Looking For Detachment

It was a fall day, and while driving out to my field site near Winnemucca I stopped for a hike. I got up high enough to see the water in the Humboldt Sink quite clearly (although way off in the distance), and I clambered over piles of talus. The tallish cheatgrass and possibly an ephedra bush are showing their fall colors, though the cheatgrass takes on this straw yellow color by mid June, and keeps showing it until it regenerates itself from seed sometime in the spring.
And here I am, on top of part of the talus, with a great deal of foreshortening going on so the hill seems nearly flat, and the nicely filled but not overflowing Humboldt Sink is in the background. My Jeep can be seen as a vague dot between talus and lake about half way between the center and right of the photo and not far above the vertical center. Water in the desert is always a precious thing, and it's always something worth stopping for.
Somewhat unrelated: I stopped along the Truckee River before making it to that rocky perch above the Humboldt Sink and took a few photos of bright yellow leaves.

In late February of this year, MOH and I were intent on getting down the Titus Canyon road to see the superbloom in Death Valley, which was going great guns down near Badwater. We nevertheless stopped for a hike not far downstream from the photo in my last post.

A few wildflowers bloom in front of an orange-brown outcrop of Carrara Formation limestone.

Before hiking some really steep cliffs on the north canyon wall, I looked to the south to grab a few geological photos, not realizing that besides the nice example of dipping beds, I was seeing a good example of one splay of the Titus Canyon fault zone (TCFZ).

Beds on the south wall of the canyon are dipping in a northerly direction.

In the labeled view below, we see the approximate line of one splay of the TCFZ. It has crossed the wash left of the photo (and in front of us in last week’s photo); it goes up, over, and back behind the foreground rocks (the arrow pointing the way); and it eventually wraps around to hook up with the low-angle fault on the more distant, shadowed hill. This interpretation of the location of a main splay of the TCFZ is from Reynolds, as seen in Lengner and Troxel (2008), and is also an extrapolation from Niemi’s 2012 map.

A splay of the younger-on-older TCFZ can be seen here in hachured dark blue. It is placing the younger Bonanza King Formation (Єb) above the older Carrara Formation (Єc) and even older Zabriskie Quartzite (Єz).

Disclaimers: My placement of the fault is approximate, the foreground part of the fault might be modified by a high-angle normal fault, and the cliff and hills labeled Єz may include some faulted-in Єc.

I’ve zoomed in here, just so we can see the fault exposure a little better.

The rocks above the nicely bedded section on the right (Єc) look chaotically fractured and possibly brecciated. I read somewhere that the Fe-oxide staining of the rocks is typical of the damage zone along the fault. An unpublished map that was available from NPS in 2016, has a mélange unit devoted to certain parts of the TCFZ damage zone. That unit (TfxT; description no longer available) is reported to be particularly pronounced along the westernmost portion of the TCFZ.

MOH and I had stopped at this particular point in order to go on a smallish hike—well, we actually stopped to investigate a dry waterfall, and that investigation turned into a scramble (probably Class 3).

We’re looking up a side drainage on the steep north side of Titus Canyon. The overexposed white areas are limestone that has been scoured and polished by running water and entrained debris.

It turns out that this is a decent location to view the Titus Canyon fault.

The Titus Canyon fault places the Bonanza King (Єb) over the Carrara (Єc). It is mostly (or entirely) behind the lower cliffs on the right side of the photo.

And now, for a little map comparison, before we scramble up the slickrock.

A bit of Niemi’s map, from Leadfield to Klare Spring. The UTM grid lines are spaced 1 km (1000 m; 3281 ft) apart.

A similar bit of Google Earth (GE), uncorrected for any possible skewness in orientation. The TCFZ is in magenta; other normal faults are in blue and dark blue; the Zabriskie Quartzite (Єz) is outlined in red

My interpretation of the location of the TCFZ north of the canyon is based largely on a single photo in Lengner and Troxel (2008; their Figure 6.17, p. 114).

How do these maps line up?

I’ve managed to overlay a transparent version of Niemi’s map on top of the Google Earth image.

