Death Valley Visitor Guide

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Death Valley Visitor Guide Winter Death Valley National Park Visitor Guide ANDERLAY Sunset from Dantes View .VT Welcome to Your Death Valley Adventure Visiting the Park Hottest, Driest, Lowest Death Valley National Park is the In the cooler winter months, endless During COVID-19 hottest place on Earth, with a recorded exploration and a diversity of temperature of 134 °F (57°C) on experiences await you. Hiking, visiting Death Valley takes the health of its visitors, staff, July 10, 1913. It is also the driest historic sites, traveling backcountry and partners seriously. We encourage you to follow U.S. national park, and Badwater roads, and seeing the night skies CDC guidance to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Basin (-282 feet) features the lowest are only a few of the opportunities elevation in North America! available! You Should: What to Expect These conditions come together to With over 3 million acres of federally make Death Valley a land of extremes, designated Wilderness, so many where the powerful heat is a force adventures await! Walk among majestic Maintain a 6-foot During this pandemic, park of nature, and the air further dries sand dunes, navigate twisted slot distance from others managers will be assessing local everything it contacts. canyons, climb rocky peaks, or stroll who aren't in your conditions & guidance from local, along salt flats during your Death group. state, and national health officials, This summer, Death Valley reached Valley adventure. and will respond to changing 128°F, which was the hottest recorded Cover your mouth when conditions. temperature anywhere on Earth since Inside this trip-planning guide learn you cough or sneeze. 2017—again making history with our how to safely explore and enjoy this Facilities such as visitor centers, heat! amazing national park. restaurants, campgrounds, and bathrooms will be open when Wash your hands possible, but may close due to health frequently. Soap may not guidance or staffing. Junior Ranger Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)always be available; bring More Inside... your own. We thank you for your patience Program and understanding as we work to Safety & Rules �������������������������������������� 2 Avoid touching your navigate this pandemic in a safe and Keeping Patients on Dialysis Safe Entrance Fees and Passes ��������������������� 2 Free Junior Ranger face, especially your responsible manner. Protect Yourself & Your Pets ����������������� 3 books are available at the eyes, nose, and mouth. Things to See ��������������������������������������� 4 visitor center or can be downloaded Hiking Trails ����������������������������������������� 5 from our website. Learn about the Park Map ������������������������������������������ 6-7 park and complete activities to earn a What is COVID-19? Wear a mask in all For Kids! ���������������������������������������������� 8 badge! buildings (Inyo county Wilderness ������������������������������������������� 8 COVID-19 is a respiratory illness that can spread from person to person, requirement) or where Bicycles ������������������������������������������������ 8 If you are unable to turn in your Sunrise, Sunset & Night Skies ��������������� 9 similar to influenza. a 6-foot distance cannot booklet in person, email pictures of Nature & Culture �������������������������������� 10 be maintained, such as your book to DEVA_information@ on a busy trail. Wildlife ���������������������������������������������� 11 Visitor Services ���������������������������������� 12 nps.gov and a ranger will check your Take Everyday Precautions Camping �������������������������������������������� 12 work virtually! • Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. • Avoid touching your face. • Everyone should wear a cloth face cover in public setting where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain. • Avoid close contact with people who are sick. • Avoid crowds and keep at least six feet of space between yourself and others if COVID-19 is spreading in your community. • If you are in a private setting and do not have on your cloth face covering, remember to always cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze or use the inside of your elbow. » Throw used tissues in the trash and immediately clean your