This article refers to the natural feature "Zabriskie Point" in Death Valley National Monument. For the 1970 movie, see Zabriskie Point (film); for the soundtrack album see Zabriskie Point (album)

Zabriskie Point is an area in Death Valley National Park, United States, noted for its beautiful erosional landscape. It is called a badlands due to its difficult-to-traverse topography. The area is composed of sediment from Furnace Creek Lake, which dried up 5 million years ago — long before Death Valley existed. The landscape is in danger of being eroded away due to a nearby diversion of a water channel. It is named after Christian Brevoort Zabriskie of Wyoming Territory, the vice-president and general manager of the Pacific Coast Borax Company in early twentieth century. Zabriskie Point is a 1970 film by Michelangelo Antonioni that depicts the U.S. counterculture movement of that time. ... Zabriskie Point is a soundtrack album to the Michelangelo Antonioni film of the same name. ... Death Valley National Park is a mostly-arid United States National Park located east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Inyo County, California with a small extension and exclave (Devils Hole) in Nye County, Nevada. ... Severe soil erosion in a wheat field near Washington State University, USA. For erosion as understood by materials science, see Erosion (materials science) For erosion as an English analogy, see Erosion (figurative) Erosion is the displacement of solids (soil, mud, rock and other particles) by the agents of wind, water... Categories: Stub | Geology | Landforms | Alberta geography ... Death Valley and Panamint Range The salt lake at Badwater, Death Valley is the lowest point in western hemisphere. ... Christian Brevoort Zabriskie (October 16, 1864 - February 8, 1936) was an American businessman and former vice president of Pacific Coast Borax Company. ... Wyoming Territory was an organized territory of the United States that was existed from 1868 until its admission to the Union as the State of Wyoming in 1890. ... The Pacific Coast Borax Company was founded in 1890 by the American borax magnate Francis Marion Smith. ...

Zabriskie Point panorama at sunrise.

Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (3000x539, 393 KB) Panorama of 5 photos by Daniel Mayer edited using the GIMP. Photos taken on 14 April 2003 an edit of Image:Zabriskie Point-Panarama. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (3000x539, 393 KB) Panorama of 5 photos by Daniel Mayer edited using the GIMP. Photos taken on 14 April 2003 an edit of Image:Zabriskie Point-Panarama. ...

Zabriskie Point late-morning, December 2006.

Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (3659x1053, 1527 KB) This is a three-photo panoramic image of Zabriskie Point, Death Valley, California taken and uploaded by the photographer, Jlkramer 15:40, 12 February 2007 (UTC). ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (3659x1053, 1527 KB) This is a three-photo panoramic image of Zabriskie Point, Death Valley, California taken and uploaded by the photographer, Jlkramer 15:40, 12 February 2007 (UTC). ...

