dolomite canyon death valley dolomite canyon death valley

(2009), in a detailed analysis of the Inyo Mountains, report a phase of normal faulting starting at 15.6 Ma and initiation of strike-slip faulting on the Hunter Mountain fault at 2.8 Ma. In lower beds: Protopliomerops , Kirkella , Orthid brachiopods. a. In summary, the turtlebacks are antiformal structures that strike and dip toward the northwest, exposed along the range front bordering Death Valley. [7] As sand moves down the dune face it produces a booming noise, known as singing sand phenomenon, due to the small grain size and loose, dry packing. b. Mapped as 1 unit (Lee Flat, Perdido and Tin together). 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). Lack of preserved basinal section equivalent to the Black Mountains Artist Drive Formation and younger formations across the top of the Panamint Range suggests that the range was a high by 8 Ma, although the northwestern flanks were low enough at 10 Ma to begin accumulation of Nova Basin sediments (Fig. Wright et al. This paper established a robust stratigraphy, including detailed relative stratigraphy of Neogene sediments. Miocene Miocene From Dante's View one can see the central part of Death Valley from a vantage point 5,500 feet (1,700m) above sea level. 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. 5 Funeral Formation c. Interbedded limestone, silty limestone, silstone, sandstone, and shale. Miocene 4), on the flanks of the Black Mountains, the Copper Canyon formation preserves 1800 m of mostly fluvial to lacustrine sediments, including some distinctive tufa mounds (Nyborg and Buchheim, 2009). a. McKenna and Hodges (1990) use the name Eastern Panamint fault system for a series of faults that include a basal detachment and higher faults that collectively form an extensional duplex. 18 Owens Valley Formation Reviews. The Panamint Range has previously been interpreted as an extensional allochthon, with the entire range transported from on top of or east of the Black Mountains. I've only ever hiked it in January and December, and even then it felt warm. Also shown are the three Quaternary pluvial Lake Manly events when Death Valley was flooded (Anderson and Wells, 2003). 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. The Noonday Dolomite has since been tilted from uplift. At ca. This pan was first created by the drying-up of 30-foot (9.1m) deep Recent Lake 2000 to 3000 years ago. Unlike at the Devils Golf Course, significant rainstorms flood Badwater, covering the salt pan with a thin sheet of standing water. Total Distance: 400 miles. 4; the Noonday Dolomite is included in the Johnnie Formation in this digital compilation), with the highest peak of the range at Telescope Peak consisting of argillites of the Johnnie Formation (Albee et al., 1981). The second event began while layered younger Precambrian sediments were being deposited on top of the beveled surface of older metamorphic basement rocks. These low hills are composed of clastic sediments of the Confidence Hills Formation (Wright and Troxel, 1984), with an age range of 1.72.2 Ma (Knott et al., 2005). Thickness, 1,500 feet. HIKING NOT ADVISED AFTER 10 AM IN THE SUMMER. 7), probably because this section is the oldest that covers the entire area. Der Death-Valley-Nationalpark (Anhren? Shorelines of ancient Lake Manly are preserved in several parts of Death Valley, but nowhere is the record as clear as at Shoreline Butte. In NTS area, unit is from 700 to 1,150 m thick, about 600 m thick in the Montgomery Mountains, and 640 to 820 m thick in the northwest Spring Mountains. 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. A new interpretation presented here is that the range is a large core complex similar to the core complex at Tucki Mountain, at the northern end of the range. Dashed line shows inferred location of the detachment fault across the Panamint Range. The cross section of Figure 9 with, superimposed at Badwater, a generalized cross section across an oceanic megamullion structure (megamullion data from Tucholke and Lin, 1998). In Pliocene time, the Furnace Creek and Funeral Formations were deposited in the northern Black Mountains, these sections being predominantly clastic with little evidence for syndepositional tectonism. Ammonites, smooth-shelled brachiopods, belemnites, and hexacorals. 19 Keeler Canyon Formation a. 3) Smith Mountain granite. Miller and Pavlis (2005) give an excellent overview of current data and understanding of the turtlebacks. 