hands. • Routinely clean and disinfect surfaces you often touch, such as cell phones, computers, countertops, handles, and light switches. Preparing the Facility You may see changes as the dialysis facility prepares to keep you safe during treatment. This may include: • Signs with special instructions for patients with symptoms of COVID-19. • Additional education about hand hygiene and cough etiquette. • Waiting areas will be divided for patients with symptoms and patients without symptoms. • A change in patient chair locations, treatment times, or days. • A change in the gowns, facemasks, and eye protection that the staff wear. • Patients, visitors and staff will all be wearing a cloth face covering or facemask the entire time they are in the facility. CS 316158-A 04/20/2020 Death Valley National Park National Park Service Parks are Living Museums U.S. Department of the Interior The National Park Service was established on August 25, 1916, "��� to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife[���] and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of E.HOERNER future generations�” Set aside as a National Monument in 1933, becoming a National Park in 1994, and expanded again in 2019, Death Important Protection Measures Valley National Park conserves remarkable Help protect yourself and the park by following these regulations: biodiversity over incredible elevation changes all within the impressive vistas in Obey speed limits and do Please recycle. Propane Feeding animals is illegal this Wilderness setting� not stop in traffic lanes— cylinder recycle bins and dangerous. Once fed Park Mailing Address park safely on the shoulder. are located in most by people, animals tend Death Valley National Park Drive only on roads; tire campgrounds where you to beg near roads, which PO Box 579 tracks scar the desert for decades and can leave both empty and full canisters. endangers the animals and visitors. Death Valley, CA 92328 destroy the pristine beauty of the park. Stay out of closed areas. Rocks, plants, animals, Email Camp only in established Mines, service roads, and and historic objects are DEVA_information@nps�gov campgrounds or in a other areas are closed for protected just like in a permitted backcountry your safety. museum. Picking flowers, Phone area. Check at a stacking rocks, and poaching are not 760-786-3200 ranger station or visitor center for Pets are only allowed on allowed. backcountry camping information. roads and in developed Park Website www�nps�gov/deva areas. Pets are prohibited Despite being legalized by Campfires are allowed in in Wilderness, on trails, California and Nevada, Park Social Media established metal fire pits and in buildings. Park dirt roads possession or use of Facebook�com/DeathValleyNPS only. Gathering firewood is provide great places for exploring with marijuana is illegal on Instagram�com/DeathValleyNPS prohibited. Check for fire pets. Keep pets on a leash no longer federal lands like national parks. restrictions before camping. than 6 feet. The National Park Service cares for the The use of drones/UAVs is special places saved by the American Put garbage where it It is illegal to discharge a prohibited in the park. people so that all may experience our belongs. Litter spoils the firearm anywhere in Death heritage� experience for others. Valley or to bring one into Even fruit peels can take a federal building. Hunting EXPERIENCE YOUR AMERICA™ years to decompose here. and trapping are illegal in the park. Entrance Fee Required Stop Damage in its Tracks! Support your park by paying the required entrance fee at a visitor center or at one Death Valley is seeing an increase in damage from illegal off-road driving; you can help of the automated fee machines placed solve this problem by staying on designated roads and reporting incidents to rangers. throughout the park� Already have one of the passes listed below? Enjoy the park! These Scars Can Last a Wildflowers & Wildlife It is Illegal 7-day Passes Lifetime Tires crush and destroy native plants. In addition to harming the park, Vehicle and Passenger ������������������������ $30 Driving off roads scars the fragile Ruts compact soils and break up driving off roads is also illegal. A Motorcycle ����������������������������������������� $25 desert landscape, leaving damage that important soil crusts, which prevents person driving off-road can be