Key Facts about Death Valley

About Death Valley:

• It is a desert valley located in the southeastern part of California, United States.
• It is the lowest, hottest, and driest portion of the North American continent. 
• It covers an area of 7,800 sq. km. It is estimated that about 1,425 sq. km of the floor of the valley is located below sea level. 
• It is a rift valley or a graben that has been formed due to the sinking of a huge expanse of rock located between major block-faulted mountains running parallelly in the east and west.
• It lies intheGreat Basin to the east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in the northern part of the Mojave Desert.
• The Death Valley constitutes a major part of the Death Valley National Park as well as the Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve.
• It is bounded by the Grapevine, Funeral, and the Black Mountains of the Amargosa Range on the east and the Panamint and the Cottonwood Mountains of the Panamint Range on the west.
• The Valley features a diverse landscape that includes mountain peaks, canyons, sand dunes, salt flats, badlands, and volcanic craters.
• Portions of the great salt pan that forms part of the floor of the valley are the lowest land areas of the Americas.
• Located in the heart of the Death Valley National Park is an endorheic basin known as the Badwater Basin, is the lowest area in North America.
• Highest point: Telescope Peak (3,366m) located in Panamint Range.

Q1: What is a rift valley?

A rift valley is a lowland region that forms where Earth’s tectonic plates move apart, or rift. Rift valleys are found on land and at the bottom of the ocean, where they are created by the process of seafloor spreading. Rift valleys differ from river valleys and glacial valleys in that they are created by tectonic activity and not the process of erosion.

Source: Death Valley Ultramarathon: Runners Set Off In 'Toughest Foot Race In World' - Check Pics