See Shoreline Butte, Death Valley National Park, California

Add to My List Check Off

Shoreline Butte was once an island in a lake that filled Death Valley several times during the Pleistocene ice ages. There are different horizontal linear features on the northeast flank of the butte that are ancient shorelines from this lake. It takes some time for waves to gnaw away terraces like the ones seen on Shoreline Butte, so these benches provide records of times when the lake level stabilized long enough for waves to leave their mark on the rock. The highest strandline is one of the principal clues that geologists use to estimate the depth of the lake that once filled Death Valley. Shorelines of ancient Lake Manly are preserved in several parts of Death Valley, but nowhere is the record as clear as at Shoreline Butte. Several lakes have occupied Death Valley since the close of the Pleistocene epoch 10,000 years ago, but these younger lakes were quite shallow compared to Lake Manly.

Write a Review

No Ratings Yet

Flag as inappropriate ›