Furnace Creek Lake

Millions of years prior to the actual sinking and widening of Death Valley and the existence of Lake Manly (see Geology of the Death Valley area), another lake covered a large portion of Death Valley including the area around Zabriskie Point. This ancient lake was here starting approximately nine million years ago. During several million years of the lake's existence, sediments were collecting at the bottom in the form of saline muds, gravels from nearby mountains, and ashfalls from the then-active Black Mountain volcanic field. These sediments combined to form what we today call the Furnace Creek Formation. The climate along Furnace Creek Lake was dry but not nearly as dry as today's. Camels, mastodons, horses, carnivores, and birds left tracks in the lakeshore muds along with fossilized grass and reeds. Borates which made up a large degree of Death Valley's historical past were concentrated in the lakebeds from hot spring waters and alteration of rhyolite in the nearby volcanic field. Weathering and alteration by thermal waters are also responsible for the variety of colors represented there. The Lake Manly lake system as it might have looked during its last maximum extent 22,000 years ago. ... The exposed geology of the Death Valley area presents a diverse and complex story that includes at least 23 formations of sedimentary units, two major gaps in the geologic record called unconformities, and at least one distinct set of related formations geologists call groups. ... A man-made lake in Keukenhof, Netherlands A lake is a body of water or other liquid of considerable size surrounded by land. ... In computer gaming, a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon or Domain or Dimension) is a multi-player computer game that combines elements of role-playing games, hack and slash style computer games and social chat rooms. ... Gravel being unloaded from a barge Gravel is rock that is of a certain grain size range. ... Lyskamm in the Pennine Alps (4,527 m) A mountain is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain in a limited area. ... Ash plume from Mt Cleveland, a stratovolcano Diamond Head, a well-known backdrop to Waikiki in Hawaii, is an ash cone that solidified into tuff Volcanic ash consists of very fine rock and mineral particles less than 2 mm in diameter that are ejected from a volcanic vent. ... Species Camelus bactrianus Camelus dromedarius Camels are even-toed ungulates in the genus Camelus. ... Mastodons or Mastodonts are members of the extinct genus Mammut of the order Proboscidea and form the family Mammutidae; they resembled, but were distinct from, the woolly mammoth which belongs to the family Elephantidae. ... Binomial name Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758 The horse (Equus caballus, sometimes seen as a subspecies of the Wild Horse, Equus ferus caballus) is a large odd-toed ungulate mammal, one of ten modern species of the genus Equus. ... This tigers sharp teeth and strong jaws are the classical physical traits expected from carnivorous mammalian predators A carnivore (IPA: ), meaning meat eater (Latin carne meaning flesh and vorare meaning to devour), is an animal that eats a diet consisting mainly of meat, whether it comes from live animals... Aves redirects here. ... Three small ammonite fossils, each approximately 1. ... Caution: Grass should never be eaten For other uses, see Grass (disambiguation). ... species Pragmites australis Reed is a generic term used to describe numerous plants including: Common Reed (Phragmites australis Cav. ... Borates in chemistry are chemical compounds containing boron bonded to three oxygen atoms written as B(OR)3. ... Green Dragon Spring at Norris Geyser A hot spring is a place where warm or hot groundwater issues from the ground on a regular basis for at least a predictable part of the year, and is significantly above the ambient ground temperature (which is usually around 55~57 F or... Rhyolite This page is about a volcanic rock. ...

Regional mountains building to the west influenced the climate to become more and more arid, causing the lake to dry up — creating a playa. Subsequent widening and sinking of Death Valley and the additional uplift of today's Black Mountains tilted the area. This provided the necessary relief to accomplish the erosion that produced the badlands we see today. The dark-colored material capping the badland ridges slightly to your left is lava from eruptions that occurred three to five million years ago. This hard lava cap has retarded erosion in many places and possibly explains why Manly Beacon, the high outcrop seen on the right when at the scenic lookout, is much higher than other portions of the badlands. Manly Beacon was named in honor of William L. Manly, who along with John Rogers, guided members of the ill-fated Forty-niners out of Death Valley during the gold rush of 1849. An arid environment has a high precipitation deficit, receiving much less precipitation annually than would satisfy the climatological demand for evaporation and transpiration. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with salt pan (geology). ... The Chinle Badlands at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. ... Look up lava, Aa, pahoehoe in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Severe soil erosion in a wheat field near Washington State University, USA. For erosion as understood by materials science, see Erosion (materials science) For erosion as an English analogy, see Erosion (figurative) Erosion is the displacement of solids (soil, mud, rock and other particles) by the agents of wind, water...

The primary source of borate minerals gathered from Death Valley's playas is Furnace Creek Formation. The Formation is made up of over 5000 feet (1500 m) of mudstone, siltstone, and conglomerate. The borates were concentrated in these lakebeds from hot spring waters and altered rhyolite from nearby volcanic fields. Borates in chemistry are chemical compounds containing boron bonded to three oxygen atoms written as B(OR)3. ... Rhyolite This page is about a volcanic rock. ...

Trivia

The philosopher Michel Foucault called his 1975 acid trip at Zabriskie Point the greatest experience of his life. Michel Foucault (IPA pronunciation: ; English-speakers pronunciation varies) (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher and historian. ...

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Zabriskie Point

• Interpretive sign at Zabriskie Point by the National Park Service (adapted public domain text)
• USGS: Death Valley geology field trip, Harmony Borax Works