Links: Field tripping in Nevada, mostly along I-80 and Highway 50

A River Runs through It [link to download], ESW 2016, E-59 NBMG: Truckee River Reno to Pyramid Lake

1915 Pleasant Valley earthquake centennial field trip guidebook: A public field trip to visit the largest earthquake in Nevada's history [link to download] E-58 NBMG: 50 miles south of Winnemucca

Fire and Ice—Geology of the Mount Rose quadrangle, Lake Tahoe, and the Carson Range [link to download pdf], ESW 2015, E-57 NBMG: Galena Creek Visitor Center to Incline Village

Carson Rocks! A Sesquicentennial Celebration of some of our Capital City's Geological High Points [link to download pdf], ESW 2014, E-56 NBMG: around Carson City

Geo- and Eco-Mapping around DRI (The Great Altered Rock Walking Tour) [link download pdf], 2014, E-55, NBMG: around DRI.

Mapping the Geology around the Desert Research Institute and Truckee Meadows Community College [pdf], ESW 2013, E-53, NBMG: around DRI.

"Tuff All Over": Exploring Faulted Volcanic Terrain in the Painted Hills, Virginia Mountains, West of Pyramid Lake [pdf], ESW 2012, E-52, NBMG: near Pyramid Lake.

"Life's a Beach": In Search of Ancient Shorelines and Volcanoes in the Grimes Point and Lahontan Mountains Area [pdf], ESW 2011, E-51, NBMG: near Fallon.

Geo-tripping in Nevada [pdf], NBMG map guide to many or most of the NBMG field trip guides in Nevada through E-50.

In search of Tufa, Tuff, and Tough Rocks [link to download pdf], ESW 2010, E-50, NBMG: stops are east of Pyramid Lake; trip guide includes Reno to Pyramid Lake, Pyramid Lake to Wadsworth, Pyramid Lake to Brady's Hot Springs, Brady's Hot Springs to Reno.

Digging Deeper into the Comstock [link to download pdf], ESW 2009, E-48, NBMG: Reno to Gold Hill.

No Child Left Inside: A field trip for Families and Rockhounds [link to download pdf], ESW 2008, E-47, NBMG: stops are near Fallon, east of Fallon, north of Fallon, and in the Truckee River Canyon along I-80; road guide runs from Reno to east of Fallon, Fallon to Trinity (junction of I-80 and 95), and Trinity to Reno.

Taking the Pulse of the Earth [link to download pdf], ESW 2007, E-46, NBMG: south of Reno (Slide Mountain, Steamboat, and Virginia Foothills; the latter two not available to public).

Rockin' Along the River [link to download pdf], ESW 2006, E-45 NMBG: Truckee River Verdi to Wadsworth

The great Highway 50 rock tour [link to download], ESW 2005, E-44 NBMG: Fallon to Middlegate

The Frenchman lake frolic [link to download], ESW 2004, E-43 NBMG: Frenchman Lake area, California, west of NV-CA border.

Get out, stay out, and stay alive [link to download], ESW 2003, E-42 NBMG: north of Reno towards Pyramid Lake.

In search of "the right tuff" but you can just "take it for granite" [link to download], ESW 2002, E-41 NBMG: north of Reno and to the west toward northern end of Red Rock Road.

Fossils and Ancient Lakes [link to download pdf], ESW 2001 field trip #2, E-40, NBMG: fossils near Nightingale.

Peavine Peak: Geology, plants, and mining history [link to download], ESW 2001 field trip #1, E-39, NBMG: Peavine.

Exploring east of the summit: A field trip guide to Steamboat Springs, Lake Tahoe, and the Comstock area [link to download pdf], ESW 2000, E-38 NBMG: Steamboat Springs, Lake Tahoe, Comstock.

Geology along America's loneliest highway [link to download pdf], ESW 2000 E-37 NBMG: Carson to Sand Mountain.

What's shakin' in the neighborhood? -- Road log [link to download pdf], ESW 1999 field trip #2, E-34 NBMG:  Reno, Mt. Rose fan/pediment, to Genoa fault scarp.

