measurements to profile the valley floor to see how thick the sediments are. Then we modeled a fault scarp to find the rate of down-dropping. Through calculations and some Leslie programming magic, we figured out that the valley floor on the eastern side of Death Valley was dropping faster than the mountains could be eroded.

Pretty good for a few day's work.

Racetrack Playa

On our off day today, a handful of us went on an epic excursion to the Racetrack Playa. 3 hours on a washboard gravel road and two blown shocks later, we arrived at this beautiful playa that had mystified scientists for some time. There are rocks that seem to have plowed themselves along the lake bed and leave long "racetracks". You can check out the recent hypothesis that explains the phenomenon here.

After about 5 hours driving back (due to busted shocks), we made it to an old crater that blew its top due to lots of water mixing with its magma. Death Valley is extreme in its climate and events, all which are so well preserved.

 

 

200ft Below Sea Level

Today was our first full day below sea level. It was hot and dry in Death Valley, especially down in the valley. We learned that the basin is sinking due to extension from the Basin and Range and shear near Walker Lane. Leslie took us all the way up to Devil's View (~5000ft) in the Black Mountains to look down at the valley and then down to the Badwater Basin (-282ft) to see the evaporites in the basin. We also went up Mosaic Canyon to check out the metamorphism associated with all these tectonics. 

And hey, deserts should have sand dunes, right?

Right.

Basin and Range in a Roadcut

We left Vegas today and headed to Death Valley. On the way, we stopped at a beautiful road cut. Leslie names it "Basin and Range in a Road Cut" because it perfectly embodies all that we have seen in regional extensional processes. The normal faults are TEXTBOOK. There also is an extensive welded tuff--a reminder of the volcanism that was active in the area.

Spring Hills

Today we went across Vegas to the Spring Hills to check out evidence of pre-Basin and Range compression. We mapped a little area near Red Rocks where a thrust fault is nicely exposed. In the evening, some of us blew off some steam at a roller skating rink. People there were groovin'!

Hoover Drought

Today we got the chance to see one of the great engineering feats of the 20th Century: the Hoover Dam. What the dam showed us is how bad the drought actually is out here. The level of the reservoir is almost too low to flow through the intakes. The whole dam is impressive nonetheless.

 

Vegas with Leslie

The pun-master has arrived. 

Today was our first day with Leslie! 

We started our time in Vegas, or just outside to be exact. We started the day with a bit of mapping of Frenchman Mountain. It so happens that you can put your hand on 1 billion years of missing geologic time. 

In the afternoon, we measured the magnetism of an igneous intrusion somewhere in the desert outside of Vegas. Volunteers got strapped up in the ghost-busters-esk outfit to take measurements. I thought we were in the desert before, but I was mistaken. It is hot and DRY out here.

 

Lake Sa-BRINE-a

Today was our off day and our last day in Bishop. Some of the group decided to go up to Lake Sabrina: Bishop's water supply. It was quite beautiful up in the Sierras, and the drought was super apparent. The level of the lake had dropped far below the docks and the spillway. Time will only tell how long California can endure.

Extension Extension Extension

Ah the mornings are beautiful on the Sierras. We headed out today to take a look at the extensional forces at work in the Owens Valley. To think, at one point within the last 20-40 million years, there was no Owens Valley. Rather, the Sierras and White-Inyos were together.

Up on the Tablelands, there is a really neat outcrop showing the normal faulting associated with the extension of the valley. In the afternoon, we ventured above the outcrop to take a look at more fault scarps and their accommodation zones.