fined at Individual entering on bicycle or foot �� $15 can last for decades. These tracks don't plants like wildflowers from growing in least $750 and/or get 6 months of jail just disappear with the next rainfall! future years. time (36 CFR § 4.10). Annual Passes Death Valley Annual Pass ������������������� $55 Visitors come from around the world Tires also spread seeds from weeds There are areas on nearby BLM Interagency Annual Pass �������������������� $80 which crowd out native wildflowers and Forest Service land where "off Interagency Annual Senior Pass ���������� $20 to enjoy the vast landscapes and scenic and cause health problems for wildlife. roading" is permitted in accordance (for U�S� citizens aged 62+) beauty. This photographer's paradise
Recommended publications
  • Hecastocleideae (Hecastocleidoideae)
    Chapter 16 Hecastocleideae (Hecastocleidoideae) Vicki A. Funk and D.J. Nicholas Hind HISTORICAL OVERVIEW AND MORPHOLOGY Carduoideae—'rest of the family' split (see Chapters 12 and 44) and this placement has 100% bootstrap support. Hecastodeis shockleyi A. Gray was described in 1882 and its Its current position is supported by its distinct morphol- unusual morphology and restricted distribution has made ogy and strong support from molecular data. Its near- it sought after for herbarium specimens. This shrub is est downstream neighbor, however, is somewhat tenu- easily identified because of its single flowered heads that ous, because the position of the branch just below it are re-aggregated on a receptacle in groups of one to five (Gochnatieae) has only 65% bootstrap support (Panero heads; each group of heads is subtended by a relatively and Funk 2008) and might collapse into a polytomy large spiny whitish or greenish bract (Fig. 16.1). Gray with Mutisieae s.str. If one does the phylogenetic analysis (1882) commented that is was "a remarkable addition without Hecastodeis, there is no change in the phylogeny to the few known North American Mutisieae, to stand of the family. near Ainsliaea DC. but altogether sui generis and of pecu- liar habit." According to Williams (1977) the generic name Hecastodeis, "... comes from the Greek roots, ekastos TAXONOMY meaning 'each' and kleio meaning 'to shut up'", referring to each flower having its own involucre. The species The genus is monotypic and has always been recognized was named after William H. Shockley one of the first as such since its original description by Gray (1882).
    [Show full text]
  • The Climate of Death Valley, California
    THE CLIMATE OF DEATH VALLEY, CALIFORNIA BY STEVEN ROOF AND CHARLIE CALLAGAN The notoriously extreme climate of Death Valley records shows significant variability in the long-term, including a 35% increase in precipitation in the last 40 years. eath Valley National Park, California, is widely known for its extreme hot and Ddry climate. High summer temperatures, low humidity, high evaporation, and low pre- cipitation characterize the valley, of which over 1300 km2 (500 mi2) are below sea level (Fig. 1). The extreme summer climate attracts great interest: July and August visitation in Death Valley National Park has doubled in the last 10 years. From June through August, the average temperature at Furnace Creek, Death Valley [54 m (177 ft) below sea level] is 98°F (37°C).1 Daytime high temperatures typically exceed 90°F (32°C) more than half of the year, and temperatures above 120°F (49°C) occur 1 Weather data are reported here in their original units in to order retain the original level of precision re- corded by the observers. FIG. I. Location map of the Death Valley region. Death Valley National Park is outlined in blue, main roads shown in red, and the portion of the park below sea level is highlighted in white. AFFILIATIONS: ROOF—School of Natural Science, Hampshire E-mail: [email protected] College, Amherst, Massachusetts; CALLAGAN—National Park Service, DOI: 10.1 175/BAMS-84-12-1725 Death Valley National Park, Death Valley, California. In final form 17 January 2003 CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Dr. Steve Roof, School of Natural © 2003 American Meteorological Society Science, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA 01002 AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY DECEMBER 2003 BAfft I 1725 Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/09/21 10:14 PM UTC 5-20 times each year.
