Badwater Basin

Badwater Basin
Location	Death Valley Inyo County, California
Coordinates	36.250278°N 116.825833°W / 36.250278; -116.825833
Type	Endorheic basin
Primary inflows	Amargosa River
Primary outflows	Terminal (evaporation)
Basin countries	United States of America
Max. length	12
Max. width	8
Surface elevation	−282 feet (−86 m)
Settlements	Badwater, California
References	U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Badwater Basin

Badwater Basin is an endorheic basin in Death Valley National Park, Death Valley, Inyo County, California, noted as the lowest point in North America, with an elevation of 282 ft (86 m) below sea level. Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous 48 states, is only 84.6 miles (136 km) to the WNW.

The site itself consists of a small spring-fed pool of "bad water" next to the road in a sink; the accumulated salts of the surrounding basin make it undrinkable, thus giving it the name. The pool does have animal and plant life, including pickleweed, aquatic insects, and the Badwater snail.

Hexagonal salt crust at Badwater

The elevation sign at Badwater.

Adjacent to the pool, where water is not always present at the surface, repeated freeze–thaw and evaporation cycles gradually push the thin salt crust into hexagonal honeycomb shapes.

The pool itself is not actually the lowest point of the basin: the lowest point (which is only slightly lower) is several miles to the west and varies in position. However, the salt flats are hazardous to traverse (in many cases being only a thin white crust over mud), and so the sign marking the low point is at the pool instead. The basin was considered the lowest elevation in the Western Hemisphere until the discovery of Laguna del Carbón in Argentina at −344 ft (−105 m).

Desolation at Badwater Salt Flats

Geography

Badwater Basin following the rains of 2005

At Badwater, significant rainstorms flood the valley bottom periodically, covering the salt pan with a thin sheet of standing water. Each newly-formed lake does not last long though, because the 1.9 in (48 mm) of average rainfall is overwhelmed by a 150 in (3,800 mm) annual evaporation rate. This, the United States' greatest evaporation potential, means that even a lake 12 feet deep would dry up in a single year. While the basin is flooded, some of the salt is dissolved; it is redeposited as clean crystals when the water evaporates.

A popular site for tourists is the sign marking "sea level" on the cliff above Badwater.

History

During the Holocene, when the regional climate was less dry, streams running from nearby mountains gradually filled Death Valley to a depth of almost 3 ft (1 m), and together with Cotton Bail Marsh and Middle Basin, made up the 80 mi (130 km) long, Lake Manly. Some of the minerals left behind by earlier Death Valley lakes dissolved in the shallow water, creating a briny solution.

The wet times did not last as the climate warmed and rainfall declined. The lake began to dry up and minerals dissolved in the lake became increasingly concentrated as water evaporated. Eventually, only a briny soup remained, forming salty pools on the lowest parts of Death Valley's floor. Salts (95% table salt – NaCl) began to crystallize, coating the surface with a thick crust from 3 to 60 in (8 to 152 cm).

See also

• Outline of California
• Index of California-related articles
• Death Valley pupfish
• List of elevation extremes by country
• List of lakes in California
• List of U.S. states by elevation

Further reading

• John McKinney: California's Desert Parks: A Day Hiker's Guide. Wilderness Press 2006, ISBN 0-89997-389-2, S. 54–55
• Don J. Easterbrook (Hrsg): Quaternary Geology of the United States. Geological Society of America 2003, ISBN 94-592-0504-6, S.63–64

External links

• Badwater Basin in the Encyclopædia Britannica