Badwater Basin - Death Valley
by Sandra Bronstein
Title
Badwater Basin - Death Valley
Artist
Sandra Bronstein
Medium
Photograph - Photography - Fine Art Photography - Digital Art
Description
2013 Sandra Bronstein Photography. All Rights Reserved.
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 feet below sea level. Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous 48 states, is only 84.6 miles to the northwest.
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.Adjacent to the pool, where water is not always present at the surface, repeated freezethaw and evaporation cycles gradually push the thin salt crust into hexagonal honeycomb shapes.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 inches of average rainfall is overwhelmed by a 150 inch annual evaporation rate. This, the United States' greatest evaporation potential, means that even a 12-foot-deep, 30-mile-long lake 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.
Uploaded
April 1st, 2013
Statistics
Viewed 529 Times - Last Visitor from Cambridge, MA on 04/19/2024 at 9:42 AM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet
Comments (17)
Sandra Bronstein
Thanks Heidi for the feature in Photography - Getting the Light Right Group. Most appreciated.
Sandra Bronstein
Thanks Jose for the feature in Stop Time with Art group. Most grateful for your continuing support of my photography.
Sandra Bronstein
Thanks so much Nadine and Bob for the feature in Artists News. I am very grateful for your ongoing support.
Nadine and Bob Johnston
Congratulations, on your Feature... Thank You for submitting it to the group.... We do not always have the time to Comment, but just had to leave one on this beautiful piece of work.
Jon Burch Photography
Better take some good water and get yourself some new shoes too... Nice image Sandra. (v)