    [Show full text]
  • Tectonic Influences on the Spatial and Temporal Evolution of the Walker Lane: an Incipient Transform Fault Along the Evolving Pacific – North American Plate Boundary
    Arizona Geological Society Digest 22 2008 Tectonic influences on the spatial and temporal evolution of the Walker Lane: An incipient transform fault along the evolving Pacific – North American plate boundary James E. Faulds and Christopher D. Henry Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada, 89557, USA ABSTRACT Since ~30 Ma, western North America has been evolving from an Andean type mar- gin to a dextral transform boundary. Transform growth has been marked by retreat of magmatic arcs, gravitational collapse of orogenic highlands, and periodic inland steps of the San Andreas fault system. In the western Great Basin, a system of dextral faults, known as the Walker Lane (WL) in the north and eastern California shear zone (ECSZ) in the south, currently accommodates ~20% of the Pacific – North America dextral motion. In contrast to the continuous 1100-km-long San Andreas system, discontinuous dextral faults with relatively short lengths (<10-250 km) characterize the WL-ECSZ. Cumulative dextral displacement across the WL-ECSZ generally decreases northward from ≥60 km in southern and east-central California, to ~25 km in northwest Nevada, to negligible in northeast California. GPS geodetic strain rates average ~10 mm/yr across the WL-ECSZ in the western Great Basin but are much less in the eastern WL near Las Vegas (<2 mm/ yr) and along the northwest terminus in northeast California (~2.5 mm/yr). The spatial and temporal evolution of the WL-ECSZ is closely linked to major plate boundary events along the San Andreas fault system. For example, the early Miocene elimination of microplates along the southern California coast, southward steps in the Rivera triple junction at 19-16 Ma and 13 Ma, and an increase in relative plate motions ~12 Ma collectively induced the first major episode of deformation in the WL-ECSZ, which began ~13 Ma along the N60°W-trending Las Vegas Valley shear zone.
    [Show full text]
  • Alluvial Fans in the Death Valley Region California and Nevada
    Alluvial Fans in the Death Valley Region California and Nevada GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 466 Alluvial Fans in the Death Valley Region California and Nevada By CHARLES S. DENNY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 466 A survey and interpretation of some aspects of desert geomorphology UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1965 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STEWART L. UDALL, Secretary GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Thomas B. Nolan, Director The U.S. Geological Survey Library has cataloged this publications as follows: Denny, Charles Storrow, 1911- Alluvial fans in the Death Valley region, California and Nevada. Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1964. iv, 61 p. illus., maps (5 fold. col. in pocket) diagrs., profiles, tables. 30 cm. (U.S. Geological Survey. Professional Paper 466) Bibliography: p. 59. 1. Physical geography California Death Valley region. 2. Physi­ cal geography Nevada Death Valley region. 3. Sedimentation and deposition. 4. Alluvium. I. Title. II. Title: Death Valley region. (Series) For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C., 20402 CONTENTS Page Page Abstract.. _ ________________ 1 Shadow Mountain fan Continued Introduction. ______________ 2 Origin of the Shadow Mountain fan. 21 Method of study________ 2 Fan east of Alkali Flat- ___-__---.__-_- 25 Definitions and symbols. 6 Fans surrounding hills near Devils Hole_ 25 Geography _________________ 6 Bat Mountain fan___-____-___--___-__ 25 Shadow Mountain fan..______ 7 Fans east of Greenwater Range___ ______ 30 Geology.______________ 9 Fans in Greenwater Valley..-----_____. 32 Death Valley fans.__________--___-__- 32 Geomorpholo gy ______ 9 Characteristics of fans.._______-___-__- 38 Modern washes____.
    [Show full text]
  • Technical Memorandum
    Technical Memorandum DATE: July 3, 2019 PROJECT: 19-1-047 TO: Shawnda Grady, ESQ Ellison, Schneider, Harris & Donlan FROM: Eddy Teasdale, P.G., CHG. Mehrdad Bastani SUBJECT: Ground Water (Hydrologic) Technical Memorandum Report to Support San Bernardino Conditional Use Permit Related to Adequate Service Certification Water and Sewer (Form W2) - PVL Lime Plant APN: 0485-031-12 1 INTRODUCTION This Technical Memorandum (TM) describes the process used to determine groundwater availability and evaluate potential impacts of operating a new planned industrial well on existing groundwater users in the area. Provided herein are the key findings, conclusions, and preliminary recommendations regarding water availability for the proposed PVL processing plant in Trona, California (Project). Implementation of the Project will utilize water from a recently installed on-site production well. For drinking water, the Project proposed to utilize an estimated 1.3 gallons per minute (gpm). To meet operational requirements related to domestic and processing usage, the new planned well will need to produce a maximum of 30 gpm (49 AF/year). 2 GEOLOGY AND HYDROGEOLOGY Searles Valley is a north-trending structural valley that is bound by the Argus Range on the west and north and by the Slate Range on the north and east. The Garlock Fault is generally recognized as the southern limit of the groundwater basin, however topographically, the surface water drainage area of the valley continues south of the Garlock fault. The area of the Searles Valley drainage basin is estimated to be about 693 square miles. There are three primary hydrogeologic units within the Searles Valley, alluvial deposits, saline deposits and bedrock complex.
