Title: Death Valley National Park - Wikipedia
Headings: Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park
Contents
Geographic setting
Climate
Human history
Early inhabitants and transient populations
Boom and bust
Early tourism
Protection and later history
Geologic history
Basement and Pahrump Group
Rifting and deposition
Compression and uplift
Stretching and lakes
Biology
Activities
See also
References
Explanatory notes
Citations
Bibliography
External links

Content: Air masses tend to lose moisture as they are forced up over mountain ranges, in what climatologists call a rainshadow effect . The exaggerated rain shadow effect for the Death Valley area makes it North America 's driest spot, receiving about 1.5 inches (38 mm) of rainfall annually at Badwater, and some years fail to register any measurable rainfall. Annual average precipitation varies from 1.92 inches (49 mm) overall below sea level to over 15 inches (380 mm) in the higher mountains that surround the valley. When rain does arrive it often does so in intense storms that cause flash floods which remodel the landscape and sometimes create very shallow ephemeral lakes. Lake Badwater, March 2005
The hot, dry climate makes it difficult for soil to form. Mass wasting, the down-slope movement of loose rock, is therefore the dominant erosive force in mountainous areas, resulting in "skeletonized" ranges (mountains with very little soil on them). Sand dunes in the park, while famous, are not nearly as widespread as their fame or the dryness of the area may suggest. The Mesquite Flat dune field is the most easily accessible from t