Friday, July 3, 2009

Friday Field Photos: Looking down on some Alluvial Fans

Once again, I have a few field photos from Great Basin National Park - this time of alluvial fans as seen looking down from about 12,000 feet on the shoulder of Wheeler Peak. For general setting, I'm standing on the Snake Range of eastern Nevada, looking west into and across Spring Valley (a valley from which Las Vegas has received permission to pump water). The dark blue mountain range across Spring Valley is the Schell Creek Range, the light blue mountain range behind the Schell Creek Range is part of the Egan Range south of Ward Mountain, and the pale turquoise range in the far distance behind the Egan Range is the high part of the White Pine Range.
Fans! These fans appear to be upside down, more or less, with the perennial streams flowing away from us toward farms and ranches north of Baking Powder Flat. The view is centered near the junction of Pine and Ridge Creeks, south and north (left and right), respectively.
A closer view of the alluvial fans, looking down on the area between 6000 and 7500 feet.
Bonus: A raven soars just off the flank of Wheeler Peak, with the sand dunes of Baking Powder Flat in the valley below.

2 comments:

Dr. Jerque said...

Thanks for posting the photos! I love Spring Valley...taught UNR field camp in that area for 6 years (below Osceola) looking at the wide array of fans and the intriguing shoreline deposit assemblages. Check out the north end of the valley in GE to see a fantastic array of shorelines. Clark County may turn this beautiful valley into Nevada's own Owens Valley in a few decades.

Silver Fox said...

Thanks for letting me know about the Google Earth shorelines.

I also noticed from up above that Osceola looks pretty large. From an exploration standpoint (gold), it's too bad that it's not worth banging around the area much - other than to possibly learn where else to find something in very old rocks. (Unless the hardrock source entirely eroded away into the placer deposits!)