The photo above featuring the badlands in Death Valley was taken at Zabriskie Point, California. The deeply eroded beige and tan colored rocks here consist largely of sandstones and clays (foreground and background) from the Furnace Creek Formation.
The chocolate rocks capping the ridge lines (midground) are lava from ancient volcanic eruptions. Death Valley is the lowest point in North America (282 ft or 86 m below sea level) and is renowned for its searing heat and withering aridity. A temperature of 134 F (56.7 C) was recorded in July of 1913 — still the highest temperature ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere.
Photo taken on April 16, 2011.
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