#mojave desert

[magg0t-king]

Haven't posted in a bit bcuz stuff has been wack.. So heres something from my Snapchat

[aimeekb]

Milky Way arch over the Mojave desert, California

[georgeberkeley]

Emigrant Canyon Road to Hummingbird Spring and Wildrose Charcoal Kilns - Death Valley National Park (2022)

[lascitasdelashoras]

Keith Bernstein - Call Me, Mojave Desert, California

[bettergeology]

See that white layer in this hillside? That's an extremely important white layer. 680,000 years ago (give or take), a large volcanic system in what is now Wyoming erupted catastrophically, spewing ash and debris across the North American continent. You might have heard of it, it's called Yellowstone Caldera. You may notice that these pictures in no way resemble the verdant forests of the Rocky Mountains and that is because they are from Death Valley, California, located more than 620 miles (1000 km) away from the Yellowstone Caldera!

But... it gets cooler.

The hills this ash layer is exposed in, the Kit Fox Hills, have been uplifted. The mudstone and sediments here are ancient valley fill, meaning that they used to be the bottom of the valley and are now about 400'/120 m above the current valley floor. This is the action of the Northern Death Valley fault zone, one of California's longest active faults. In this area, that fault has some excellent outcrops as seen below.

Next door to Death Valley to the west is Panamint Valley. It's not quite as big or dramatic as Death Valley but it has many of the same sorts of geologic features which have formed over a shorter geologic timeframe, interestingly. The faults in Panamint Valley just move faster than those in Death Valley so things are a little more youthful over there. In the middle of Panamint Valley, we see this same Yellowstone ash layer but with a caveat - instead of a mere 400 feet, in Panamint Valley that ash is more than 500 feet above the valley floor! That suggests that the valley subsidence of Panamint Valley is about 20% faster than Death Valley. The true story is more complex than that, but it's good as a reference point. Let's see what that looks like.

It's hard to see in this aerial imagery, but near the top of this steep escarpment is that same volcanic ash layer. It's a bit thicker here because this big pile of material I've outlined is an ancient delta. Panamint and Death Valleys have repeatedly hosted large lakes during cooler and wetter times. This huge delta deposit is over 1.2 million years old at the base, and about 600,000 years old at the top (above the Yellowstone ash). As the Panamint Mountains (background) rose and the valley subsided, huge amounts of eroded rock and gravel were dumped on this delta. So what you're looking at is a 1 million year-long record of the floor of Panamint Valley! How cool is that?

[389]

LACHLAN TURCZAN   Veil II, 2024 Mojave Desert light, water, steam

[the-storyist]

badwater basin

[tomwindeknecht]

It's been a while since I have done a creative night edit like this. These are actual light trails from passing cars going through Joshua Tree National Park in the evening. I took multiple shots with long shutter speeds to capture the movement of the taillights, blended the images, and then edited them with color.

[rosechata]

valley of fire

[caldrive]

Near Trona, California.

[zachbradleyphotography]

From time to time

Arizona, California, Nevada

[aimeekb]

The Milky Way rising over Joshua Tree National Park, California

[dropkickslurpee]

Yeehawgust #10 — neon moon

[keepingitneutral]

Landing House, Joshua Tree National Park, California, United States,

Industry of All Nations

[pepzutiart]

GLORY TO THE NCR