Ubehebe Crater
This panorama encompasses almost the entire bowl of the crater, which is in the far northern reaches of Death Valley, California. The crater itself is 800m wide and 200m deep. It is the largest of a dozen craters in the immediate vicinity - others can be seen in the upper-left background.
All of the craters were formed during a series of explosions set off as molten rock (magma) rising toward the Earth’s surface flashed groundwater to steam (phreatic eruption). Although very little magma actually erupted during these events, the explosive magma-water interaction blasted pulverised rock high into the air. Debris from the explosions blankets about 40 square kilometres. The ages of these explosions are not known precisely, but the largest in the series may be as recent as 800 years ago, although c.6,000 years ago seems more likely.
Just beyond where the multiple layers in the crater wall end on the left, several parked vehicles can be seen on the rim. Between them they give a good sense of scale.
Death Valley National Park straddles the California-Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada, and occupies an interface zone between the arid Great Basin and Mojave deserts, protecting the north-west corner of the Mojave Desert and its diverse environment. Death Valley is the largest national park (13,650 sq km) in the lower 48 states, and the hottest, driest and lowest of all the national parks in the United States. The second-lowest point in the Western Hemisphere is in Badwater Basin, which is 86m below sea level and 105 km south of the location above.
Approximately 91% of the park is a designated wilderness area. The park is home to many species of plants and animals that have adapted to this harsh desert environment. Some examples include creosote bush, bighorn sheep, coyote, and the Death Valley pupfish, a survivor from much wetter times. UNESCO included Death Valley as the principal feature of its Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve in 1984.
A series of Native American groups inhabited the area from as early as 7,000 BC, most recently the Timbisha around 1,000 AD who migrated between winter camps in the valleys and summer grounds in the mountains. A group of European-Americans, trapped in the valley in 1849 while looking for a shortcut to the gold fields of California, gave the valley its name, even though only one of their group died there. Several short-lived boom towns sprang up during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to mine gold and silver. The only long-term profitable ore to be mined was borax, which was transported out of the valley with 20-mule teams.
The valley later became the subject of books, radio programmes, television series, and movies. Tourism expanded in the 1920s when resorts were built around Stovepipe Wells and Furnace Creek. Death Valley National Monument was declared in 1933; it was substantially expanded and became a national park in 1994.
The natural environment of the area has been shaped largely by its geology. The valley is actually a graben with the oldest rocks being extensively metamorphosed and at least 1.7 billion years old. Ancient, warm, shallow seas deposited marine sediments until rifting opened the Pacific Ocean. Additional sedimentation occurred until a subduction zone formed off the coast. The subduction uplifted the region out of the sea and created a line of volcanoes. Later the crust started to pull apart, creating the current Basin and Range landform. Valleys filled with sediment and, during the wet times of glacial periods, with lakes, such as Lake Manly.
In 2013, Death Valley National Park was designated as a dark sky park by the International Dark-Sky Association.
The word Ubehebe is Native American in origin and means "big basket in the rock." The image above is a two-frame panorama. Both images were scanned from negatives and then worked on in Lightroom and Photoshop. An earlier, cruder, mono version of this image can be found in my stream.
Ubehebe Crater
This panorama encompasses almost the entire bowl of the crater, which is in the far northern reaches of Death Valley, California. The crater itself is 800m wide and 200m deep. It is the largest of a dozen craters in the immediate vicinity - others can be seen in the upper-left background.
All of the craters were formed during a series of explosions set off as molten rock (magma) rising toward the Earth’s surface flashed groundwater to steam (phreatic eruption). Although very little magma actually erupted during these events, the explosive magma-water interaction blasted pulverised rock high into the air. Debris from the explosions blankets about 40 square kilometres. The ages of these explosions are not known precisely, but the largest in the series may be as recent as 800 years ago, although c.6,000 years ago seems more likely.
Just beyond where the multiple layers in the crater wall end on the left, several parked vehicles can be seen on the rim. Between them they give a good sense of scale.
Death Valley National Park straddles the California-Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada, and occupies an interface zone between the arid Great Basin and Mojave deserts, protecting the north-west corner of the Mojave Desert and its diverse environment. Death Valley is the largest national park (13,650 sq km) in the lower 48 states, and the hottest, driest and lowest of all the national parks in the United States. The second-lowest point in the Western Hemisphere is in Badwater Basin, which is 86m below sea level and 105 km south of the location above.
Approximately 91% of the park is a designated wilderness area. The park is home to many species of plants and animals that have adapted to this harsh desert environment. Some examples include creosote bush, bighorn sheep, coyote, and the Death Valley pupfish, a survivor from much wetter times. UNESCO included Death Valley as the principal feature of its Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve in 1984.
A series of Native American groups inhabited the area from as early as 7,000 BC, most recently the Timbisha around 1,000 AD who migrated between winter camps in the valleys and summer grounds in the mountains. A group of European-Americans, trapped in the valley in 1849 while looking for a shortcut to the gold fields of California, gave the valley its name, even though only one of their group died there. Several short-lived boom towns sprang up during the late 19th and early 20th centuries to mine gold and silver. The only long-term profitable ore to be mined was borax, which was transported out of the valley with 20-mule teams.
The valley later became the subject of books, radio programmes, television series, and movies. Tourism expanded in the 1920s when resorts were built around Stovepipe Wells and Furnace Creek. Death Valley National Monument was declared in 1933; it was substantially expanded and became a national park in 1994.
The natural environment of the area has been shaped largely by its geology. The valley is actually a graben with the oldest rocks being extensively metamorphosed and at least 1.7 billion years old. Ancient, warm, shallow seas deposited marine sediments until rifting opened the Pacific Ocean. Additional sedimentation occurred until a subduction zone formed off the coast. The subduction uplifted the region out of the sea and created a line of volcanoes. Later the crust started to pull apart, creating the current Basin and Range landform. Valleys filled with sediment and, during the wet times of glacial periods, with lakes, such as Lake Manly.
In 2013, Death Valley National Park was designated as a dark sky park by the International Dark-Sky Association.
The word Ubehebe is Native American in origin and means "big basket in the rock." The image above is a two-frame panorama. Both images were scanned from negatives and then worked on in Lightroom and Photoshop. An earlier, cruder, mono version of this image can be found in my stream.