There
is ample parking at the end of a short unpaved gravel road. All
cars should be able to reach the parking lot in dry weather. A
boardwalk is provided to explore the Salt Creek area so please
remain on the boardwalk.
As with all locations in National Parks, everything is
protected, so leave it as you found it.
Salt Creek is a perennial stream that begins a little north of
the coordinates and disappears south of the parking lot. As the
name implies, the water is quite salty having picked up minerals
from rocks upstream. West of the parking lot, the water evaporates
or percolates back down into the ground, leaving salts at the
surface. So, why does the groundwater come to the surface in this
area?
To answer that, we need to take a look at the environment five
to six million years ago. This is long before Death Valley and
formed and the often mentioned
Lake Manly. An even older lake filled the basin depositing
thick layers of silt and clay. These sediments were later buried
and turned to rock creating the Miocene Furnace Creek
Formation.
Through the tectonic events the affected the region, including
the stretching that formed the Basin and Range Province (see
Dante's View) and the Badwater Basin, the Furnace Creek
Formation was folded and faulted. In this area, the thick
impermeable sediments are warped up into an anticline (rocks folded
in an “A” shape). Upstream, the impermeable sediments
begin to rise up from deep underground and a fault cuts through the
area. Beyond the fault is a thick layer of highly permeable
alluvium. To the east of parking lot, the Furnace Creek Formation
dives back down into the ground and the surface returns to alluvial
sediments. The area of Salt Creek is at the top of the
anticline.
Groundwater flowing through the alluvium upstream encounters the
fault and impermeable sediments and are forced up to the surface.
The water then flows over the apex of the fold staying on top of
the impermeable lake sediments of the Furnace Creek Formation. As
the water flows back over alluvium, the creek water percolates back
down into the ground.
Logging requirements:
Send me a note with:
- The text "GC2VG9H Salt Creek – Why is it here?" on the
first line
- The number (including non-cachers) and names of the geocachers
in your group.
- Based on the informational sign, what animals frequented the
ancient lake that deposited the Furnace Creek Formation?
- Looking at the cliff face behind the informational sign, how
steeply inclined, and in what direction are the layers of the
Furnace Creek Formation tilting? li>
The following sources were used to generate this
cache:
- Spear, Steven G. Ph.D., 2009, Death Velley
Geology, A Field Guide and Virtual Tour of the Geology of Death
Velly National Park and Environs, California and Nevada, Last
Updated: August 25, 2009
http://www.palomar.edu/geology/DVWeb.htm
- Snow, J. Kent, and Daniel R. Lux,
Tectono-sequence stratigraphy of Tertiary rocks in the Cottonwood
Mountains and north Death Valley area, California and Nevada, in
Cenozoic Basins of the Death Valley Region, The Geological Society
of America, Special Paper 333, Lauren A Wright and Bennie W. Troxel
eds. 1999