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Americans don't need to travel so far to see an ocean being born. The block-fault zone from the Sea of Cortez up through most of Nevada is pulling apart rapidly
by WildUtah 10y ago
Americans don't need to travel so far to see an ocean being born. The block-fault zone from the Sea of Cortez up through most of Nevada is pulling apart rapidly and has already created 500 miles of inlet between Baja California and mainland Mexico.
Much of the next few hundred miles north through the Salton Sea and Death Valley is already under sea level and all of Nevada has thinning crust that will eventually fall under sea level.
in fact, most of the valleys in Nevada, in spite of typical elevations around 4000 feet, are already below sea level. It's just that they presently don't have any outlet to the sea in the Great Basin so alluvium has collected as the fault-block mountains created by spreading erode. [0] When a river has a chance to cut down through that soft debris, the valley floors will quickly drop below sea level also.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fault_block#Fault-block_mountains https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fault_block#Fault-block_mounta...
- mturmon 10y agoThanks for this connection. Further pointer for the wikipedia-addicted: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rift_valley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rift_valley
- erikpukinskis 10y agoSo, cheap seafront property in Nevada right now?
- nkrisc 10y agoIf you're in it for the long haul, yes.
- nugget 10y agoHow can a place be simultaneously 4k elevation and also "presently below sea level"? Are you saying that the introduction of sea water would rapidly erode 4k ft of surface material?
- delcaran 10y agoNo, he's saying that most valleys are above 4K, but some other valleys are below sea level. But I also think he's wrong: as said in http://www.netstate.com/states/geography/mapcom/nv_mapscom.htm http://www.netstate.com/states/geography/mapcom/nv_mapscom.h..., I quote "[...] but the lowest point in Nevada is actually only 479 feet above sea level at the Colorado River at the southern end of the state." .
- tangus 10y agoYes, AIUI, he's saying bedrock is under sea level and is covered by 4000 ft of easily erodable material.
- zeristor 10y agoAnd yes, Wikipedia lists the Valleys of Nevada: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_valleys_of_Nevada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_valleys_of_Nevada