Turbulent times in the Truckee Meadows [link to download pdf], ESW 1999 field trip #1, E-33 NBMG: UNR to Verdi to Crystal Peak Mine.

Ancient lakes and volcanoes near Fallon: Field trip for families and rockhounds [link to download pdf], ESW 1998, E-28 NBMG: Fallon, Grimes Point, Soda Lake.

Link to NBMG's entire Educational series; most (all?) are available to download.

INQUA 2003 - Elko to Reno, Wadsworth Amp, Lone Mtn hwy 50, Reheis - no viewing online at Google books

Geothermal energy helps power Nevada | Elko Daily Free Press - Brady's Hot Spring, Beowawe, and "Hot Hole" in Elko

The Stories Behind I-80s Exit Sign Names - Part 1 | Backyard Traveler by Rich Moreno - various info about signs and areas, e.g., Nightingale and Brady's Hot Springs

Touring California and Nevada hot springs | Matt C. Bischoff - Brady's Hot Springs reaches 209*F (and other tidbits)

From the Road: Talus Stripes and Shorelines along the Truckee River

Talus, shorelines, and fall colors.

It was a late fall day, and I stopped along Route 447 to see if I could get close to some of the brilliantly colored trees along the Truckee River a few miles north of Wadsworth. I didn't end up finding a good spot for pics of fall colors—other than maybe this one taken down near the Numana Hatchery—but I did find lots of wonderful talus stripes and some Lake Lahontan shorelines.

At two stops a little farther to the north, at and near the junction of 447 with Chicken Road and at the Historic Marker 448 pullout, I grabbed a hodgepodge of photos.

Looking SSE from the historic marker pullout.

These two photos look south-southeastward along the Truckee River toward distant Fernley. A good portion of the river in this area runs parallel or sub-parallel to Walker Lane strike-slip faults. Wadsworth Amphitheater, which shows up in the Google Earth images we'll see in a minute, is not visible from any of our photo sites; it's an amphitheater-shaped topographic feature cut into Lake Lahontan sediments right along the east bank of the Truckee, beyond the dark basaltic hills on the right side of these two photos (east side of the Truckee).

I love the lone Cottonwood in this photo.

I went ahead and drew a few lines on Google Earth, then I rotated the resulting images to two different orientations so we could see a little more of the terrain. Be sure to check the north arrow in the upper right! The linears I drew are parallel or sub-parallel to the trend of the Walker Lane. You might be able to pick out a few more in the images (or go to Google Earth and looking around a bit).

The Walker Lane—on Google Earth (G.E.)and on other aerial representations such as air photos—shows up best at very small scales; that is, if we zoom way out and observe the area from way above, we can see the trend of the Walker Lane better than if we zoom way in, like we've done here. Nevertheless, individual strike-slip faults have been identified throughout the Walker Lane, and a few of these occur right in this area.

The A is centered on Wadsworth Amphitheater. The purple camera icon shows the location of the first photo.

The next G.E. image zooms in to the area we can see in the photos. I've got all three photo locations turned on, the A for Wadsworth Amphitheater, and my drawn-in linears. These linears aren't necessarily faults, although I'm pretty sure the one on the far left is. Unfortunately, because I currently have a very lousy internet setup (thanks Frontier!), I can't load very many research web pages. Google works well—and Blogger is a Google product—so I can blog even with 25 to 100% packet loss (it's 50% this very moment). And because Google Earth is a Google product, it's working for me also! (But I can't routinely access my non-Google email.)

Back to the faults and linears. I do know from personal experience that Walker Lane structures pass through the Lake Lahontan sediments in the area where the Truckee is running in a particularly linear fashion. I know this from some work I did a long time ago with J.O. Davis, who was studying Lake Lahontan and using tephra beds to date various aspects of the stratigraphy. The two linears or faults in the lower right of the image cross through the area where I've seen older Lake Lahontan sediments faulted and highly contorted by the major structures that pass through the area. I can't say that my particular linears are right on the major structures, and I can see other possible lineaments.

UPDATE 3Feb2017: I now have good internet back, and I've been able to compare my "map" to a geologic map of the area (Bell, Garside, and House, 2005). My linear passing through the hatchery location (below) is spot on for their most prominent fault, which was mapped as a dominantly extensional fault.