I’ve corrected a bit of Niemi’s map where I think the labeling and coloring of a portion of Bonanza King Formation (his Єpb, my Єb) and Titus Canyon Formation (EOgtc) was accidentally switched. The overlay is not perfect: The programs I used (Word and Paint) are really not designed for precision. Nevertheless, we see some correlation between the two maps. Interestingly, the place where the two maps show the most divergence is right where Lengner and Troxel have their photo (where my magenta line does a lot of contortions). As far as ground checking of this TCFZ-modified Єb-Єc contact, it’s difficult to impossible to walk up to the fault in most places—at least not without using real climbing techniques or hanging oneself out of a helicopter on a rope!

Now we’ll get on with our hike!

A small pool of water at the base of the lower chute.

We've now walked over to the base of the waterfall, where...we find some water!

For scale, I offer a fly on the far right.

The fly is sunning itself on polished Carrara Formation, which consists here of blue-gray limestone with orange claystone partings and wavy bedding.

I’ve now scrambled up to a ledge and am looking up the Carrara cliff to the jagged outcrops of Bonanza King Formation (Єb) beyond.

The faults drawn in are mostly hidden from view by the jutting lower cliff of Carrara Formation (Єc). The TCFZ, in hachured dark blue, is offset by a high-angle normal fault in lighter blue.

I love barrel cacti!

I’ve now scrambled even higher, to stand below a second polished chute.

The third polished chute, even higher, is above a large, dry plunge pool.

This is as high as I got on this dry falls. MOH went up higher, probably to the TCFZ. I didn’t know there was a fault up there, or I might have been tempted to try to climb higher, even though I was about at the edge of my free-climbing competence. I scrambled back down and eventually found myself overlooking the first waterhole.

I stand on a ledge above the first pothole.

Right after taking this photo, I was maneuvering across a jutting portion of tear-a-pants limestone when I lost all but one point of contact and tumbled down toward the overhang above the pothole. I managed to recover on a smallish ledge. I was okay, but it really was close. That’s probably the last bit of free-climbing I’ll do! The DSLR fell also, hitting the rock I landed on, and somehow, it was also okay! (I was surprised. Possibly this is a testimony to Nikon.)

Our next stop will be a little farther downstream, closer to Klare Spring.

A Few References:
Lengner, K., and Troxel, B.W., 2008, Death Valley's Titus Canyon & Leadfield ghost town: Deep Enough Press, 175 p.

National Park Service (NPS) Geologic Resources Inventory (GRI) program, 20141114, Unpublished Digital Geologic Map of Death Valley National Park and Vicinity, California and Nevada (NPS, GRD, GRI, DEVA, DEVA digital map) [not available online - this link has info] adapted from a U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map by Workman, J.B., Menges, C.M., Fridrich, C.J., Thompson, R.A. (2014).

Niemi, N.A., 2012, Geologic Map of the Central Grapevine Mountains, Inyo County, California, and Esmeralda and Nye Counties, Nevada [not available online]: Nevada, Geological Society of America Digital Maps and Charts Series, DMC12, 1:48,000, 28 p. text.

Reynolds, M.W., 1969, Stratigraphy and structural geology of the Titus andTitanothere canyons area, Death Valley, California: Berkeley, University of California, Ph.D dissertation, 310 p.

Reynolds, M.W., 1974, Geology of the Grapevine Mountains, Death Valley,California; a summary, in Death Valley region, California and Nevada, Geological Society of America Cordilleran Section, Field Trip 1 Guidebook: Death Valley Publishing Company, Shoshone, California, p. 91-97 [reprinted here].
Location map

Related Posts:
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Tan Mountain
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Up and over White Pass
The Approach to Titus Canyon: To Red Pass
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Just Below Red Pass
A Hike at Red Pass, Titus Canyon Road, Death Valley, CA
Titus Canyon Road: A Little History and a Few Maps
Down into Titus Canyon: We Leave Red Pass Behind (Finally!)
Scribbles
Titus Canyon: The Upper Part of Lost Canyon
Leadfield: Scams with a Side of Geology
Leadfield: Views from Old Mine Buildings
Leadfield: Geology...and a Cactus...on the Way Back to the Parking Area
Almost Titus Canyon: Is This a Fold? And... Apparent Dip with Post-it® Notes
Titus Canyon: The TCFZ, the FCFZ, and a few Other Faults

Revised slightly 15Jun2019 for broken or dead links.

