Death Valley: Geology, Ecology, Archaeology

Description

Author: Hunt, Charles B. (1906-1997)

Publisher: University of California Press

Pub Date: 1975 (First edition) and undated Sixth printing

Binding: Paperback

Condition: 2 copies.  Copy 1: Fair to Good.  Binding tight.  No marks, tears, folds.   Lower front cover corner worn.  Edge and corner wear.  Copy 2 (E): Fair.  Binding tight.  No marks, tears, bends, folds.  Wear to upper and lower front cover corners, with wear on lower corner extending to page 15.  Light edge wear.

Notes:  “Death Valley, since its beginning, has received sediments eroded from the mountains around it.  Gravity and other geophysical measurements indicate a total of 8,000 feet of fill in the valley.  Despite the large amount of fill, the rate of subsidence of the valley has been faster than the rate of filling, and the floor is now below sea level….Death Valley probably was above sea level and had exterior drainage to the Mojave River at Soda Lake…These relative positions would not have been established by extensive earth movements: about 1,500 feet of downwarping of Death Valley in 500,000 years would have sufficed, and this amount is less than the rate of displacement during the past 2,000 years….It is likely that Death Valley has only recently dropped below sea level.”  (Pages 132-133).  “Recently” being a geologically relative term.   For a comprehensive biography of Hunt, see https://www.aegweb.org/assets/docs/Hunt.pdf