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2008_DeathValley_197

Artist's Palette Formation in the Badwater Basin. / A Művész Palettája képződmény a Badwater medencében. A színes csíkok vulkáni működés következtében felszínre került és oxidálódott ércek.

 

Driving in the Badwater Basin, Death Valley National Park, California, United States. We visited the place in June 2008, during our big Southwestern roadtrip.

 

Képek az autóból a Death Valley Nemzeti Parkban, Kaliforniában. A parkba nyugatról hajtottunk be, az ottani érdekességek után keletre és délre haladtunk a látnivalókon sorban, és délkeleten hagytuk el a parkot. Nagy délnyugati kirándulásunk alkalmával jártunk itt, 2008. júniusában.

 

Artist's Drive rises up to the top of an alluvial fan fed by a deep canyon cut into the Black Mountains. Artist's Palette is an area on the face of the Black Mountains noted for a variety of rock colors. These colors are caused by the oxidation of different metals (iron compounds produce red, pink and yellow, decomposition of tuff-derived mica produces green, and manganese produces purple). Called the Artist Drive Formation, the rock unit provides evidence for one of the Death Valley area's most violently explosive volcanic periods. The Miocene-aged formation is made up of cemented gravel, playa deposits, and volcanic debris, perhaps 5,000 feet (1500 m) thick. Chemical weathering and hydrothermal alteration cause the oxidation and other chemical reactions that produce the variety of colors displayed in the Artist Drive Formation and nearby exposures of the Furnace Creek Formation.

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Uploaded on September 4, 2008
Taken on June 27, 2008