Now we'll leave the parking area near the Leadfield sign and, as I promised last time, we’ll walk out to what I’ve been referring to as the “far west cabin," although maybe that should really be "far northwest cabin." (I have this habit of thinking of Titus Canyon as an east-west canyon, when in fact, the Leadfield section is oriented closer to southeast-northwest than east-west.)

From the trailhead across from the Leadfield sign, I zoomed in to get this shot of the northwesternmost cabin at Leadfield proper. It sits at the end of an old road, past the main dump and past downtown Leadfield.

Once again, these photos will be an agglomeration from two trips taken by MOH and I; the first was back in early May of 2009, the second was earlier this year in late February.

A prominent old building sits just below the main dump.

Lengner and Troxel (2008) have this building located on Western Lead Mines Company's (WLMC) March Storm Claim No. 2. It looks like it's #3 on their map; #3 is labeled “Frame and Iron Warehouse.” (The bolding is theirs, presumably to indicate the function or name of the building.)

A dried plant, last year's wildflower, in front of the old warehouse.

When we went through Titus Canyon in February, 2016, we were on our way to see the superbloom that was going great guns down near Badwater. It looked like Titus Canyon's wildflowers would be putting on a good show later in the spring.

Here's the view from inside the warehouse. We're looking nearly due north, up the main branch of Titus Canyon. We'll join this branch just below Leadfield.

Here's a geologically labeled version of the same photo.

The geology, from Niemi (2012), is fairly simple (now that someone else has mapped it!), with the Titus Canyon Formation (EOgtc) being overlain by the Panuga Formation (Tg), and it being overlain by the Wahguyhe Formation (Tw). From this angle, we can see one branch or splay of the Fall Canyon Fault Zone (FCFZ) snaking away from us, more or less heading up Titus Canyon where it disappears beneath a large jumble of what has been mapped as QTls, Quaternary or Tertiary landslide deposits.

But let’s move on.

Hike, hike, hike, walk, walk, walk…and we’ve arrived at the metal building we first saw from Red Pass (!); it's sitting on leveled ground next to a mine dump.

The creosote was in bloom when this photo was taken in May, 2009. When doing field work down in the Mojave (which this qualifies as, roughly speaking) we used to say, “The field season is over when the creosote starts blooming.”

The "far west cabin" at Leadfield is on WLMC's March Storm No. 1 claim according to Lengner and Troxel (2008). It's listed as "Frame and Iron Compressor and Engine Room."

A number of outcrops on the rocky slopes behind the old building show some goethitic iron-oxide staining. As I've mentioned before, these are the sorts of exposures that would catch the eye of an oldtimer prospector, and I'd be remiss, when doing exploration, if I didn't at least walk over to take a look.

It’s about this time during a typical Leadfield excursion that I usually note a bird or a lizard, if I haven't seen any on the walk over to this site.

And sure enough, here's a lizard sitting on what looks like a bit of breccia!

And what can we see looking out the window of this metal shack?

Well, depending on which window we choose, either a brushy, rocky slope or...some geology! (I see geology everywhere, however.)

We look to the north-northeast out a roughly square window that has been elongated by my crude photo stitching.

To this same photo, I've added some geological labeling (from Niemi, 2012).

