HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Deep Springs Valley is a high desert valley in the
Inyo Inyo may refer to: Places California * Inyo County, California * Inyo National Forest, USA * The Inyo Mountains * The Mono–Inyo Craters Other uses * Japanese for yin and yang Yin and yang ( and ) is a Chinese philosophy, Chinese p ...
-
White White is the lightness, lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully diffuse reflection, reflect and scattering, scatter all the ...
Mountains of
Inyo County Inyo County () is a county in the eastern central part of the U.S. state of California, located between the Sierra Nevada and the state of Nevada. In the 2020 census, the population was 19,016. The county seat is Independence. Inyo County is ...
,
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
. It is east of the
Owens Valley Owens Valley (Numic: ''Payahǖǖnadǖ'', meaning "place of flowing water") is an arid valley of the Owens River in eastern California in the United States. It is located to the east of the Sierra Nevada, west of the White Mountains and Inyo Mo ...
and the
Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...
mountain range, and south of Fish Lake Valley, Nevada, near the
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
-
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
state border. California State Route 168 connects it to the Owens and Fish Lake valleys, crossing
Westgard Pass Westgard Pass is a mountain pass on State Route 168 in Inyo County, California in the U.S. state of California. The pass lies at an elevation of and is located in between the White Mountains and Inyo Mountains ranges in the Basin and Range Pro ...
to the west and
Gilbert Pass Gilbert may refer to: People and fictional characters *Gilbert (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Gilbert (surname), including a list of people Places Australia * Gilbert River (Queensland) * Gilbert River (South ...
to the north. To the northwest lies White Mountain Peak. To the east lies Eureka Valley, connected via Soldier Pass in the
Piper Mountain Wilderness The Piper Mountain Wilderness is a federally designated wilderness area located in the White Mountains northeast of Big Pine, California in Inyo County, California. The Wilderness Area was created by the 1994 California Desert Protection Ac ...
, which can be traversed on horseback but not by automobile.


Geography

Deep Springs Lake is a playa, a seasonal
salt lake A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per litre). ...
, generally drying in the summer to produce a salt pan, with surface water replenished in late spring with flows from nearby springs and snowmelt that travels the length of the valley from Wyman and Crooked creeks, which enter from the north. Birds, and birdwatchers, flock to the Lake during the spring and fall migrations. Surrounding the lake are numerous springs, some artesian, which gave the valley its name. The springs are home to the Deep Springs Black Toad ('' Bufo exsul'', or "exile toad"), an endemic species that occurs only in Deep Springs Valley. Although the population in Antelope Springs was once thought to be introduced, a genetics study published in 2009 found that there was not strong similarity to the perceived source population and this population likely occurs naturally. The population of toads, however, appears to be stable, despite the presence of cattle that graze around the lake during the winter and spring.


Geology

On the hillsides of the southwestern end of the valley, lie the Poleta Folds, a distinctly visible example of crustal folding frequently studied by geology students from the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Fran ...
and
California State University The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a public university system in California. With 23 campuses and eight off-campus centers enrolling 485,550 students with 55,909 faculty and staff, CSU is the largest four-year public univer ...
educational systems. The intensely folded and clearly visible layers comprise the
Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ag ...
-aged Poleta formation. Several complex fault systems add to the challenge for geology students to unravel the area's history. The Poleta Folds field area is revered as one of the most complexly folded and faulted areas in California and has been used by generations of undergraduate-level
geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...
students around the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
and
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
. During a typical summer one can often find near-established trails leading to the best
outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most places the bedrock or superficia ...
s. Also easily visible at the base of the
Inyo Mountains The Inyo Mountains are a short mountain range east of the Sierra Nevada in eastern California in the United States. The range separates the Owens Valley to the west from Saline Valley to the east, extending for approximately south-southeast from ...
, in the southwestern end of the valley behind Deep Springs Lake, is a sizable dip-slip fault. Researchers showed that the most recent
fault scarp A fault scarp is a small step or offset on the ground surface where one side of a fault has moved vertically with respect to the other. It is the topographic expression of faulting attributed to the displacement of the land surface by movement al ...
had an average displacement of along a section of the fault. With an estimated rupture area of 345 km2, the event was calculated to have a moment magnitude of 7.0 and was estimated to have occurred about 1,800 years ago. The fault is still active, but studies suggest that it slips about every 4000 years. Deep Springs Lake is at . At 4905 elevation, the lake is intermittently filled and actively precipitating dolomite, understood to rarely occur in such conditions.


Population

It is the home of Deep Springs College, a nontraditional two-year liberal arts institution with about 26 students. There are also ruins of an early small mining establishment, White Mountain City, in the northwest corner of the valley.


See also

* Eureka Valley, Inyo County * Eureka Valley Sand Dunes * ''
Swallenia ''Swallenia'' is a rare genus of plants in the grass family, found only in Death Valley National Park, California. The only known species is ''Swallenia alexandrae'', known by the common names Eureka dunegrass and Eureka Valley dune grass. This ...
'' * '' Oenothera californica'' * Flora of the California desert regions


References


External links

* – populated place () {{Coord, 37, 20, 00, N, 118, 01, 03, W, display=title Valleys of the Mojave Desert Valleys of Inyo County, California Saline lakes of the United States Salt flats of California Inyo Mountains White Mountains (California) Valleys of California