Saturday, March 1, 2008

Where in the West - March

looking west

looking east

This mountain--seen here from both sides, the east and the west--can be viewed easily from a major road, and is well known for a particular geologic feature. There's a kind of fractal quality to the western "foothills" and alluvial fans, which I find interesting, and which show up well with a low sun angle.

6 comments:

McMoots said...

Is it cheating to answer "Basin and Range"?

Silver Fox said...

Well, that narrows it down some! Did you have any particular part of the B+R in mind? It does run all the way from Canada into Mexico!

MOH already knows the answer, but isn't responding - too busy working! I'll wait a bit before offering up any more clues.

Garry Hayes said...

I am guessing that it might be Fairview Peak, site of the big earthquakes of 1958? One of my first field trips as a graduate student at UNR was in camping in the region...in February (!). The scarps are spectacular, and so is the scenery

Silver Fox said...

Yes, we have a winner! It's Fairview Peak, site of the 1958 earthquakes. You can drive here by heading east on Highway 50 from Fallon, NV, going past Sand Mountain, and through the south end of Dixie Valley. Access to the scarps by dirt road is marked with a sign, "Earthquake Faults."

And I wouldn't really recommend camping in the area in February! Was this another Slemmon's field trip? E.R. Larsen, back in his day, was famous for having very rough and cold campsites on some of his Geology of Nevada field trips.

Garry Hayes said...

It was indeed a D.B. Slemmons field trip! We were blessed with decent weather, but it was still plenty cold out there.

Silver Fox said...

An Update: The earthquake was in December, 1954. Oops!