HW5: Death Valley Read Chapter 48, then answer the following questions: 1. Why i
ID: 231604 • Letter: H
Question
HW5: Death Valley Read Chapter 48, then answer the following questions: 1. Why is Death Valley such an arid place? 2. In 1849, the first people of European descent entered Death Valley did so because ________________________________ 3. What are the three types of faults that you can find in Death Valley? 4. What are “detachment surfaces”? 5. What is a metamorphic core complex? 6. What type of depositional environment must have existed in Death Valley from late Paleozoic to early Mesozoic time, when a 20,000-ft thick section of limestone and dolomite rocks was deposited? 7. No sedimentary rocks of Jurassic through Eocene age have been found in the park. What geologic process(es) was/were operating along western N. America during this period? 8. What are the main sources of fresh water today in Death Valley? What geologic features would the water come out of? 9. What animal would you find in some of these water bodies?
Explanation / Answer
1. Winter storms that move inland from pacific storms must pass over four mountain ranges to continue eastwards and reach Death Valley. As clouds rise up they cool and moisture condenses to fall as rain or snow on the western side of the mountain ranges. The four mountain ranges before Death valley recieve lesser rainfall on the western side as the clouds move eastwards creating a dry rainshadow effect. Hence, Death Valley is arid.
2. In 1849, the first European descendants entered Death Valley in an attempt to crossover and reach the Gold fields of California hoping for a better life.
3. a) Right lateral strike slip, b) Oblique slip c) Normal fault.
4. Detachment surfaces are low angle normal faults formed due to gravitational instability of an uplifted block, along which there is a considerable horizontal displacement.
5. Metamorphic core complexes are exposures of deep crust exhumed in association with largely amagmatic extension. They form, and are exhumed, through relatively fast transport of middle and lower continental crust to the Earth's surface. During this process, high-grade metamorphic rocks (eclogite-, granulite- to amphibolite- facies) are exposed below low-angle detachment faults (mylonite shear zones) that show ductile deformation on the lower side (footwall) with amphibolite- to greenschist-facies syndeformational metamorphism, and ductile-brittle to brittle deformation on the upper-side (hanging-wall) with tilted geometries.
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