Rocks with Colors and Shapes

In my photography journey, I hadn’t paid too much attention on any kinds of rocks or stones. In my minds they were just hard cold also monotonous.

The recent trip to Death Valley / Alabama Hills let me observe some of completely different rocks / stones.

Artist Palette:

It is an area with formations of a variety of rock colors. These colors were from the oxidation of different metals (iron compounds produce red, pink and yellow, decomposition of tuff-derived mica produces green, and manganese produces purple).

Further information shows that the rock unit was caused by one of the Death Valley area’s most violently explosive volcanic periods millions of years ago.

“The Miocene-aged formation is made up of cemented gravel, playa deposits, and volcanic debris, perhaps 5,000 feet (1500 m) thick. Chemical weathering and hydrothermal alteration cause the oxidation and other chemical reactions that produce the variety of colors displayed in the Artist Drive Formation and nearby exposures of the Furnace Creek Formation.“

I am by no means an expert in geology or chemistry, the only thing I could do were to simply enjoy the wonders created by nature and to capture those colorful rocks / stones through my camera lens.

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Zabriskie Point:

It is a part of the Amargosa Range located east of Death Valley, famous for its erosional landscape. It is composed of sediments which dried up 5 million years ago.

“Millions of years prior to the actual sinking and widening of Death Valley and the existence of Lake Manly, another lake covered a large portion of Death Valley including the area around Zabriskie Point. This ancient lake began forming approximately nine million years ago. During several million years of the lake’s existence, sediments were collecting at the bottom in the form of saline muds, gravels from nearby mountains, and ashfalls from the then-active Black Mountain volcanic field. These sediments combined to form the Furnace Creek Formation. The climate along Furnace Creek Lake was dry, but not nearly as dry as in the present. Camels, mastodons, horses, carnivores, and birds left tracks in the lakeshore muds, along with fossilized grass and reeds. Borates, which made up a large portion of Death Valley’s historical past were concentrated in the lakebeds from hot spring waters and alteration of rhyolite in the nearby volcanic field. Weathering and alteration by thermal waters are also responsible for the variety of colors represented there.“

Wow it was such a long rich history, I guess even long before human beings came to live on the earth. Some tremendous natural forces were working together to carve those rocks into various shapes, as we have seen.

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Mount Whitney:

Mount Whitney is the highest mountain in the contiguous United States and the Sierra Nevada, with an elevation of 14,505 feet. It is in East–Central California, on the boundary between California’s Inyo and Tulare counties, and 84.6 miles west-northwest of North America’s lowest point, Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park, at 282 ft below sea level.

It took about two hours driving from Death Valley NP to Alabama Hills / Mt Whitney. As the beginning of March there was still some snow on the top of the mountains. The most exciting moment was sunrise when the first sunlight of a day lightened up the top of the mountains. With the reflection of snow, the top of the mountains turned to hot pink.

The trip to Death Valley / Alabama Hills taught me a lot in the areas of history, geology, chemistry and photography. I can’t wait for the next opportunity to capture amazing things through my lens!

Rock Your World