A zoomed in G.E. view of the area.

Not sure why, but I prefer to spell amphitheater with an "re" at the end: amphitheatre. I also have a hard time sticking the first "h" into the word!

I sure wish Frontier was a better internet service provider! (I never had this kind of semi-routine trouble with AT&T in eastern and northern Nevada; their every-day speeds were faster, and service was (generally) provided more quickly.

Back to the photos! 😊

Horizontal Lahontan shorelines and vertical basaltic talus stripes.

Some of the same talus stripes in Google Earth.

This photo shows a juxtaposition of talus stripes, faint shorelines, and layered Lahontan sediments.

On this trip, I focused mostly on trying to get good photos of the talus, because that's really what caught my eye. I later noticed that a few shots showed the Lake Lahontan sediments fairly well.

White, gray, greenish gray, and pinkish layers of the Eetza Alloformation.

While driving through the area, I'd been assuming that the prominently exposed white units were part of the Sehoo Alloformation. I was wrong! The Sehoo is barely identifiable in this zoomed in photo, and it's the older Eetza that is most conspicuous. In fact, the Sehoo here is mapped as gravelly beach deposits, so it mostly comprises the dark gray or brownish gray layered deposits above the whitish units.

Note: I usually use "formation" when talking about the subdivisions within the Lake Lahontan section, but "alloformation" is technically correct. In explanation, Bell et al (2005) say this, "Lake Lahontan and related subaerial deposits were considered lithostratigraphic units in the early studies of Morrison and were designated as formations. With the revision of the North American Stratigraphic Code in 1983, new allostratigraphic and pedostratigraphic unit definitions were added which allowed the definition of time-transgressive, lithology-independent rock units and soils."

Qsm = middle member of the Sehoo Alloformation; Qe = Eetza Alloformation.

After taking all these photos, it was time to move on, so I looked to the north, in the direction I'd be heading.

What I saw was more talus, more shorelines, and more Lahontan sediments. (And some fall colors.)

Selected Reference:
Bell, J.W., Garside, L.J., and House, P.K., 2005, Geologic map of the Wadsworth Quadrangle, Washoe County, Nevada: Nevada Bur Mines and Geology Map 153.

The Left-Lateral Strike-Slip Garlock Fault Near Highway 395

While out on the last road trip, I started taking pictures from places where roads crossed the Great Basin Divide. Unfortunately, I soon gave that up because freeways, which I traveled not exclusively but considerably, are lousy places from which to take pictures. But thinking about divides also made me think about the Garlock Fault, and how I'd be crossing it on 395 heading south into the Mojave. Here I've pulled over as I'm about to cross the fault.

I've drawn the Garlock fault with a thick blue line, and a secondary strand (air-photo linear) with a thinner blue line.

Besides the two fault strands, you can see the towns of Randsburg and Johannesburg, which were founded in 1896. The Yellow Aster open-pit gold mine was operated by Glamis Gold from about 1987 to 1997.

The haze was thick and the day overcast, and it looked like the photos I was taking would be fairly lousy, but MS Photos was surprisingly able to revive the dark, lackluster originals (I usually don't rely on the Photos app, but in this case it worked better than my other free programs).

After crossing the fault on 395, I took the road toward Goler Heights and Garlock. (Goler Gulch in the El Paso Mountains at Goler Heights is unrelated to Goler Wash in the Panamint Range at the edge of Death Valley National Park.)

Looking west along the southern range front of the El Paso Mountains toward Goler Heights.

The Garlock Fault is mostly behind low hills in this shot, and it runs to the right of us about three quarters of a mile to the north.

I've drawn in two (or three) apparent strands (or air-photo linears―my interpretation may not be precise in all cases) in dashed blue lines; where thin, the fault is behind hills or out of view.

We're now back near the junction of the Goler Road with Highway 395, looking to the northeast.

I took this photo thinking that we might be seeing part of the Garlock Fault, when in fact what we're seeing is a couple of fault strands parallel to the Garlock (air-photo linears).

The Garlock Fault proper is out of view beyond the low hills.

