Dried mud formations at Death Valley National Park, CA
About this photograph
- Creator
- Margery H. Freeman
- Date created
- Unknown
- Location
- Death Valley, California
- License
- This photograph copyright ©2009. All Rights Reserved
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- Search LEARN NC for ancient sea, ancient sea bed, arid, badlands, Badwater Basin, California, Death Valley, Death Valley National Park, deserts, dried mud, dry, erosion, lowest point, mountains, national parks, rain, rainstorm, salt, salt flats, sand dunes, sedimentary, and volcanic.
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Dried mud formations in the dunes at Death Valley National Park, California. These patterns were formed when an ancient lake bed dried up and cracked. Animals will sometimes bury under the edge of the mud to create a cool burrow with a roof beneath the hot sand.
Death Valley National Park is located east of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. It is home to the lowest point in North America at Badwater, which is 282 feet below sea level, but it also encompasses parts of several mountain ranges. Its highest point is Telescope Peak, at 11,049 feet. Located in an rainshadow exaggerated by the presence of four major mountain ranges between it and the ocean, Death Valley receives less than two inches of rainfall a year and is famous as one of the hottest and driest places in North America. Summer temperatures often hover around 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
