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Death Valley National Park, California and Nevada

Death Valley National Park, California and Nevada

Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park is the lowest point in North America, 282 feet below sea level. The valley and surrounding mountain ranges are on the western edge of the Basin and Range Province.

This portion of a Magellan radar image strip shows a small region on Venus 20 km (12.4 mi.) wide and 75 km (50 mi.) long on the east flank of a major volcanic upland called Beta Regio. The image is centerd at 23 degrees north latitude and 286.7 degrees east longitude. The ridge and valley networkin the middle part of the image is formed by intersection faults which have broken the Venusian crust into a clomplex, deformed type of surface called tessera, the Latin word for tile. The parallel mountains and valleys resemble the Basin and Range Province in the western United States. The irregular dark patch near the top of the image is a smooth surface, probably formed by lava flows in a region about 10 km (6 mi.) across. Similar dark surfaces within the valleys indicate lava flows that are younger than the tessera giving an indication of the geologic time relationships of the events that formed the present surface. The image has a resolution of 120 meters (400 feet). ARC-1990-A90-3001

This portion of a Magellan radar image strip shows a small region on V...

This portion of a Magellan radar image strip shows a small region on Venus 20 km (12.4 mi.) wide and 75 km (50 mi.) long on the east flank of a major volcanic upland called Beta Regio. The image is centerd at ... More

Rift Zone Volcanic Features—Sunset Crater Volcano

Rift Zone Volcanic Features—Sunset Crater Volcano

Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, Arizona. Another prominent cinder cone, Sunset Crater Volcano, forms where volcanic activity associated with the Basin and Range Province is encroaching on the western e... More

West Coast Tectonic Evolution—20 Million Years Ago

West Coast Tectonic Evolution—20 Million Years Ago

As the mid-ocean ridge separating the Farallon and Pacific Plates entered the subduction zone, the Farallon Plate separated into the Juan de Fuca and Cocos Plates. A transform plate boundary developed where the... More

West Coast Tectonic Evolution—20 Million Years Ago [2 of 3]

West Coast Tectonic Evolution—20 Million Years Ago [2 of 3]

As the mid-ocean ridge separating the Farallon and Pacific Plates entered the subduction zone, the Farallon Plate separated into the Juan de Fuca and Cocos Plates. A transform plate boundary developed where the... More

Tectonic Evolution of the Southern Appalachian Mountains—750 Million Years Ago

Tectonic Evolution of the Southern Appalachian Mountains—750 Million Y...

750 Million Years Ago—Old Continent Rips Apart. The long mountain ranges and rift valleys were similar to those forming today in East Africa and the Basin and Range Province.

Basin & Range Province and Rio Grande Rift

Basin & Range Province and Rio Grande Rift

The Basin and Range Province and Rio Grande Rift have National Park Service sites that showcase the landscape of an active continental rift zone in the western United States. Letters are the abbreviations for t... More

Topography of an Active Continental Rift Zone

Topography of an Active Continental Rift Zone

The Basin and Range Province and Rio Grande Rift have NPS sites that showcase the landscape of an active continental rift zone in the western United States. NHS = National Historical Site; NM = National Monumen... More

Greater Pacific Northwest—Three Types of Plate Boundaries and a Hotspot

Greater Pacific Northwest—Three Types of Plate Boundaries and a Hotspo...

The Yellowstone Hotspot track is superimposed on other tectonic provinces of the Pacific Northwest. The hotspot first surfaced 17 million years ago as massive outpourings of fluid basalt lava in the Columbia Pl... More