A little more than a mile to the NNE from the place I took that last photo (above), there's a great example of a shutter ridge and offset drainages.

Google Earth image with a blue line I added using the "Path" function.

The same image with more scribbles.

This marked up Google Earth image shows a small portion of the left-lateral Garlock Fault (long blue line). The fault line is basically the same as shown here (Roder, 2012). If you blur yours eyes a little (and even if you don't), you'll probably see several lines or linears that are running parallel to the main fault trace. I drew a few of these in with thinner dark blue lines. I can easily spot a few more.

The fault has offset two drainages in a left-lateral sense; that is, the south side of the fault, moving to the northeast (right) has brought in a ridge that has blocked the dry wash in the center of the image, forcing it to flow to the northeast to get around the ridge. That ridge is labeled "shutter ridge," which is the term for a ridge that blocks a drainage in this fashion along any strike-slip fault, whether it's right lateral, like the San Andreas, or left lateral like the Garlock. A second drainage way off in the upper right corner of the image has been blocked and offset in the same fashion. That drainage appears to have two shutter ridges, one that is north of the main trace of the fault, and another that looks like it's south of the main trace (at least the way the main trace has been drawn; we can see by drawing in just a few air-photo linears that there may be a few complications, and faults often meander around a bit).

I got back onto Highway 395 and continued south toward my destination, figuring that I could get a photo looking back toward the Garlock from somewhere up near the turn-off to Randsburg. I finally found a pullout on the east side of the highway; it offered me a four-wheeling opportunity to drive a very narrow, rocky road to the top of a small hill. The photos I took from there looked really lackluster, so I didn't spend a lot of time trying to get a really good panorama. Consequently, the two photos I've stitched together below do meet up on the horizon, but they are way off in the foreground, primarily because I ended up moving to keep the dirt road I was on out of the picture. We can, nevertheless see where the Garlock and a couple parallel strands or linears are located.

Stitched photo. The center of the photo is looking just west of north.

The same photo with a few labels.

And that's basically it for the Garlock Fault, but there's a location near Goler Heights that might be a good spot to look around the fault, and there are probably some good locations near Garlock.

Looking northeast from Goler Heights along the Garlock Fault.

UPDATE: Be sure to view Ron Schott's GigaPan of this portion of the Garlock Fault.

Titus Canyon: The Klare Spring Breccia

Klare Spring in Titus Canyon is well known as a petroglyph site (with a sign and everything); it is less well known as a breccia site and as a place to view the low-angle normal faults of the Titus Canyon fault zone (TCFZ). MOH and I were both immediately attracted to the breccia, and then—after examining it closely—we turned our attention to the various petroglyphs. (If you want petroglyphs, go here, here, or here, or to other Google-able websites.)

The breccia is the orange-brown mass of rock that MOH is inspecting intently. It's composed largely of fragments of Carrara Formation (Єc), with a few scattered chunks of gray limestone, which are presumably from either the Carrara Formation or the tectonically higher Bonanza King Formation (Єb). The upper strand of the Titus Canyon fault zone (TCFZ) cuts above the breccia, somewhere between my Єc and Єb labels, possibly at the base of the first cliff, or possibly behind and above that cliff. Rocks in this lower part look brecciated to me, but I didn't scramble up the slope to see them in person.

In fact, here are some of my ideas about the placement of the upper strand (or multiple upper strands?) of the TCFZ.

An image from Google Earth approximating the first photos.

I wasn't sure whether the two very large angular fragments of gray limestone, including the block festooned with petroglyphs, were an actual part of the tectonic breccia, or whether they had at some point slid down the cliffs and been cemented in place by the waters of Klare Spring.

Angular fragments of the Carrara Formation are healed by travertine.

The waters of Klare Spring emerge from the lower strand of the Titus Canyon fault zone, just down-canyon from the petroglyph site. The lower strand has placed this fractured, shattered, and brecciated Carrara Formation over the older Wood Canyon Formation (ZЄw, see next photo set).

Looking up canyon past Klare Spring.

I happened to shoot this pic looking eastward, back toward Klare Spring from a couple hundred yards down canyon. Once again, I had fortuitously grabbed a view of the TCFZ, this time including the lower strand that runs right through Klare Spring, and also including the upper strand (although the exact location is of that strand(s) is imprecise).

