Death Valley National Park D While these extremes are remarkable the combination of eath Valley is a region of extremes to which the phrase hottest driest lowest is often applied A temperature of 134 F 57 C was recorded there in 1913 and that remains the hottest official temperature ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere The valley floor of Death Valley averages just 2 inches 5 cm of precipitation per year while the potential evaporation rate is 150 inches 381 cm per year Death Valley’s lowest point in Badwater Basin is 282 feet 85 5 m below sea level making it the lowest point in North America geological factors that created this parched otherworldly region is equally unique Death Valley is located in the northwestern corner of the Mojave Desert which is situated in the western portion of the Great Basin region Many millions of years ago the region featured tropical forests and shallow seas and as little as about 20,000 years ago during ice ages large lakes were present Aside from global climate change Death Valley’s transformation into a desert was largely caused by the formation of the Sierra Nevada mountain range just west of the region About 25 million years ago an enormous chunk of Earth’s crust broke loose near what is now eastern California This section of earth began to tilt and its eastern edge contin ually rose for millions of years reaching heights of more than 14,000 feet 4,267 m The high elevation of this mountain range which runs gener ally north and south created a large rain shadow to the east where the Mojave Desert now lies Badwater Basin is so named because the basin has a small pool of spring-fed water that is salty and therefore bad or undrinkable 10
Preserving America A rain shadow is caused when air or weather systems which typically move from west to east meet mountains For the air to con tinue eastward it must rise to clear the land As the air rises the colder temperatures of the higher elevations cause moisture in the air to condense and fall as rain or snow By the time the weather system passes over the mountains it has lost all or nearly all of its moisture and the land for many miles beyond the mountains will be almost completely lacking in precipitation and humidity Death Valley is at the western edge of the rain shadow created by the Sierra Nevadas and in between that moisture-blocking wall and Death Valley’s lowlands are the Panamint Mountains which further wring out what little moisture may sneak past the Sierra Nevadas Although usually short-lived shallow water pools can add to Death Valley’s beauty this pool reflects the Panamint Mountains