    [Show full text]
  • Upper Neogene Stratigraphy and Tectonics of Death Valley — a Review
    Earth-Science Reviews 73 (2005) 245–270 www.elsevier.com/locate/earscirev Upper Neogene stratigraphy and tectonics of Death Valley — a review J.R. Knott a,*, A.M. Sarna-Wojcicki b, M.N. Machette c, R.E. Klinger d aDepartment of Geological Sciences, California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92834, United States bU. S. Geological Survey, MS 975, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, United States cU. S. Geological Survey, MS 966, Box 25046, Denver, CO 80225-0046, United States dTechnical Service Center, U. S. Bureau of Reclamation, P. O. Box 25007, D-8530, Denver, CO 80225-0007, United States Abstract New tephrochronologic, soil-stratigraphic and radiometric-dating studies over the last 10 years have generated a robust numerical stratigraphy for Upper Neogene sedimentary deposits throughout Death Valley. Critical to this improved stratigraphy are correlated or radiometrically-dated tephra beds and tuffs that range in age from N3.58 Ma to b1.1 ka. These tephra beds and tuffs establish relations among the Upper Pliocene to Middle Pleistocene sedimentary deposits at Furnace Creek basin, Nova basin, Ubehebe–Lake Rogers basin, Copper Canyon, Artists Drive, Kit Fox Hills, and Confidence Hills. New geologic formations have been described in the Confidence Hills and at Mormon Point. This new geochronology also establishes maximum and minimum ages for Quaternary alluvial fans and Lake Manly deposits. Facies associated with the tephra beds show that ~3.3 Ma the Furnace Creek basin was a northwest–southeast-trending lake flanked by alluvial fans. This paleolake extended from the Furnace Creek to Ubehebe. Based on the new stratigraphy, the Death Valley fault system can be divided into four main fault zones: the dextral, Quaternary-age Northern Death Valley fault zone; the dextral, pre-Quaternary Furnace Creek fault zone; the oblique–normal Black Mountains fault zone; and the dextral Southern Death Valley fault zone.
    [Show full text]
  • 2021 Magazine
    July 2021 Welcome to the July 2021 edition of BADWATER® Magazine! We are AdventureCORPS®, producers of ultra-endurance sports events and adventure travel across the globe, and the force behind the BADWATER® brand. This magazine celebrates the entire world-wide Badwater® / AdventureCORPS® series of races, all the Badwater Services, Gear, Drinks, and Clothing, and what we like to call the Badwater Family and the Badwater Way of Life. Adventure is our way of life, so – after the sad and disastrous 2020 when we were not able to host any of our life-changing events – we are pleased to be fully back in action in 2021! Well, make that almost fully: Due to pandemic travel bans still in place, international participation in our USA-based events is not where we want it and that’s really unfortunate. Badwater 135 is the de facto Olympics of Ultrarunning and the 135-Mile World Championship, so we always want as many nationalities represented as possible. (The inside front cover of this magazine celebrates all sixty-one nationalities which have been represented on the Badwater 135 start line over the years.) Our new six-day stage race across Armenia – Artsakh Ultra – will have to wait yet another year to debut in 2022, two years later than planned. But it will be incredible, the ultimate stage race with six days of world-class trail running through several millennia of incredible culture and history, and across the most dramatic and awe-inspiring landscapes. This year, we are super excited to have brought two virtual races to life, first for the 31 days of January, and then for 16 days in April.