The same view with some geologic labels, including a few question marks.

The faults up the canyon (on the right) were seen in more detail in an earlier post; basically, we're looking at the upper strand of the TCFZ, which has placed the Bonanza King (Єb) over the Carrara (Єc) and some possible breccia (labeled "?"). Klare Spring is past the white car in the lower left of the photo. The lower strand of the TCFZ, which runs right through Klare Spring according to many, places the pale orange brecciated Carrara (Єc bx) over the reddish brown rocks of the Wood Canyon Formation (ZЄw). I've labeled the Bonanza King where I'm sure of it (Єb), and have left the first light gray cliff above the Єc breccia as "?". These lower cliffs, held up by rocks that appear brecciated in the first set of photos, might be composed of Carrara or Bonanza King, or even some tectonic jumble of both.

And so, we've left Klare Spring, and will continue our way down the canyon...

Location map

Related Posts:
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Tan Mountain
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Up and over White Pass
The Approach to Titus Canyon: To Red Pass
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Just Below Red Pass
A Hike at Red Pass, Titus Canyon Road, Death Valley, CA
Titus Canyon Road: A Little History and a Few Maps
Down into Titus Canyon: We Leave Red Pass Behind (Finally!)
Scribbles
Titus Canyon: The Upper Part of Lost Canyon
Leadfield: Scams with a Side of Geology
Leadfield: Views from Old Mine Buildings
Leadfield: Geology...and a Cactus...on the Way Back to the Parking Area
Almost Titus Canyon: Is This a Fold? And... Apparent Dip with Post-it® Notes
Titus Canyon: The TCFZ, the FCFZ, and a few Other Faults
Titus Canyon: Another Look at the Titus Canyon Fault and A Scramble
Titus Canyon: We Make Our Way Toward Klare Spring

Titus Canyon: We Make Our Way Toward Klare Spring

We're making our way down Titus Canyon toward Klare Spring, an obligatory petroglyph stop about two miles below Leadfield. On this rather short leg of our journey, we'll be seeing a hodgepodge of photos from two trips taken in two separate years, all shot within a short distance of each other not far upstream from the spring. The canyon distance of the views that our photos will show, upstream to downstream, will be about two miles (3.2 km).

Our first photo set looks back to the east. You do remember that last time, before we stopped for our little hike scramble, we had looked to the south and had seen what I think is the main strand of the Titus Canyon fault zone. We can see this same fault exposure from our current stopping point just north of a shadowy cliff. The mile-distant fault is placing Bonanza King Formation dolomite (Єb) of the upper plate over Carrara Formation (Єc) limestone and a bit of Zabriskie Quartzite of the lower plate (we can't see the Zabriskie from this angle). I’ve sketched the main strand of the Titus Canyon fault zone (TCFZ) in hachured dark blue.

As explained previously, that fault appears to wrap around to become what I've drawn in as the same fault strand, high on the cliffs in the upper right. I've postulated a lower strand, drawn in hachured bright blue. The exact position of the proposed fault is questionable, possibly higher on the hill than I've shown it, as is the formation contained within in the resulting "middle plate," which I've shown as Bonanza King. In this first photo, taken in late February of this year, things look pretty brown, because spring has just barely arrived.

The cliffs on the side of the road are captivating in that they look iron stained and possibly brecciated. I think they make a great backdrop to a photo that's very similar to the first one, but which was taken on a green spring day in early May, 2009. The creosote was in bloom, and so were some cacti and other wildflowers.

I'm not sure what rock formation is exposed in this almost-always shadowed cliff. It might be Carrara, as labeled, or it might be Bonanza King.

MOH and I wandered around this area quite a bit, checking out the wildflowers.

Here we are, a little to the north of the last spot, along an old wash channel paralleling the road, still looking to the east. 

The same photo with geologic labeling by moi.
(H/t to Dana Hunter for the "moi.")

