NEW GEOLOGIC MAP OF DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY, CALIFORNIA AND NEVADA

Compilation of new and existing geologic mapping throughout the Death Valley National Park area has been completed at 1:150,000-scale. The new digital geologic map covers the entire 13,750 square kilometers of the park and additional areas to the west, south, and east totaling 19,520 square kilometers. This project was funded largely by the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program with assistance from the National Park Service and Inyo County, California. The digital database will be incorporated into the NPS Geologic Resources Inventory (GRI) database to facilitate management decisions within the park. The paper geologic map will be the first printed detailed geologic map of the park and is focused both at research within the region and also at geology education providing a fundamental tool for ranger-led programs and self discovery by visitors of all types.

The geologic map depicts a complex geologic history of sedimentation, volcanism, intrusive activity and compressional and extensional tectonic episodes. The oldest rocks are highly metamorphosed and poorly studied Paleoproterozoic 1,800- to 1,700-m.y.-old gneisses and schists locally intruded by Mesoproterozoic 1,400-m.y.-old intrusions. The Mesoproterozoic through Neoproterozoic is marked by deposition of the Pahrump Group followed by a thick sequence of clastic and carbonate rocks extending into the late Paleozoic that record rifting of Rhodinia and subsequent shelf and slope marine deposition. The Permian through Cretaceous is marked by repeated episodes of compression. Only intrusive and isolated metavolcanic rocks are preserved from the Mesozoic, but significant folding and thrust faulting from this era is exposed throughout the map area. The Cenozoic is marked by punctuated episodes of moderate to extreme extension, localized contraction in the south and other areas, strike-slip faulting, sedimentation, and volcanism. This activity continues today with Holocene faulting, volcanism, and rapid, active sedimentation in the deep modern basins.