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.
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