Cal Poly Geology Club Death Valley Field Trip â 2004

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features in Furnace Creek Wash. To the east, across Furnace Creek Wash,Proterozoic - Paleozoic rocks of the Funeral Mountains are present. TheFurnace Creek fault zone marks the boundary between the markedly dissimilarlithologies of the Funeral and Black Mountains.Return to your vehicles and turn right (south) on CA 190.58.0 (7.1) Turn right on Furnace Creek Wash Road.61.5 (3.5) Stop on the right shoulder of the road (Sigma Mine) (STOP 7).The Sigma Mine marks themost recent surface miningventure in Furnace CreekWash. Little has beenpublished on the property.The deposit lies twokilometers east of Ryan andnorth of the Boraxo Mine(see write-up). It was a jointventure of Tennaco and U.S.Borax. The borate horizondips 5-15° to the northeast,has a strike length of 600meters and down dip width of 300 meters. Average thickness is 20 meters.The ore is similar to that of the Boraxo Mine, a mixture of colemanite andulexite-probertite. Host rocks appear to be limy mudstones of the FurnaceCreek Formation.Continue south on Furnace Creek Wash Road.65.5 (4.0) Fork in the road; continue on the paved road to Dante’s View.71.2 (5.7) Dante’s View parking area (STOP 8).Dante's View provides aspectacular look at DeathValley's remarkablescenery. From this vantagepoint you can viewTelescope Peak (11,049feet) to the west in thePanamint Range as well asBadwater, the lowest point(-282 ft.) in the WesternHemisphere. Thisdifference in elevation is astaggering 11,331 feet —
the greatest topographic relief in the conterminous U.S. This strikingtopography is a product of Death Valley's very active tectonism. The entireregion has been pulled apart, fracturing the crust and creating large faults.Along these roughly north-south-trending faults mountains have uplifted andvalleys down-dropped, producing the distinctive alternating pattern of linearmountain ranges and valleys of the Basin and Range province.The floor of Death Valley tilts gently eastward. From here, one can see that thealluvial fans on the west side of the valley are far larger than on the east side.This difference results partly from the eastward tilting of the valley floor. Onthe west side, alluvial material spreads laterally and extends far onto the valleyfloor because it accumulates on a surface that is gently inclined away from therange; on the east side, the material becomes trapped near the mountain frontbecause it accumulates on a surface that is inclined gently towards themountains.This eastward tilting of the Black Mountains, the Panamint Range, and the floorDeath Valley typifies much of the Basin and Range Province. Through crustalextension, the region broke into a series of tilted fault blocks. In general, theseblocks tilted away from the faults along which they rose and towards the faultsalong which they sank.Make the long trek back down (north) Furnace Creek Wash to the T-intersection across from Furnace Creek Inn.95.1 (23.9) Turn left (south) on the Badwater Road.103.7 (8.6) Turn left into the one-way Artist’s Drive (STOP 9). Time permitting me willmake the 8.8 mile drive along Artist’s Drive. There are numerous stops andoverlooks.The winding, one-way, Artist’sDrive leads you up to the scarpof the Black Mountains.Artist’s Drive rises up to thetop of an alluvial fan fed by adeep canyon cut into themountain. As you make yourway up to the mountain facethe roadway will rise and dipon the undulating surface ofthe alluvial fan. The narrowroad runs high up onto the fan,with striking views of thebarren floor of Death Valley inthe distance.The face of the Black Mountains along Artist’s Drive is made up of themulticolored rock of the Artist Drive Formation. Pink, green, purple, brown,
Page 1 and 2: Cal Poly Geology ClubDeath Valley F
Page 3 and 4: If you've had a geology course prev
Page 5 and 6: strike slip faults are the Death Va
Page 7 and 8: MileageDeath Valley Field Trip Road
Page 9: Borax production began in late 1883
Page 13 and 14: flanking deposits of mud and sand h
Page 15 and 16: Noble to the extent that he identif
Page 17 and 18: 29.5 (1.2) Turn right (west) on Fur
Page 19 and 20: Keane Wonder MineWestern mining bri
Page 21 and 22: quartzites of the Wood Canyon Forma
Page 23 and 24: Harmony Borax Works - Twenty Mule T
Page 25 and 26: was chief cook and dishwasher.When
Page 27: It is generally thought that borate
Page 30 and 31: Commercial talc falls into four cat
Page 32 and 33: Figure 3. Geology of a portion of t
Page 34 and 35: War Eagle MineThe War Eagle Mine is
Page 36 and 37: GeologyThe mine workings lie entire

Cal Poly Geology Club Death Valley Field Trip â 2004

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Cal Poly Geology Club Death Valley Field Trip â 2004