    [Show full text]
  • Syn-Eruptive, Soft-Sediment Deformation of Deposits
    Solid Earth, 6, 553–572, 2015 www.solid-earth.net/6/553/2015/ doi:10.5194/se-6-553-2015 © Author(s) 2015. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Syn-eruptive, soft-sediment deformation of deposits from dilute pyroclastic density current: triggers from granular shear, dynamic pore pressure, ballistic impacts and shock waves G. A. Douillet1, B. Taisne2, È. Tsang-Hin-Sun3, S. K. Müller4, U. Kueppers1, and D. B. Dingwell1 1Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany 2Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 3Université of Brest and CNRS, Laboratoire Domaines Océaniques, Plouzaré, France 4Meteorological Institute, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany Correspondence to: G. A. Douillet ([email protected]) Received: 17 November 2014 – Published in Solid Earth Discuss.: 16 December 2014 Revised: 16 April 2015 – Accepted: 20 April 2015 – Published: 21 May 2015 Abstract. Soft-sediment deformation structures can provide to be the signature of shear instabilities occurring at the valuable information about the conditions of parent flows, boundary of two granular media. They may represent the sediment state and the surrounding environment. Here, the frozen record of granular, pseudo Kelvin–Helmholtz examples of soft-sediment deformation in deposits of dilute instabilities. Their recognition can be a diagnostic for pyroclastic density currents are documented and possible flows with a granular basal boundary layer. Vertical syn-eruptive triggers suggested. Outcrops from six different inter-penetration and those folds-and-faults features related volcanoes have been compiled in order to provide a to slumps are driven by their excess weight and occur | downloaded: 11.10.2021 broad perspective on the variety of structures: Soufrière after deposition but penecontemporaneous to the eruption.
    [Show full text]
  • Volume 66 Issue 1 Winter 2021
    Preservation By David Blacker, Executive Director From the Director DVNHA One of the biggest highlights of visiting Death Valley National Park or Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is seeing and maybe getting a photo of a desert bighorn sheep. You see the desert bighorn in our logo, a strong and majestic animal with iconic large curling horns, but your chance of seeing one of these incredible creatures is shrinking. Surprisingly the biggest reason is not climate change, but the spread of an invasive species that dominates and destroys their water sources and bullies them out of their historic range. In the economic downturn of the early 2000s, people stopped adopting burros and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) pens filled up. A growing unchecked burro population began to grow and spread. I began to hear reports of sightings in Panamint Valley and the Nevada Triangle back in 2005. Now there are herds occupying Butte Valley, Skidoo, Wildrose, and southern areas of the park. Everywhere burros appear, the impact is predictable. First they seize control of the local water source, trampling or eating the native vegetation. Being very territorial, they use their size and aggressive nature to chase off any competition. Once burros move into a water source, bighorn sheep will not use it. Our partners at NPS are working diligently to reduce and remove invasive burros from the park. They have partnered with Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue to roundup and adopt out burros from Death Valley. Burro numbers increase by 20-30% a year, so more than 750 burros need to be rounded up annually to stay ahead of reproduction.
    [Show full text]
  • Death Valley National Park
    COMPLIMENTARY $3.95 2019/2020 YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE PARKS DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK ACTIVITIES • SIGHTSEEING • DINING • LODGING TRAILS • HISTORY • MAPS • MORE OFFICIAL PARTNERS T:5.375” S:4.75” PLAN YOUR VISIT WELCOME S:7.375” In T:8.375” 1994, Death Valley National SO TASTY EVERYONE WILL WANT A BITE. Monument was expanded by 1.3 million FUN FACTS acres and redesignated a national park by the California Desert Protection Act. Established: Death Valley became a The largest national park below Alaska, national monument in 1933 and is famed this designation helped focus protection for being the hottest, lowest and driest on one the most iconic landscapes in the location in the country. The parched world. In 2018 nearly 1.7 million people landscape rises into snow-capped mountains and is home to the Timbisha visited the park, a new visitation record. Shoshone people. Death Valley is renowned for its colorful Land Area: The park’s 3.4 million acres and complex geology. Its extremes of stretch across two states, California and elevation support a great diversity of life Nevada. and provide a natural geologic museum. Highest Elevation: The top of This region is the ancestral homeland Telescope Peak is 11,049 feet high. The of the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe. The lowest is -282 feet at Badwater Basin. Timbisha established a life in concert Plants and Animals: Death Valley with nature. is home to 51 mammal species, 307 Ninety-three percent of the park is bird species, 36 reptile species, two designated wilderness, providing unique amphibian species and five fish species.
