Death Valley National Park preserves the lowest-elevation, hottest piece of the US. The valley floor dropped downward by 2 miles relative to the mountain peaks, after groundwater dissolved caves under the valley and the roof of the caves collapsedĢ. The valley floor dropped downward along earthquake faults by more than 2 miles relative to the mountain peaks but rocks eroded from the peaks have been carried down and deposited in the valley, so that the vertical distance from valley to peaks is now only 2 milesĮ. The peaks once towered more than 2 miles above the valley but the valley floor has been raised by lava shoving it up from belowĭ. The valley was once filled with a giant lake of coffee and early miners collected that coffee and hoarded it so they could sell it to Congress under an exclusive licensing agreementĬ. The valley was carved 2 miles deep by a prehistoric glacier, much in the same way that glaciers carved the incomparable valley of Yosemiteī. How did this immense difference in elevation come about?Ī. If you took your helicopter and landed on a mountain peak next to Death Valley, then took off and flew at exactly that mountain peak in elevation out over the valley, and lowered a rope to a person standing on the floor of the valley, you would find that you would need a two mile long rope to reach the valley floor.
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