I haven't done a Where in the West since March, so no doubt everyone's forgotten all about it!This month's Where in the West is, as usual, somewhere in the western part of the United States. Some of you have been there - I know that for sure - and so have I, as documented by the photo. Where is this place? Can you name any of the geologic, geomorphologic, and geographic features?
Remember: click to enlarge the photo, in case that helps.
13 comments:
It's a topographic sink.
Ah yes, but *where* is it?
I haven't been there in five years or so, but it looks something like the Wah Wah Valley in Utah - playas, pluvial lakes and a couple of spits left over from Lake Bonneville.
(If it is Wah Wah, anyway - I could have the wrong playa!)
Not Wah Wah - I haven't been there!
My Guess. Right or wrong, I'll have you know I've burnt several hour with this... but it was fun, and I may be marginally more proficient with GoogleEarth now.
Silver Fox - I'm just taking a bad stab in the dark, late at night after getting the 5-yr-old to bed (after a long day, blah blah blah), and I'm wondering if it might be looking north with the Snake Ranges on the right and the Schell Ck range on the left. I've only traversed dirt roads on that valley once (long ago, north of the 50 from Ely to Bake highway) and I don't recollect if there were playas or no. My SO did decide to drive my not-so-off-road car thru a foot and a half a water up a creek on the left, if I'm correct. The car made it, and so did he. ;-)
That would be Baker. I was missing a consonant.
Okay, no matches yet!
I'll say that so far all the guesses have been too high in elevation.
The valley from outcrop to outcrop is about 7 miles across; the mountains at the far end of the valley are about 45 miles away.
I'd vote badwater basin, looking north up the valley. It reminds me of the view a bit further down the valley from the popular touristy spot. (But that might be b/c I was looking at Death Valley photos last night.)
The dimensions and the distance to the north end of the Valley sound about right, too.
@cbdawson
Oh, and if it is DV, if memory serves, me DV is a graben?
We have a winner of the location: Cian Dawson @cbdawson! This ID was first made on Twitter, btw.
This is Death Valley, looking south down the valley from about 8 to 9 miles north of Furnace Creek. Badwater itself, the lowest point in the U.S., is hidden in the distance between some low hills in the right part of the photo.
The mountains in the distance to the south are part of the Owlshead Mountains, and maybe a bit of the Avawatz Range peeking over them.
D.V. is a pull-apart basin, often referred to as a graben, and is more technically a half-graben.
Well, duh. No wonder I thought it looked awfully familiar. {:p}
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