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Deep Springs Valley is a high desert valley in the Inyo-
White White is the 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 reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
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 o ...
,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. It is east of the
Owens Valley Owens Valley (Numic Numic is a branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. It includes seven languages spoken by Native American peoples traditionally living in the Great Basin, Colorado River basin, Snake River basin, and southern Great Pl ...
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 primarily ...
mountain range, and south of
Fish Lake Valley The Fish Lake Valley is a longNevada, DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer, c 2010, p. 58-59. endorheic valley in southwest Nevada, one of many contiguous inward-draining basins collectively called the Great Basin. The alluvial valley lies just northwest ...
, Nevada, near the
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
-
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, 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. N ...
state border.
California State Route 168 State Route 168 (SR 168) is an east-west state highway in the U.S. state of California that is separated into two distinct segments by the Sierra Nevada mountains. The western segment runs from State Routes 41 and 180 in Fresno east to Huntin ...
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 Pr ...
to the west and Gilbert Pass to the north. To the northwest lies
White Mountain Peak White Mountain Peak (or simply White Mountain), at , is the highest peak in the White Mountains of California, the highest peak in Mono County, and the third highest peak in the state after Mount Whitney and Mount Williamson. It is the fo ...
. To the east lies Eureka Valley, connected via Soldier Pass in the Piper Mountain Wilderness, 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 Francisco, ...
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 univers ...
educational systems. The intensely folded and clearly visible layers comprise the
Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized C with bar, 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 ...
-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 Ear ...
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 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
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 tot ...
. 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 superficial ...
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 fro ...
, 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 Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...
, understood to rarely occur in such conditions.


Population

It is the home of
Deep Springs College Deep Springs College (known simply as Deep Springs or DS) is a private, selective two-year college in Deep Springs, California. With the number of undergraduates restricted to 26, the college is one of the smallest institutions of higher educat ...
, 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 is located in Inyo County, California, Inyo County, in eastern California in the southwestern United States. It is approximately 28 miles (45 km) long and up to 10 miles (16 km) wide, with elevations varying from 2870 fee ...
*
Eureka Valley Sand Dunes Eureka Valley is located in Inyo County, in eastern California in the southwestern United States. It is approximately 28 miles (45 km) long and up to 10 miles (16 km) wide, with elevations varying from 2870 feet (875 m) up to 8456 feet ...
* ''
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 ''Oenothera californica'', known by the common name California evening primrose, is a species of flowering plant in the evening primrose family. Distribution The plant is native to regions of southern and western California, the Southwestern Un ...
'' * 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