Death Valley is known for is extremely dry and arid climate. This Earthcache takes you to an area where the land is sculpted by rainfall. The formations you are looking at are called Alluvial Fans.
An alluvial fan is a triangle-shaped deposit of gravel, sand, and even smaller pieces of sediment, such as silt. This sediment is called alluvium.
Alluvial fans are usually created as flowing water interacts with mountains, hills, or the steep walls of canyons. Streams carrying alluvium can be trickles of rainwater, a fast-moving creek, a powerful river, or even runoff from agriculture or industry. As a stream flows down a hill, it picks up sand and other particles—alluvium.
The rushing water carries alluvium to a flat plain, where the stream leaves its channel to spread out. Alluvium is deposited as the stream fans out, creating the familiar triangle-shaped feature.
The narrow point of the alluvial fan is called its apex, while the wide triangle is the fan's apron. Alluvial fans can be tiny, with an apron of just a few centimeters spreading out from the trickle of a drainpipe. They can also be enormous. Over time, water flowing down the Koshi River in Nepal, for example, has built up an alluvial fan more than 15,000 square kilometers (almost 5,800 square miles) wide. This "megafan" carries alluvium from the Himalaya Mountains.
As you continue to travel along Scotty's Castle road you will see several more Alluvial Fans. The one located at Ground Zero is the largest.
This type of Alluvial fan is called a Bajada
A bajada is the convergence, or blending, of many alluvial fans. Bajadas are common in dry climates, such as the canyons of the American Southwest. Bajadas can be narrow, from the flow of two or three streams of water, or they can be wide, where dozens of alluvial fans converge.
Alluvial fans and bajadas are often found in deserts, where flash floods wash alluvium down from nearby hills. They can also be found in wetter climates, where streams are more common
If you visit this Earthcache please answer the following questions for me either through a message or email
1. How many are in your group today?.
2.Looking at the Alluvial Fan directly in front of you, what is your best estmiate of the width of the Apron at its widest point? You can answer however you like such as x number of football fields, yards, feet, meters or whatever you choose.?
3. What did you think of this beautiful desert formation?