This is fairly typical geology for this area, this time with a few down-to-the-east faults drawn in, including the mostly dotted-in fault that partly separates the foreground bluff from the background scrabbly-looking hills (it's dotted because we can't really see it from this angle). The faults are all essentially strands or offshoots of the FCFZ. A westerly major strand of the large fault zone lies just off the photo to the left (west, and seen in the geology-labeled earlier photo above), and an easterly major strand cuts through just beyond the Tp-covered ridges. The minor faults, most of which are ones that I mapped on Google Earth (and which are not shown on Niemi's map because they are too small), probably flatten to join the westerly major strand at depth, and off the photo to the right (southeast), the easterly strand joins the westerly strand (see Niemi's map). To emphasize how useful a few marker horizons can be, I’ve outlined the base of a few whitish cliff- and ledge-forming units in orange, pink, and lavender. I think these whitish layers are probably tuffs, and the thicker, middle one might be the crystal tuff marker bed we saw on “Tw Hill” over near Red Pass. These marker beds are entirely within in the Panuga Formation (Tg). Anyway, we’ve once again got the Titus Canyon Formation (EOgtc) overlain by the Tg, overlain by the Wahguyhe Formation (Tw), overlain by the Crater Flat Group tuffs (Tc), overlain by the Paintbrush Group tuffs (Tp), which are all ultimately overlain by the Timber Mountain Group tuffs (Tm; not seen here).

A better view of the bluff, as seen from the same window.

Standing on the mine dump in front of the corrugated shack, we have a great view of the adit and a collapsed building that doesn't show up on Lengner and Troxel's map of the claims, workings, and town. According to their map, the adit accesses a little more than about three thousand feet of drifts. The hill the adit cuts into has been mapped by Reynolds (1969, seen in Lengner and Troxel, 2008) as Mbx: Tertiary megabreccia in the lower part of the Titus Canyon Formation.

Beyond the hill, we almost get a glimpse of a low-angle fault.

In this enlarged shot of the adit, we see that the rocks do look like a breccia.

Carbonate breccia is exposed on the left rib. Blocks of carbonate or breccia have been used to wall up the opening.

This type of metal gate is not currently in use. Newer types of gates keep people out while also letting other animals use the mine (e.g., bats, snakes, owls, various rodents). Possibly bats can get through the small opening, but some species won't fly through something that small (I'm not sure whether any of the species of bats in Death Valley need the larger openings or are the type of bat that won't fly through a grate). Read more about bat gates here (pdf) and here.

For next time: cactus, more old building remains, and more geology!

Selected References:
Lengner, K., and Troxel, B.W., 2008, Death Valley's Titus Canyon & Leadfield ghost town: Deep Enough Press, 175 p.

Niemi, N.A., 2012, Geologic Map of the Central Grapevine Mountains, Inyo County, California, and Esmeralda and Nye Counties, Nevada: Nevada, Geological Society of America Digital Maps and Charts Series, DMC12, 1:48,000, 28 p. text.
Location map

Related Posts:
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Tan Mountain
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Up and over White Pass
The Approach to Titus Canyon: To Red Pass
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Just Below Red Pass
A Hike at Red Pass, Titus Canyon Road, Death Valley, CA
Titus Canyon Road: A Little History and a Few Maps
Down into Titus Canyon: We Leave Red Pass Behind (Finally!)
Titus Canyon: The Upper Part of Lost Canyon
Leadfield: Scams with a Side of Geology

Arriving at Red Pass, which has a couple wide spots for parking, you're about half way down Titus Canyon Road (TCR), and only now are you about to enter the Titus Canyon drainage. Of course, half way depends on how you look at things. You're about half way, as the crow flies, from beginning to end of the TCR, including the western part down the alluvial fan to Scotty's Castle Road; you're less than half way, as the crow flies, from the eastern range front to the western range front; and you're more than half way, as the crow flies, from leaving pavement on the east end to exiting the narrow part of the canyon on the west end. I usually think of the road that last way, but any way you cut it, Red Pass is a good place to stop, get out, look around, take a few photos, and go for a hike. That's what MOH and I did back in early May, 2009.
I know of two trails beginning at Red Pass. The first trail, south to Thimble Peak, has a Class 3 scramble near the top that sounds awful to me (though it doesn't look too bad here). Maybe on our next visit, we'll explore climbing the peak from the west side, rather than the usual east side, or maybe we'll hike the trail part way.