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. The main visitor center of the park is located here as well as the Oasis at Death Valley resort complex. In map view, Figure 5, the turtlebacks are seen to be adjacent to inferred strike-slip faults and in an inside corner position similar to that of oceanic megamullions (Tucholke and Lin, 1998). Here, detachment faults that dip to the west, like the Emigrant fault at Tucki Mountain, have been mapped by Cichanski (2000). Although the ECSZ today accommodates 25% of Pacific-North America relative motion, timing of initiation of this shear zone is poorly known. Includes many rhyolite and lesser trachyte and comendite masses, many of them associated with calderas. The ghost town of Ballarat had 400 residents at the turn of the 20th century when mines were active in the area. Mixed brachiopods, corals, and crinoid stems. At some locations, such as in the Spring Mountains, has sandy carbonate beds and collophane nodules, and in Panamint Range area, lower part contains mostly silty and sandy dolomite, argillaceous quarzite, and minor shale. At Mosaic Canyon, for instance, where the detachment surface is exposed (TD, Fig. (2005). As the resort grew, the marshes and wetlands around it shrank. Interpretations of the geology of Death Valley have played an important role in the development of models of continental extension, particularly for models that incorporate large-magnitude extension accommodated by low-angle detachment faults (Wright and Troxel, 1973; Hamilton, 1988; Wernicke et al., 1988a; Snow and Wernicke, 2000; Hayman et al., 2003). The latter is the trail head for the hiking trail to Telescope Peak and has views to the east down to Badwater. Basement geometry below Death Valley shows a steep-sided basin nearly 5000 m deep. This is the greatest topographic relief in the conterminous U.S. The scale of this core complex, 3040 km wide by 60 km long with an amplitude of 4 km, is larger than other well-known core complexes like the Snake Range and Whipple core complexes (Block and Royden, 1990). Numerous trilobite trash beds in lower part yield fragments of olenellid trilobites. Uplift history of the range is uncertain with present data. Hidden Valley Dolomite, Lost Burro Formation, and the Tin Mountain Limestone. Detachment fault surfaces are exposed in several places in the Death Valley region, with the best studied being the antiformal structures known as turtlebacks in the Black Mountains on the east side of the valley (Figs. Monument Valley Tour. 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 recent phase of this propagation was opening of the Gulf of California and initiation of the San Andreas fault as the plate boundary at 56 Ma (Lonsdale, 1989; Atwater and Stock, 1998). This paper was sponsored by the PLATES project at UTIG. No fossils. This cross section, like Figure 6, uses topographic data from the DEM and outcrop geology from Workman et al. This eastward propagation continues today with strike slip in the ECSZ, which will become the full plate boundary if the San Andreas fault ceases activity in western California and the plate boundary continues its eastward migration (Faulds et al., 2005). Cemen et al. (2002; Fig. *3 Members* upper member (Papoose Lake Member) is a fossiliferous shale containing trilobites of Glossopleura middle member (Informal Middle Member)contains trilobite "hash beds" with fragments of Ehmaniella and with linguloid brachiopod beds within a shale layer lower member (Banded Mountain Member) contains no fossils. The only fossiliferous bed is shale below limestone member neat middle of formation. 4). The structures are usually corrugated with mullion structures parallel to spreading direction and Tucholke and Lin (1998) relate them to continental metamorphic core complexes. Wright et al. This canyon was formed through a process of cut and fill which included periodic erosive floods followed by long periods of deposition and uplift. Between the Last Chance Range and Saline Mountains is the graben Eureka Valley. b. Diatoms, pollen. But due to the uplift when the next flood hit the area it would deeply cut the streambed which forms stairstep-shaped banks. Time: 2.5 - 3 hours, round trip. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/GES00588.1. The turtlebacks are therefore formed of rocks that were exhumed due to extension and at the same time were intruded by a variety of igneous rocks. This set of narrows is only about a quarter mile in on foot. Contained within its boundaries is a diverse rock record stretching throughout most of geologic time. Plant life includes common reeds, bulrush and saltgrass. Most of the holes in the basalt are vesicles that were formed when gas escaped from the cooling lava. This deformation is associated with the Southern Death Valley strike-slip fault (Dooley and McClay, 1996) and gives a qualitative indication of the large amount of post-1.7 Ma motion there has been on this fault. 