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Zabriskie Point at Death Valley National Park in mid-April 2019. This image is 32% size of original.
Sign at Zabriskie Point: The otherworldly badlands around you are deathly silent and still. Yet this arid scene is the result of often violent action of water and earthquakes. Three to five million years ago---before the deepest part of Death valley had formed---shimmering lakes filled a long, mountain-rimmed valley here. Fine silt and volcanic ash washed into the lake, settling to the bottom, ultimately creating the thick deposit of clay sandstone and siltstone that makes up the Furnace Creek Formation. The one-level layers are being tilted by seismic activity and pressure that is folding the ancient valley's floor. As the layers uplifted and were exposed, periodic rainstorms cause powerful gulleywashers that erode the soft rocks into the chaotic yet straingely beautiful landscape we see today.
Volcanic activity also influenced this landscape. The black layer across the wash is lava that oozed out onto the ancient lakebed. Hot water followed the lava, bringing minerals such as borax, gypsum, and calcite with it. Hot water also altered the mineral makeup of the Artist's Drive Formation, hydrothermally altering the rock into the psychedelic swirl of colors on the hills beyond.
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last updated: July 5, 2021