What are we seeing here? Well, we're looking at the main strand of the TCFZ on the cliff in the distance to the east, as before, but here I've postulated an offsetting high-angle normal fault, down-to-the-north, and drawn it in with lighter blue. As for the cliffy areas north and south of the wash and road (left and right, respectively), I'm unsure of the exact location of the Titus Canyon fault. On the left, there is definite Єc in the lower cliffs, some unknown in a slope and cliffy area above that (labeled Єc?), and definite Єb near the top of the cliff (unlabeled! who let that slip by?).

Looking back to the first photo set, there’s a huge alluvial fan coming off the higher cliffs south of the road. On our most recent trip through the canyon in early 2016, I became fascinated by the massive alluvial fans within this part of the Grapevine Mountains. It looked like one hell of a lot of erosion to me—and probably all taking place fairly rapidly and fairly recently when the Grapevine Mountains were uplifted radically in the late late Cenozoic—and so I took a number of photos of fans, some that looked active, like this one, and others that looked older.

A steep side canyon area south of the road has filled with coarse alluvial debris, forming an alluvial fan complex.

A closer view of part of the alluvial fan.

A Google Earth image of the fan complex. North is not up! The magenta line on the right is the main strand of the TCFZ (extrapolated); the magenta line on the left is possibly the lower strand in this area.

Then I looked off to the northwest and took this photo after spotting the reddish alluvial fan remnant seemingly stranded high on the active fan slopes:

A reddish color in alluvium is often indicative of an older age. Rocks above the fan are all Bonanza King Formation.

I have a hard time comprehending the amount of uplift required, possibly in pulses, to create the alluvial record that can be seen within and on the edge of the mountains in the Death Valley area.

Google Earth image of our second fan complex; magenta lines are related to my idea(s) of the TCFZ.

A little bit of alluvial air-photo mapping.

The current wash (above) is obvious. What I've labeled as 'terrace 1' can be seen in the last photo as the alluvium in front of the alluvial ledge in the lower part of the photo, the alluvium I was standing on when I took that photo. Beyond that, we have the larger fan complex, including the reddish fan in the photo, which I've labeled. I couldn’t decide where to mark the lower boundaries of that reddish fan. Anyone up for some mapping?

I then turned to the west, zooming in to see what I thought might be some reddish talus, possibly small alluvial fans, high on the slope.

Reddish talus high on the slope below dark gray and reddish outcrops of the Bonanza King Formation.

It turns out that this photo shows two mapped strands of the TCFZ, although the exact location of both is somewhat in question.

Here is my best guess of the geology, taken from Niemi (2012) and Google Earth air-photo interpretation.

The mapped upper strand of the TCFZ has placed younger Bonanza King Formation rocks (Єb) over older Carrara Formation (Єc), with the Єc forming what is here a middle plate, while the mapped lower strand has placed the Carrara over the even older Wood Canyon Formation (ZЄw).

Meanwhile, back on the lower slopes:

Bloomin’ cactus!

The barrels are leaning strongly to the south. They grow faster on the shady side, causing them to lean over, giving them the nickname “compass cactus.”

These leafy green plants were everywhere.

Barrel cactus, yellow wildflowers, and ephedra (the olive green plant behind the barrel clump).

Here’s another view of the same plants, with dolomite of the Bonanza King Formation as a backdrop. The ledge on the left might be the location of the upper strand of the TCFZ, just above Klare Spring.

And that puts us in a good position to move on to Klare Spring.

Location map

Related Posts:
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Tan Mountain
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Up and over White Pass
The Approach to Titus Canyon: To Red Pass
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Just Below Red Pass
A Hike at Red Pass, Titus Canyon Road, Death Valley, CA
Titus Canyon Road: A Little History and a Few Maps
Down into Titus Canyon: We Leave Red Pass Behind (Finally!)
Scribbles
Titus Canyon: The Upper Part of Lost Canyon
Leadfield: Scams with a Side of Geology
Leadfield: Views from Old Mine Buildings
Leadfield: Geology...and a Cactus...on the Way Back to the Parking Area
Almost Titus Canyon: Is This a Fold? And... Apparent Dip with Post-it® Notes
Titus Canyon: The TCFZ, the FCFZ, and a few Other Faults
Titus Canyon: Another Look at the Titus Canyon Fault and A Scramble

From the Road: Whipple Mountains

Savahia Peak in the Whipple Mountains, with cholla.

