Follow the Water: A Virtual Field Trip Exercise
GPH 211
http://www.geomorphish.com/v_trips/fllw_wtr/introduction.html
Login: geomorphish Password: sagerock5
Name: ________________
Date:_________________
Introduction:
With this virtual field trip, you learn about a curious connection of lakes in western
North America. California hosts the highest point in the continental United States,
Mt. Whitney. It also hosts the lowest point in North America, Death Valley. During
past ice ages, amazingly enough, water flowing off of Mt. Whitney drained into a
series of lakes that overfilled a number of sequential basins eventually draining into
Death Valley. Compare the two images on the introductory page, one illustrates the
basins as they appear today, the other shows the basins filled with lakes that connected
Mt. Whitney and Death Valley.
For this exercise, you are going to complete a virtual tour of the Follow the Water
field trip. Most of the experience is just clicking on around the field trip and reading
interesting passages on the region’s geomorphology. To make sure you have traveled,
albeit virtually, throughout the entire trip you will have to answer at least one
question per stop. Each question is numbered and the answer to that question is
found at the stop of the same number. Now, each stop has multiple sites to visit (the
boxes on the panoramic images at each stop), so you need to read through each of
these stops to find the answers. Good luck and enjoy!
Questions:
1. What is an erratic and how do they form?
1b. How does a terminal moraine develop at the snout of a glacier?
2. Why do “Hanging Valleys” develop and why do streams that flow from
hanging valleys struggle to attain equilibrium?
2b. Define the term “river competence” and provide an example:
3. For “Grain Size Exercise Part 1”, please determine the average grain size for the
small fluvial system’s bed load highlighted in yellow at this stop (you can
measure each individually on the screen using the scale and simple ruler or
piece of paper).
4. Describe the flow pattern of the Owens River you visit at this stop:
5. For “Grain Size Exercise Part 2”, what is the average size of the larger grains
(circled in yellow) for the Owens River tributary? Why do you think the
particle size is so much smaller closer that what was seen upstream?
6. For “Grain Size Exercise Part 3”, what is the average size of the larger grains
(circled in yellow)? How do they compare with grain sizes at stops 3 and 5?
6b. How do salt playas develop?
7. Why are “Fossil Falls”, named Fossil Falls?
8. Why can’t we visit China Lake?
9. How deep was Searles Lake?
10. How do alluvial fans develop over time and where do you tend to find them?
11. How do the rocks “race” across Racetrack Playa? Before you do this, please
explain why Racetrack Playa is a clay playa, instead of a salt playa?
12. How do paleo-shorelines develop, and how long ago did they form?
13. Provide a simple synopsis (but not too brief, a paragraph at least) for how
water once extended from Mt. Whitney to Death Valley
14. EXTRA CREDIT: What offense was I arrested for?