    [Show full text]
  • Open-File/Color For
    Questions about Lake Manly’s age, extent, and source Michael N. Machette, Ralph E. Klinger, and Jeffrey R. Knott ABSTRACT extent to form more than a shallow n this paper, we grapple with the timing of Lake Manly, an inconstant lake. A search for traces of any ancient lake that inundated Death Valley in the Pleistocene upper lines [shorelines] around the slopes Iepoch. The pluvial lake(s) of Death Valley are known col- leading into Death Valley has failed to lectively as Lake Manly (Hooke, 1999), just as the term Lake reveal evidence that any considerable lake Bonneville is used for the recurring deep-water Pleistocene lake has ever existed there.” (Gale, 1914, p. in northern Utah. As with other closed basins in the western 401, as cited in Hunt and Mabey, 1966, U.S., Death Valley may have been occupied by a shallow to p. A69.) deep lake during marine oxygen-isotope stages II (Tioga glacia- So, almost 20 years after Russell’s inference of tion), IV (Tenaya glaciation), and/or VI (Tahoe glaciation), as a lake in Death Valley, the pot was just start- well as other times earlier in the Quaternary. Geomorphic ing to simmer. C arguments and uranium-series disequilibrium dating of lacus- trine tufas suggest that most prominent high-level features of RECOGNITION AND NAMING OF Lake Manly, such as shorelines, strandlines, spits, bars, and tufa LAKE MANLY H deposits, are related to marine oxygen-isotope stage VI (OIS6, In 1924, Levi Noble—who would go on to 128-180 ka), whereas other geomorphic arguments and limited have a long and distinguished career in Death radiocarbon and luminescence age determinations suggest a Valley—discovered the first evidence for a younger lake phase (OIS 2 or 4).
    [Show full text]
  • Death Valley Springs Geochemical Investigation Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository, Inyo County Oversight-1998
    The HYDRODYNAMICS Group studies in mass and energy transport in the earth Death Valley Springs Geochemical Investigation Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository, Inyo County Oversight-1998 Submitted to: Inyo County Planning Department: Yucca Mountain Repository Oversight Program March, 1999 Michael J. King, R.G., C.HG. John D. Bredehoeft, Ph.D., NAE The HYDRODYNAMICS Group 16711 76th Avenue West, Edmonds, WA 98026 Phone (425) 787-6728, Fax (425) 742-8493 Page 1 The Hydrodynamics Group DEATH VALLEY SPRINGS GEOCHMICAL INVESTIGATION YUCCA MOUNTAIN NUCLEAR WASTE REPOSITORY, INYO COUNTY OVERSIGHT-1998 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Yucca Mountain, Nevada is under study as the site of the only proposed high-level nuclear waste repository in the United States. The repository concept uses the philosophy of multiple barriers, both engineered and natural, each of which impedes the movement of radionuclides into the accessible environment. The proposed repository would be in the unsaturated zone in Tertiary tuffaceous rocks. The principal transporting mechanism for radionuclides is moving ground water. Underlying the repository is an extensive Lower Carbonate Aquifer known to be highly permeable. Inyo County, as an affected unit of local government under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, as amended, is concerned with the connections between the Lower Carbonate Aquifer underlying Yucca Mountain and the carbonate sources of waters in Inyo County, especially the Death Valley region. This report is a summary of the investigations conducted by Inyo County’s consultants, the Hydrodynamics Group, during calendar year 1998. This report presents the results of The Hydrodynamics Group’s 1998 collection of water samples from 23 springs and 2 creeks in Death Valley.
    [Show full text]