And here's a cartoon of the geology.

The upper plate volcanic rocks are dipping moderately to steeply to the west (cyan bedding). The Whipple Mountains detachment fault (hachured dark blue) is fairly flat-lying in this area, separating reddish, hematitic upper plate rocks from greenish, lower plate chloritic and mylonitic gneisses. I've drawn in a few approximately located listric normal faults in bright blue to illustrate the general structural configuration. The upper plate has moved to the east relative to the lower plate, as indicated by both the dip of beds in the upper plate, and (especially) by the movement on upper plate listric normal faults.

Titus Canyon: Another Look at the Titus Canyon Fault and A Scramble

In late February of this year, MOH and I were intent on getting down the Titus Canyon road to see the superbloom in Death Valley, which was going great guns down near Badwater. We nevertheless stopped for a hike not far downstream from the photo in my last post.

A few wildflowers bloom in front of an orange-brown outcrop of Carrara Formation limestone.

Before hiking some really steep cliffs on the north canyon wall, I looked to the south to grab a few geological photos, not realizing that besides the nice example of dipping beds, I was seeing a good example of one splay of the Titus Canyon fault zone (TCFZ).

Beds on the south wall of the canyon are dipping in a northerly direction.

In the labeled view below, we see the approximate line of one splay of the TCFZ. It has crossed the wash left of the photo (and in front of us in last week’s photo); it goes up, over, and back behind the foreground rocks (the arrow pointing the way); and it eventually wraps around to hook up with the low-angle fault on the more distant, shadowed hill. This interpretation of the location of a main splay of the TCFZ is from Reynolds, as seen in Lengner and Troxel (2008), and is also an extrapolation from Niemi’s 2012 map.

A splay of the younger-on-older TCFZ can be seen here in hachured dark blue. It is placing the younger Bonanza King Formation (Єb) above the older Carrara Formation (Єc) and even older Zabriskie Quartzite (Єz).

Disclaimers: My placement of the fault is approximate, the foreground part of the fault might be modified by a high-angle normal fault, and the cliff and hills labeled Єz may include some faulted-in Єc.

I’ve zoomed in here, just so we can see the fault exposure a little better.

The rocks above the nicely bedded section on the right (Єc) look chaotically fractured and possibly brecciated. I read somewhere that the Fe-oxide staining of the rocks is typical of the damage zone along the fault. An unpublished map that was available from NPS in 2016, has a mélange unit devoted to certain parts of the TCFZ damage zone. That unit (TfxT; description no longer available) is reported to be particularly pronounced along the westernmost portion of the TCFZ.

MOH and I had stopped at this particular point in order to go on a smallish hike—well, we actually stopped to investigate a dry waterfall, and that investigation turned into a scramble (probably Class 3).

We’re looking up a side drainage on the steep north side of Titus Canyon. The overexposed white areas are limestone that has been scoured and polished by running water and entrained debris.

It turns out that this is a decent location to view the Titus Canyon fault.

The Titus Canyon fault places the Bonanza King (Єb) over the Carrara (Єc). It is mostly (or entirely) behind the lower cliffs on the right side of the photo.

And now, for a little map comparison, before we scramble up the slickrock.

A bit of Niemi’s map, from Leadfield to Klare Spring. The UTM grid lines are spaced 1 km (1000 m; 3281 ft) apart.

A similar bit of Google Earth (GE), uncorrected for any possible skewness in orientation. The TCFZ is in magenta; other normal faults are in blue and dark blue; the Zabriskie Quartzite (Єz) is outlined in red

My interpretation of the location of the TCFZ north of the canyon is based largely on a single photo in Lengner and Troxel (2008; their Figure 6.17, p. 114).

How do these maps line up?

I’ve managed to overlay a transparent version of Niemi’s map on top of the Google Earth image.

