Zabriskie Point

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This article refers to the natural feature "Zabriskie Point" in Death Valley National Monument. For the 1970 movie, see Zabriskie Point (film); for the soundtrack album see Zabriskie Point (album).

Zabriskie Point is a section of Death Valley National Park (in the United States) noted for its strikingly beautiful erosional landscape. The terrain is referred to as badlands due to its very difficult-to-traverse topography. It is composed of sediments from Furnace Creek Lake, which dried up 5 million years ago — long before Death Valley came into existence. The landscape is in danger of being eroded away due to a nearby diversion of a water channel.^{[citation needed]}

The name Zabriskie comes from Christian Brevoort Zabriskie, who, in the early 20th century, was the vice-president and general manager of the Pacific Coast Borax Company, whose famous Twenty mule teams were used to transport borax from the company's mining operations in Death Valley.

[edit] Furnace Creek Lake

Millions of years prior to the actual sinking and widening of Death Valley and the existence of Lake Manly (see Geology of the Death Valley area), another lake covered a large portion of Death Valley including the area around Zabriskie Point. This ancient lake was here starting approximately nine million years ago. During several million years of the lake's existence, sediments were collecting at the bottom in the form of saline muds, gravels from nearby mountains, and ash falls from the then-active Black Mountain volcanic field. These sediments combined to form what we today call the Furnace Creek Formation. The climate along Furnace Creek Lake was dry but not nearly as dry as today's. Camels, mastodons, horses, carnivores, and birds left tracks in the lakeshore muds along with fossilized grass and reeds. The borate deposits which made up a large portion of Death Valley's historical past were concentrated in the lakebeds from hot spring waters and alteration of rhyolite in the nearby volcanic field. Weathering and alteration by geothermally heated waters are also responsible for the variety of colors represented there.

The growth of mountains to the west resulted in the climate becoming increasingly arid, causing the lake to dry up and creating a playa. The subsequent widening and sinking of Death Valley, combined with additional tectonic uplift of the Black Mountains, tilted the region, providing the relief necessary to accomplish the erosion that produced the badlands we see today. The dark-colored material capping the badland ridges is volcanic lava from eruptions that occurred three to five million years ago. This hard lava cap has retarded erosion in many places, and possibly explains why Manly Beacon, the high outcrop seen on the right from the scenic lookout, is much higher than other portions of the badlands. Manly Beacon was named in honor of William L. Manly, who along with John Rogers, guided ill-fated Forty-niners out of Death Valley during the California Gold Rush of 1849.

The primary source of borate minerals gathered from Death Valley's playas is Furnace Creek Formation. The Formation is made up of over 5000 feet (1500 m) of mudstone, siltstone, and conglomerate. The borates were concentrated in these lakebeds from hot spring waters and altered rhyolite from nearby volcanic fields.

[edit] Trivia

The philosopher Michel Foucault called his 1975 acid trip at Zabriskie Point the greatest experience of his life.

[edit] References

• Interpretive sign at Zabriskie Point by the National Park Service (adapted public domain text)
• USGS: Death Valley geology field trip, Harmony Borax Works