Tag Archives: geology

Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature

Desert Pinnacles

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Desert PInnacles
Tufa pinnacles in the middle of a vast desert valley.

Desert Pinnacles. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Tufa pinnacles in the middle of a vast desert valley.

These lonely tufa tower pinnacles stand alone in the middle of a very large Southern California desert valley. If you passed on the nearby highway and did not know they were there you could easily overlook them — though when you do spot them they make a striking sight.

Beyond their austere and striking visual appeal, they also provide evidence of the remarkable ways that the landscape formed. Despite being in a location which today seems about as arid and unforgiving as you can imagine, they were formed by water. This entire basin was filled with a lake a long time ago, and the towers grew around submerged springs. When the lake disappeared the towers remained.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Strata

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Strata
Sort morning light illumnates rugged desert strata

Strata. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Soft morning light illumnates rugged desert strata.

Desert landscapes can have an almost surreal quality, with features that are close to unbelievable. (I suspect that this happens in most landscapes, but the “barren” desert reveals them more clearly.) The landscape is laid bard, and we get a clear view of eroded features, twisted rock strata, contrasting colors produced by layers of different materials.

In certain places, in the right light, the contests and patterns become even more striking. This is one of those locations, and it was a day with that kind of light. These eroded hills are threaded with both very light and very dark strata, sometimes directly juxtaposed. On this morning the low-angle, directional light was softened a bit by high clouds.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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Photographs: Death Valley, Photographs: Desert, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Southern California

Layered Rock Face

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Layered Rock Face
Rock layers lie exposed on a cliff in a quiet desert canyon.

Layered Rock Face. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Rock layers lie exposed on a cliff in a quiet desert canyon.

On this trip we arrived in Death Valley in the late morning. Midday in the desert is not necessarily a great time to be out in the open, especially on a windy day like this one, so I often head for canyons to find better light and shelter. We took a side road into a quite canyon that doesn’t get a lot of visitors, mainly with the idea of finding a sheltered place to eat lunch and rest a bit after our drive.

We relaxed and finished lunch, and then began to pay more attention to nearby photographic opportunities. Up the canyon was an incredibly barren and rugged landscape, but nearly there were smaller features that seemed quite attractive. We found some canyon plants that were blooming, so we spent some time photographing wildflowers. Across the narrow canyon from our position was this bit of fascinating canyon wall, where old sedimentary layers had been uplifted and then eroded away to created this terraced effect.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Sierra Nevada

Patterned Cliff Face, Detail

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Patterned Cliff Face, Detail
A small section of shaded Sierra Nevada cliff reveals remarkable details of dikes, fractures, color, and stains

Patterned Cliff Face, Detail. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A small section of shaded Sierra Nevada cliff reveals remarkable details of dikes, fractures, color, and stains

Most often when I think of large rocky faces in the Sierra Nevada, the clean, smooth, and almost uniform faces of Yosemite granite come to mind — large expanses of nearly unbroken rock shaped by glaciers. However, when I get into the high country and the other areas of the range I am reminded that things aren’t quite so simple. In places you can find mountains cut through by giant dikes of non-granite rock, or you might encounter the remnants of more ancient layers that lay above the granite intrusions and today give us red, black and other colors of material.

Since I’m no geologist, I can’t explain the details of the face in this photograph, but I can share a few observations. It is the headwall of a high bowl that contains a subalpine lake, and the area does show signs of glaciation. The fact is gigantic, and this is just a small section. It is far from uniform, with mostly gray rock cut through by thick intrusions of lighter material, and the whole thing cracked and fractured. In many places the surface has been deeply stained as water has flowed or seeped across it.

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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.