Death Valley Trip, Getting There: A Hike to Pleistocene Shorelines

On the second day of our road trip (which began here), we left Yerington at a reasonable though not early hour, knowing full well we'd make Beatty by dinner time.

About an hour later, after reaching the Alt-95–95 junction near Schurz and while still approaching Walker Lake, we found an opportunity to stretch our legs and see some geology in the process. We pulled into a side road leading to a gravel pit...and noticed a dirt road heading straight for some terraces, which I think are either tufa-cemented Lake Lahontan shorelines or a fault scarp.

These are some relatively low hills along the range front in the northern Wassuk Range.

But then we found the old highway, which was built above a historic highstand of Walker Lake—one that must have been at about 4060 feet, below Walker Lake's historic highstand that occurred in 1868 and was between 4089 and 4108 feet—and we left the gravel pit, driving north and looking for a dirt road to take us to the range front.

Here we're looking NNE along the old highway, toward some brightly colored, possibly hydrothermally altered rocks in the northern Wassuk Range.

Oh yeah, I'm a sucker for old roads!

We found a dirt road, one heading toward the canyon way to the left (below). Our goal? The Lake Lahontan shorelines and apparent Lake Lahontan high strandline on the rounded hill near the left.

We're looking southwesterly toward the range front.

A zoomed view of what look like shorelines. One range-front fault may be at the base of the slopes at the bottom of the photo. It's unclear to me from Google Earth how faults and shorelines are interacting.

The same range front and shorelines, looking more to the northwest.

Hike, hike, hike...hike, hike, hike. After about 15 minutes, I arrived at a boulder-strewn shoulder just below what I think is the highest Pleistocene shoreline.

We're looking west toward Reese River Canyon (not the same Reese River as in central Nevada). The canyon looks worthy of future explorations.

Now I'm standing on, as near as I can tell, the highest Lake Lahontan shoreline, looking to the south.

What's that across the dry wash?

Zoomed in, we can see a contact: poorly sorted Quaternary deposits above orange-brown hydrothermally altered rocks.

Is that a fault? Is it a sedimentary contact, either related to fan material being deposited along the range front or a wave-planed shore? I can't answer that question without going back to investigate.

MOH went on ahead to the top of the hill.

The highest ancient shoreline (Sehoo age) looked to me to be at the flat area I was standing on, just about at the often reported elevation of 1332 m (4370 feet), although the next slight break in slope—the change in color just below MOH—coincides with a strandline reported elsewhere of 1338-39 m (about 4390-4393 feet).

Looking to the north, we can see this same break in slope (the one I was standing on), with some ancient shorelines below it (especially to the far right). Note the change in color—green above to yellow below.

The yellowish or straw-colored areas along the break in slope are from a closely spaced, dried-out plant, probably Halogeton.

Done with my brief shoreline study, I walk back down to the bouldery shoulder, thinking that I'll eventually examine the intriguing contact across the wash.

First, I'm distracted by the granitic boulders. This one has a nice pegmatite dike cutting across, weathering out in relief.

Then I'm distracted by these little wildflowers growing on, near, and all around the granite boulders.

This is some kind of filaree or storksbill, probably Erodium cicutarium.

A lizard!

A bee!

Perhaps I got carried away (and didn't get to the contact across the wash) because this was the first wildflower spot of the trip.

The bouldery slope seen from below.

I turned my sights to the east, to the western range front of the Gillis Range, where I could see more ancient Lahontan shorelines.

This part of the Gillis Range is called the Agai Pah Hills.

Back at the Jeep, I looked off to the northeast, to a broad, flat area really out in the middle of nowhere.

I decided to test out my 300mm zoom (450mm in 35mm equivalent). The closer, rocky hills don't have a place name on USGS maps. Red Ridge is the name of the lower hills beyond that; the mountains beyond are the Sand Springs Range, south of Fairview Peak.

We continued on our way, southward toward Hawthorne, Mina, Coaldale, Tonopah, and Beatty.

Location map

Related Posts (in order of posting):
Death Valley, "Super" Blooms, Turtlebacks, and Detachments
Death Valley Trip, Part 2: More of the Badwater Turtleback Fault
Death Valley Trip, Part 3: Northward, and over Daylight Pass
Death Valley Trip, Getting There: Wave Clouds beyond the Sierra

Sluggish Fly on A Pyritic Boulder

It's not like it's a meme or anything, but I saw a sluggish fly on limestone at Really Going Places — after taking these photos on the first day of November — and thought, what an opportune time to post photos of this fly, also sluggish, on a pyritic parking lot erratic (glacial erratic? not sure).

Iron-stained rock with a large mass of pyrite in the upper right, with fly for scale
(a bit left of the large pyritic mass)..

The same mass with the fly close to a large pyrite cube.

Now the fly has wandered over a bit to the left (out of the first photo's range), and is standing at a small precipice, appearing to check out the tiny pyrite cubes below.

Here, I've had to give the fly a gentle nudge, because I wanted it to move closer to the tiny pyrite crystals (that's how sluggish it was!).

The fly now looks like it's interested in mining the tiny cubes!

And now the fly has moved over a bit back to the right (barely into the first photo), and is checking out a couple veinlets.

And here's one last photo, for those of you who prefer not to see a fly for scale.

