Title: Geology of the Death Valley area - Wikipedia
Headings: Geology of the Death Valley area
Geology of the Death Valley area
Contents
Early sedimentation
Proterozoic complex
Pahrump Group
Crustal thinning and rifting
Passive margin formed
A carbonate shelf forms
Change to active margin and uplift
Development of a plain
Extension creates the Basin and Range
Volcanism and valley-fill sedimentation
Table of formations
Table of salts
See also
Notes
References
External links

Content: Stretching of the crust under western North America started around 16 Ma and is thought to be caused by upwelling from the subducted spreading-zone of the Farallon Plate. This process continues into the present and is thought to be responsible for creating the Basin and Range province. By 2 to 3 million years ago this province had spread to the Death Valley area, ripping it apart and creating Death Valley, Panamint Valley and surrounding ranges. These valleys partially filled with sediment and, during colder periods during the current ice age, with lakes. Lake Manly was the largest of these lakes; it filled Death Valley during each glacial period from 240,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago. By 10,500 years ago these lakes were increasingly cut off from glacial melt from the Sierra Nevada, starving them of water and concentrating salts and minerals. The desert environment seen today developed after these lakes dried up. Contents
1 Early sedimentation
1.1 Proterozoic complex
1.2 Pahrump Group
2 Crustal thinning and rifting
3 Passive margin formed
4 A carbonate shelf forms
5 Change to active margin and uplift
6 Development of a plain
7 Extension creates the Basin and Range
8 Volcanism and valley-fill sedimentation
9 Table of formations
10 Table of salts
11 See also
12 Notes
13 References
14 External links
Early sedimentation
Proterozoic complex
Little is known about the history of the oldest exposed rocks in the area due to extensive metamorphism; the rock has been pressure-cooked.