4. There is a Conglomerate Member, an Upper Limestone Member, a Shale Member, and a Lower Limestone Member. Extension in Death Valley is usually interpreted as a combination of low-angle Basin and Rangestyle extension and strike slip associated with the developing Pacific-North America plate boundary in western North America, with these two tectonic regimes operating synchronously in Death Valley. *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. Most of the so-called 'sailing stones' are from a nearby high hillside of dark dolomite on the south end of the playa. Favosites. Later researchers discovered that the region had experienced substantial tension that pulled large blocks of crust apart. 1) occurred in the Middle Miocene as a result of footwall uplift associated with east-west extension. These will be used to build a structural model for evolution of the basin, but before doing that, it is useful to examine the geometry of Basin and Range detachment faults in the basin. Medium grained leucocratic granodiorite consisting of sodic plagioclase, quartz, microcline, and muscovite; locally, a minor amount of biotite and a trace of garnet are observed. a. Interbedded fluvial and marine sequences fine-grained, cross-stratified, locally conglomeratic sandstone, intervals of siltstone and carbonate rocks in the Funeral Mnts. Wildrose Canyon has 2 campgrounds above the kilns, Thorndyke at 7,490 feet and Mahogany Flat at 7923 feet. Based on these comparisons, I suggest that the turtlebacks are megamullions formed as a result of strike-slip faulting in Death Valley. On the alluvial fan above the springs there are 2-3 thousand year old petroglyphs from the extinct Mesquite Spring culture. Geosphere 2011;; 7 (1): 171182. c. Quartzite, conglomeratic quartzite, siltstone, shale and minor limestone and dolomite beds. 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. A 20 m thick white quartzite marks the base of the unit in the Specter Range and northwestern Spring Mountains. Figure 10 is an illustration of the evolution of Death Valley. *3 Members* upper and lower members are brownish-weathering dolomite/limestone and quartzite in the middle member lower member represents high water stand deposition with carbonate intervals overlain by fluvially-dominated terrestrial braidplain and braid-delta facies of the middle member also contains Ediacaran fossils upper member represents mainly marine deposition with abundant body and trace fossils typical of the Early Cambrian such as olenellid trilobites and Skolithos tubes found in the siltstone beds, also Helicoplacoid echinoderms and brachiopod molds and casts have been found above the archaeocyathan and olenellid-bearing limestones are green siltstones containing trilobites, echinoderms, and hyoliths. Smooth, polished marble walls enclose the trail as it follows the canyon's sinuous curves. b. Basal unit is well-bedded quartzite above 1,650 feet thick ' shaly Unit above this 520 feet thick contains lowest olenellids in section; top unit of dolomite and quartzite 400 feet thick. a. Mostly equivalent with the Highland Peak Formation as use by Tschanz and Pampeyan (1970) in Lincoln Country. A few scattered olenellid trilobites and archaeocyathids in upper part of formation. b. Quartzite, mostly massive arid granulated due to shearing, locally it) beds 6 inches to 2 feet thick ' trot much cross bedded. These volcanics were deposited partly on the exhumed detachment surface from the earlier phase of Basin and Range extension. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Park Service. In the second 3 Ma restoration, the topography that formed as a result of young transtensional strike slip is removed. 4), the canyon cuts through mylonized dolomite. During periods of heavy rain, water washes down from nearby mountain slopes onto the playa, forming a shallow, short-lived lake. is a cherty argillaceous unit containing Lower Devonian fish, the pteraspidids Blieckaspis and Panamintaspis from the Trail Canyon area. per adult. 