I’ve corrected a bit of Niemi’s map where I think the labeling and coloring of a portion of Bonanza King Formation (his Єpb, my Єb) and Titus Canyon Formation (EOgtc) was accidentally switched. The overlay is not perfect: The programs I used (Word and Paint) are really not designed for precision. Nevertheless, we see some correlation between the two maps. Interestingly, the place where the two maps show the most divergence is right where Lengner and Troxel have their photo (where my magenta line does a lot of contortions). As far as ground checking of this TCFZ-modified Єb-Єc contact, it’s difficult to impossible to walk up to the fault in most places—at least not without using real climbing techniques or hanging oneself out of a helicopter on a rope!

Now we’ll get on with our hike!

A small pool of water at the base of the lower chute.

We've now walked over to the base of the waterfall, where...we find some water!

For scale, I offer a fly on the far right.

The fly is sunning itself on polished Carrara Formation, which consists here of blue-gray limestone with orange claystone partings and wavy bedding.

I’ve now scrambled up to a ledge and am looking up the Carrara cliff to the jagged outcrops of Bonanza King Formation (Єb) beyond.

The faults drawn in are mostly hidden from view by the jutting lower cliff of Carrara Formation (Єc). The TCFZ, in hachured dark blue, is offset by a high-angle normal fault in lighter blue.

I love barrel cacti!

I’ve now scrambled even higher, to stand below a second polished chute.

The third polished chute, even higher, is above a large, dry plunge pool.

This is as high as I got on this dry falls. MOH went up higher, probably to the TCFZ. I didn’t know there was a fault up there, or I might have been tempted to try to climb higher, even though I was about at the edge of my free-climbing competence. I scrambled back down and eventually found myself overlooking the first waterhole.

I stand on a ledge above the first pothole.

Right after taking this photo, I was maneuvering across a jutting portion of tear-a-pants limestone when I lost all but one point of contact and tumbled down toward the overhang above the pothole. I managed to recover on a smallish ledge. I was okay, but it really was close. That’s probably the last bit of free-climbing I’ll do! The DSLR fell also, hitting the rock I landed on, and somehow, it was also okay! (I was surprised. Possibly this is a testimony to Nikon.)

Our next stop will be a little farther downstream, closer to Klare Spring.

A Few References:
Lengner, K., and Troxel, B.W., 2008, Death Valley's Titus Canyon & Leadfield ghost town: Deep Enough Press, 175 p.

National Park Service (NPS) Geologic Resources Inventory (GRI) program, 20141114, Unpublished Digital Geologic Map of Death Valley National Park and Vicinity, California and Nevada (NPS, GRD, GRI, DEVA, DEVA digital map) [not available online - this link has info] adapted from a U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map by Workman, J.B., Menges, C.M., Fridrich, C.J., Thompson, R.A. (2014).

Niemi, N.A., 2012, Geologic Map of the Central Grapevine Mountains, Inyo County, California, and Esmeralda and Nye Counties, Nevada [not available online]: Nevada, Geological Society of America Digital Maps and Charts Series, DMC12, 1:48,000, 28 p. text.

Reynolds, M.W., 1969, Stratigraphy and structural geology of the Titus andTitanothere canyons area, Death Valley, California: Berkeley, University of California, Ph.D dissertation, 310 p.

Reynolds, M.W., 1974, Geology of the Grapevine Mountains, Death Valley,California; a summary, in Death Valley region, California and Nevada, Geological Society of America Cordilleran Section, Field Trip 1 Guidebook: Death Valley Publishing Company, Shoshone, California, p. 91-97 [reprinted here].

Location map

Related Posts:
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Tan Mountain
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Up and over White Pass
The Approach to Titus Canyon: To Red Pass
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Just Below Red Pass
A Hike at Red Pass, Titus Canyon Road, Death Valley, CA
Titus Canyon Road: A Little History and a Few Maps
Down into Titus Canyon: We Leave Red Pass Behind (Finally!)
Scribbles
Titus Canyon: The Upper Part of Lost Canyon
Leadfield: Scams with a Side of Geology
Leadfield: Views from Old Mine Buildings
Leadfield: Geology...and a Cactus...on the Way Back to the Parking Area
Almost Titus Canyon: Is This a Fold? And... Apparent Dip with Post-it® Notes
Titus Canyon: The TCFZ, the FCFZ, and a few Other Faults

Revised slightly 15Jun2019 for broken or dead links.