You can't see Thimble Peak from Red Pass, but here's a photo of the peak, way over on the left, taken from White Pass.

The second trail leads up to the hoodoos and rock formations that sit immediately above the pass. I'm not sure if this trail does anything more than wander up to and around the rocks and hoodoos in the Panuga Formation (formerly the Green Conglomerate facies of the Titus Canyon Formation), but I took our hike as an opportunity to walk out to the red ledge that had been visible for miles. I had suspected that the ledge might be a tuff bed, but knew that without a field inspection I'd just be guessing.

The main rock formation, as seen from the east. This oddly shaped mass of eroding conglomerate is sometimes called "Quail Rock."

Here's the red ledge we've seen in two past posts.

We already know the red ledge consists of a crystal tuff marker bed, but MOH and I didn't know that at the time of our hike. Because I'm really not giving anything away, here's a labeled version of the photo, with map unit symbols once again from Niemi (2012).

The Wahguyhe Formation (Tw) overlies the Panuga Formation (Tg), which contains the reddish marker horizon that consists of a crystal tuff (xtl = crystal).

Let's get a little closer.

You can see a very light brown layer near the base of this part of the light brown weathering, massive-looking ledge.

For scale, we've got some smallish plants, including a red-flowering one.

And here's the lighter layer seen up close with field boot for scale.

It turns out that what we're seeing as a lighter-colored layer is a more crystal-rich portion of the tuff bed. I've zoomed in on this below. A finer-grained, fairly crystal-poor, biotite-bearing section lies above a coarser-grained, crystal-rich section.

My fingers are about at the upward transition from crystal-rich to relatively crystal poor.

I'm not sure exactly what kind of tuff this is, although I suspect it's an airfall tuff, possibly reworked in places. I would have needed a bigger hammer and willingness to break rocks in a National Park to have figured things out better. I also would have prefered a cooler day.

And that's about the end of this little hike. Before leaving, let's zoom in for one last, closer look at Quail Rock.
We can see definite layering with coarser and finer layers, and a texture that looks like lithified fanglomerate. Next time, I'll hike higher on the hill so we can take a closer look (and get better scale).

I like the faint cloud texture, which reminds me of microcline twinning.

After hiking back down to the parking area, we can walk over to the western edge of the road and finally look into the easternmost reaches of the Titus Canyon drainage. We'll see more of this next time. In the meantime, you can explore this gigapan, by Ron Schott, which looks west from Red Pass from about this same vantage point.

Where's the Leadfield cabin?

You can see the farthest cabin at Leadfield from Red Pass if you know where to look. And although it's very difficult to pick out in my photo (in the cropped version, above, it consists of just a few pixels), you should be able to find it on Ron's gigapan. Try it! In case you can't find it, I'll point it out next week!

A Couple References:
Lengner, K., and Troxel, B.W., 2008, Death Valley's Titus Canyon & Leadfield ghost town: Deep Enough Press, 175 p.

Niemi, N.A., 2012, Geologic Map of the Central Grapevine Mountains, Inyo County, California, and Esmeralda and Nye Counties, Nevada: Nevada, Geological Society of America Digital Maps and Charts Series, DMC12, 1:48,000, 28 p. text.
Location map

Related Posts:
Beatty: Old Buildings, A Fold, and Onward toward Titus Canyon
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Amargosa Narrows, Bullfrog Pit, and the Original Bullfrog Mine
Mineral Monday: Close-Ups of Bullfrog Ore from the Original Bullfrog Mine, Nevada
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Tan Mountain
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Up and over White Pass
The Approach to Titus Canyon: To Red Pass
The Approach to Titus Canyon: Just Below Red Pass

On our ongoing journey into Death Valley via Titus Canyon, we've left behind the Original Bullfrog mine (which can be seen from the road if you know where to look) and have made it past the eastern boundary of Death Valley National Park. As I've already mentioned, the Titus Canyon road can be distractingly washboardy in its early parts, and it's often barely wide enough for two vehicles to squeeze past each other, which only happens when a faster one wants to pass a slower one (it’s all one-way to the west).