The funny, almost sickly yellowish green color on the outside of this rock indicates that you should be able to find some kind of sulfide mineral inside — in this case, a heckuva lot of pyrite. This color can be used as an exploration guide, provided that one wants to find an ore deposit rich in sulfides.

Update from the Lake: Hornets' Nest

It's a beautiful thing, but has got to go.

And, AFAIK, it's gone by now. At this stage, it reminds me of a delicately spun, upside-down dreidel. I think you can just barely see a few of the little suckers up near the top: the black variety, not the more common (in our area) yellowjacket type.

Twelve Months of LFD (2012)

I missed this retrospective meme last year, but here it is, back again, as per DrugMonkey:

The rules for this blog meme are quite simple.
-Post the link and first sentence from the first blog entry for each month of the past year.
I originally did this meme, after seeing similar posted by Janet Stemwedel and John Lynch.  Prior editions include 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008.

Previous takes on this Twelve Month meme at LFD were posted for 2008, 2009, and 2010. As usual for LFD, I've also added the accompanying first photo of the month, where there was one with the first post of the month.

January:
I went on my first walk of the year earlier today, out along a creek in Anchorage, AK.

February:
I thought I'd back up to a time a week before our stop at The Geographic Center of Nevada, a time just prior to our soak at Spencer Hot Springs. 

March:Upon getting out of the truck at the north end of the Monitor Valley playa, it became rapidly clear to me that it was very cold. 

April:
I thought I'd actually have time over my 5-day break to get caught up on some blogging, but that hasn't been the case, and things aren't looking all that great for the coming 8- or 9-day work week and the break following that, so I'm posting a few views from the new area.

May:
Just a quick post showing a photo I took about two weeks ago at 5:50 am, on my early morning ride to work. 

June:
Yesterday I received an email while at work telling me that there was a hummingbird moth in one of our two pots of chocolate mint, which are sitting outside on the front porch. 

July:
These stitched photos were taken about three weeks ago near the site of Preble (just off the map to the west).

August:
These relatively small pinnacles are located in the canyon of Midas Creek, just north of the town of Midas, Nevada.

September:
Besides the obvious greenish feldspar, the countertop rock is composed of black pyroxene, gray metallic minerals (magnetite or ilmenite are likely, but I didn't bring my magnet, magnetometer, or portable xrf), and pyrite.

October:
In the morning after I wake up—while I'm drinking my first, second, and maybe third cup of coffee—I often think of things to write for the blog, how to write them, maybe even what pictures to use.

November:

I got to thinking after taking another looking at my arc photos, that this shot may show a weak tangent arc above the also weak 22 degree halo around the sun.

December:
We came in from the east or north, depending on how you view the direction of I-80 as it traverses the entire north-south length of the west flank of the Humboldt Range from Florida Canyon to Limerick Canyon northeast of Lovelock.

Hummingbird Moth in Chocolate Mints

Yesterday I received an email while at work telling me that there was a hummingbird moth in one of our two pots of chocolate mint, which are sitting outside on the front porch. MOH thought the moth might still be there when I got home, and sure enough, it was.
It didn't move when I approached as close as I wanted with my camera, but it was dark in the shade of the mints, and several pictures were a little blurry.
Here's its cute little face, sharpened somewhat by photo processing.

This is the same kind of moth (Hyles lineata) as seen here between Goldfield and Beatty, Nevada, about three years ago, and these are the same mints that came from overseas and made a first appearance on the blog mid-summer of 2009. The mints have been subdivided and passed around amongst family; the moth has moved on. This particular type of hummingbird moth tends to be nocturnal, so maybe it was just in the mint to sleep for the day.

Macrobug Meme: Ants on Flower

I've been trying to join Callan's bug meme at least since June (also see Dynamic Earth), thinking I could get a nice shot of one of the beetles (Elm beetles?) that perpetually come into our house through the summer, or get a sage beetle walking through the sage while out and about, but those things haven't yet come together. Finally, ants!
These aren't true bugs, but they are arthropods (phyllum Arthropoda) of the insect type (class Insecta), in the family Formicidae. The closeup (1) and enlargement (2) were as close as I could get the lens to to this flower in our garden the other day, so these are tiny little ants. It was cool outside, maybe 45°F, and the ants were barely moving.

Hummingbird Moth

These photos of a white-lined sphinx moth, or hummingbird moth - Hyles lineata - were taken right along Highway 95, between Goldfield and Beatty, Nevada, on our recent trip to the Mojave Desert via Titus Canyon. I didn't mark the exact location of these photos, but the elevation is about 4700 feet.

We were lucky to have fairly low temps throughout our 5-day trip - which is good, because my truck doesn't have air-conditioning. Low, in this case, means anything under 95 to 100° F.
We stopped because of the wildflowers, which were spectacular in places, even though we missed the main show. The moth was sipping evening nectar from some Prince's plume: Stanleya pinnata.
And here's the moth! When first seeing these moths, one is often inclined to think they are small hummingbirds. They hover just like hummingbirds, make a humming or buzzing sound while flying, and dart around very quickly.
The wings are brightly colored, though it's difficult to get them to sit still long enough for perfect photos!
As you can see, they hover over the target flower, and suck nectar through a long proboscis, which is essentially a tubular tongue.
Their wings are usually just a blur, and in this photo the proboscis is coiled.

Photos: May 1, 2009.