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. In the second category, based on the pull-apart model developed by Burchfiel and Stewart (1966), strike-slip faults penetrate deeply into the crust and drive extension between their terminations (Wright and Troxel, 1984; Topping, 1993; Serpa and Pavlis, 1996; Miller and Prave, 2002). Death Valley National Park is not a summertime destination, at least in my opinion. Ages of basalt within the succession constrain the age of the formation to between 5 and 3.3 Ma (Nyborg and Buchheim, 2009). Non-stop winds on this ridge are concentrated and compressed at the top of the hill and are very fast as a result. Wind, water, and plate tectonics are still hard at work shaping the park on a day-to-day basis. Using this very rough estimate of 1.81 Ma (base of Quaternary) for a third of the section and assuming a constant sedimentation rate, the base of the section would be at 5.4 Ma. A feature of these intrusives is that they are intruded along the structural top of each turtleback, with the Willow Springs diorite structurally beneath the younger (Fig. 4) and form the crest of the range, just like at Tucki Mountain. a. Mostly shale, in part olive brown, in part purple. Several springs overflow into pools totaling 6.6 acres (2.7 ha) in area, making the site the third largest marsh in the park. Titus Canyon is a narrow gorge in the Grapevine Mountains near the eastern boundary of Death Valley National Park. 2; Cemen et al., 1999). Adding another day to your visit to Death Valley helps to balance out the long drive to and from Las Vegas. Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California-Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada.The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka Valley and most of Saline Valley.The park occupies an interface zone between the arid Great Basin and Mojave deserts, protecting the northwest corner of . The Artist Drive Formation is in fault contact with Proterozoic gneiss and Miocene intrusives of the Badwater turtleback structure. 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 canyon offers a suite of folds on almost all scales and styles to bedazzle the geologically-inclined visitor. 6) is an antiformal structure formed by arching of the exposed detachment surface; I suggest that this arching also forms the rest of the Panamint Range, making the entire range a core complex. A mix of carbonate and siliciclastic sequences from a shallow, near-shore depo. Near the end of this extensional phase and lasting until ca. 108). (1974) do not suggest that the turtlebacks themselves are mullion structures, but a comparison with oceanic megamullions suggests that this is what they are. The basin is the second lowest depression in the Western Hemisphere, eclipsed only by Laguna del Carbn in Argentina at 344 feet (105m). Abundant large gastropods in massive dolomite at top: Palliseria and Maclurites, associated with Receptaculites. Called the Artist Drive Formation, the rock unit provides evidence for one of the Death Valley area's most violently explosive volcanic periods. * 4 Members* Diatoms and plants give the Miocene age. Fan gravel; silt and salt buried under floor of playa; perhaps 2,000 feet thick.]. a. WMWhite Mountains; IRInyo Range. b. Cemented gravel; playa deposits, much volcanic debris, perhaps 5,000 feet thick. This correlation implies 2555 km of post-eruption offset between the two locations, the distance depending on details of how the intervening faults are restored (McKenna and Hodges, 1990). The massive expanse of white is made up of almost pure table salt. This dolomite has been correlated to the Noonday Dolomite (Hunt and Mabey, 1966; Williams et al., 1976), which is also found in the footwall of the Black Mountains detachment fault at Copper Canyon and Mormon Point (Williams et al., 1976), although Miller and Pavlis (2005) question details of this correlation. Death Valley National Park is one of many units within the National Park service established because of its underlying geologic theme. The first category described by Miller and Pavlis (2005) is the Rolling Hinge model as proposed by Stewart (1983), Hamilton (1988), Wernicke et al. Along the road to the canyon stands Leadfield, a ghost town dating to the 1920s. Extrapolation of measured sedimentary rates in the upper flat-lying section yields an age of between 5 and 7 Ma for the unconformity above the fault blocks, suggesting that Basin and Range extension ceased in the Late Miocene in the Tecopa Basin (Calzia and Rm, 2000). camel, horse, bird, carnivore). 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. Faulting broke the older, inactive, Basin and Range detachment surfaces, with high-angle transtensional faulting along the Black Mountains front. 30 Racetrack Dolomite Ninemile Formation is absent in most locations in the eastern part of the map area. 6 Nova Formation