Loose gravel typical of the Titus Canyon road east of Tan Mountain.

In the photo, we're looking back the way we just came, which happens to be northward here, toward some low volcanic hills in the northwesternmost part of the Amargosa Desert.

By the way, I took all the photos in this post in early May, 2009. A lot of flowers were blooming in the upper Amargosa Desert and along the Titus Canyon road. We stopped often on that trip, for flowers, lizards, and short hikes. We didn’t stop as often during our February trip to Death Valley: We were intent on getting to the lower elevations to see the superbloom.

Prickly pear cactus, which we saw along the road before entering the park (see location map way below). The cross-hatching pattern of the pads reminds me of the mineral alunite.

A close-up of the same plant.

An unidentified flowering plant with 1996 dime on the left for scale.

After about 50 minutes on the road, and about a half hour into the park (including flower-photo stops), MOH and I pulled over at a hill composed of exposed and outcropping ash-flow tuff. I found out later that this hill or butte is locally or colloquially known as “Tan Mountain.” It’s referred to by this name on Panoramio and in Death Valley's Titus Canyon & Leadfield Ghost Town by Lengner and Troxel (2002, 2008). The reason for the name is ... you guessed it, the color. It is not named on topo maps, and ordinarily, without knowing a local name, I'd call it hill 4915, for the 4915-foot marking shown on the Daylight Pass 7.5' quad (USGS TNM 2.0 location).

The road is widened somewhat at Tan Mountain, so it's easy to stop, look around, and go for a stroll. It can seem kind of warm on the slopes, even before ten in the morning; maybe the light-colored tuff reflects a lot of heat.

Tan Mountain, with geo-type hiker for scale.

We continued to take flower photos as we rambled upward.

An unknown yellow flowering plant with dime for scale.

Bright red fireweed on the slopes below the rounded spires and hoodoos of Tan Mountain.

Nearing the base of the cliffs, I stopped to take this photo of an outcrop of the pumiceous, lithic-rich, poorly welded ash-flow tuff that makes up Tan Mountain. I didn't climb to the top of the hill, so I didn't get to see if the degree of welding changed significantly in the 200 feet or so to the top.

A reddish brown lithic fragment in the poorly welded tuff.

Tent-like and hoodoo-like forms eroded into the ash-flow tuff.

I'm not sure what ash-flow tuff formation this is. It was mapped as Tr--Pliocene to Oligocene felsic lava flows and tuffs by Workman et al (2002), and Lengner and Troxel (2008) implied that it erupted from the Timber Mountain caldera, although maybe they were intending, on page 63, to refer to tuff sheets seen a little farther to the west when they said:

"...you will see volcanic debris only from the Timber Mountain caldera on this trip."

And that's how far we're going down the Titus Canyon road today.
Location map

Related Posts (in order of posting):
Death Valley, "Super" Blooms, Turtlebacks, and Detachments
Death Valley Trip, Part 2: More of the Badwater Turtleback Fault
Death Valley Trip, Part 3: Northward, and over Daylight Pass
Death Valley Trip, Getting There: Wave Clouds beyond the Sierra
Death Valley Trip, Getting There: A Hike to Pleistocene Shorelines

Death Valley Trip, Getting There: Walker Lake, Road Stories, A Bit about Copper, and Some Folds near Luning

Death Valley Trip, Getting There: A Jeep Trail, Folds and Cartoons of Folds, Even More Folds, and Boundary Peak

Death Valley Trip, Getting There: Highway 95, Redlich, Columbus Salt Marsh, and Another View of Boundary Peak

Death Valley Trip, Getting There: Coaldale, Black Rock, Lone Mountain, and the Boss Mine

Death Valley Trip, Getting There: Black Rock to Lida Junction to Beatty

Beatty: Old Buildings, A Fold, and Onward toward Titus Canyon

The Approach to Titus Canyon: Amargosa Narrows, Bullfrog Pit, and the Original Bullfrog Mine

Mineral Monday: Close-Ups of Bullfrog Ore from the Original Bullfrog Mine, Nevada