Dead Creek

[abraxas]

The tiny stream is thick with salt as it trickles through the lifeless canyon.

 

[abraxas]

A little -bump- before I blow out of town for a day or two.

Notes: Death Valley, Mustard Canyon area. Sunset, and no, the photo isn't tilted. The camera was level. The toppography really, really does look like that.

 

[Parkerman]

Looks pretty good to me.. Alot of color in it.

 

[Harmony]

i love the sunlight on the rocks.

could you explain to me why the stream is salty?

 

[abraxas]

Thanks Parkerman and Harmony.

This small stream, located above Mustard Canyon in Death Valley National Park was formed after minerals (salt, alkaline, borax, etc.) was deposited after an ancient lake system drained into the valley and the water evaporated. The orangish sediments, were formed over these salts as a nearby mountain eroded. As more rains (millions) eroded the canyons in the previously built bajada (broad slope) the minerals and chemicals underneath began to rise to the surface building delicate salt crystal formations. Once at the surface, salts then fall or are washed down into the crevice and the stream becomes salty.

One must be exceptonally careful walking in the hills. The rough looking formations are not strong and a 'crunching' step can destroy years of the process which may not recover in a lifetime.

What's really cool is that at the very top of the plain, there is a near-black volcanic rock-crust, indicating that there was a rain of rocks (volcanic eruption) over the surface at one (or more) time(s) after the minerals were deposited and the mountain eroded.