Death Valley
Hottest, driest, lowest national park in the United States.
Last updated
via Wikipedia: Death Valley National Park · see source
Among all US national parks, Death Valley ranks fifth in size, and it holds the title of the biggest such park within the contiguous United States.[1] North America's lowest elevation, Badwater Basin, sits 282 feet below sea level and lies within the park.[2] A designated wilderness area covers over 93 percent of the park's total acreage.[3]
Geography and history
Death Valley and Panamint Valley, the two principal valleys in the park, originated within the past several million years and are flanked by mountain ranges that run north to south.[4] Starting as early as 7000 BC, various Native American groups occupied the region; the most recent were the Timbisha, who arrived around 1000 AD.[5] The valley received its forbidding name from a party of European-Americans who became lost there in 1849, though just one member of that group perished.[5] In 1881, borax was discovered near The Ranch at Death Valley, and the Eagle Borax Works commenced operations that same year as the valley's first commercial borax enterprise.[4]
The International Dark-Sky Association granted Death Valley National Park the status of a dark sky park in 2013.[1]
What the cited sources add
The NBC News account describes the valley as a deep bowl about 156 miles long, created when great plates of earth pushed apart, dropping the valley floor 292 feet below sea level.[6] The same source notes that the depression works like a convection oven, recirculating hot air and making the valley one of the hottest places on earth, with ground-level temperatures that can reach 200 degrees in summer.[6] The USGS account states that the Mojave River flowed northward and merged with the Amargosa River before spilling into Lake Manley, the ancient lake that filled Death Valley.[7] The NBC News report says that winter storms in 2005 dropped 6 inches of rain on the desert, three times more than usual, encouraging wildflower seeds to sprout.[6]
The same report quotes a park ranger saying Death Valley had not seen such a wide array of flowers in about 50 years.[6]
References
- Wikipedia, "Death Valley National Park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "National Park Service Acreage Reports", National Park Service, December 31, 2021; "Death Valley National Park (U.S.)", darksky.org, n.d. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Death Valley National Park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Death Valley National Park (U.S. National Park Service)", National Park Service (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Death Valley National Park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Backcountry Roads – Death Valley National Park", National Park Service, August 25, 2019 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Death Valley National Park" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Death Valley National Park" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dotson, "Research Guides: National Parks: Death Valley National Park", guides.osu.edu (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- "Death Valles Alive with Wildflowers", NBC News, March 14, 2005. facts only, no text reused. nbcnews.com
- "USGS Changing Climates and Ancient Lakes", USGS Western Region Geology and Geophysics Science Center, December 18, 2009. facts only, no text reused. pubs.usgs.gov
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Death Valley National Park (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
More in US National Parks
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Death Valley National Park (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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