Basin and Range

California’s portion of the Basin and Range province takes its name from a series of basins (valley-like depressions) and surrounding mountain peaks (ranges). The basins are actually not true valleys at all. Tectonic forces, not water, are the primary agents shaping this landscape. Another name for this juxtaposition of landscape features is horst and graben topography.

The Basin and Range province hugs California’s eastern border with Nevada. North of the Mojave, the region resembles an isosceles triangle pointing north. The Basin and Range is unique among The Golden State’s physiographic regions in that it has two discontinuous exclaves a couple hundred miles farther north. Around Susanville and again in the extreme northeastern portion of the state, the Basin and Range province makes an appearance. This is because the Basin and Range is actually a much larger feature that extends across almost the whole of Nevada and east into Utah as well.

Soil Salinity

This fallow field is becoming a more common image all over California. In the Owens Valley, where the climate is arid and drainage is generally poor, irrigated water poured over fields percolates down or evaporates. But the salts the water introduces are left behind near the surface. Over time, the accumulation of these salts kills crops and makes the soil sterile.

Manzanar

In one of the sadder chapters in California history, Japanese Americans were involuntarily interred here during World War II. The camp once housed over 10,000 people and is one of many such camps that sprung up in the western United States in that time. Manzanar stands as a grim reminder of what happens when fear takes over society and citizens view those who are superficially different from the perceived majority as a threat. Some say America is different, that as a nation of immigrants we are a melting pot with a collective and immalleable identity. But disturbing political trends in recent years have shown us that the capacity to hate other people simply on the basis of race, creed, ethnicity or sexual identity knows no temporal or national boundary.

Mono Craters

A chain of volcanic structures (domes, craters and lava flows) have been built in and south of Mono Lake by eruptions that span some 40,000 years. The line of craters is ~25 miles long. The northern craters in and on the shores of the lake were formed as recently as 600 years ago. They grow progressively older as one moves south toward the Long Valley Caldera.

Owens Lake

In most years Owens Lake is a dry or, at best, a marshy salt playa. Yet in wetter years some ruoff is allowed to flood the lakebed. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which owns the land where the lake once stood is now under obligation to mitigate the dust clouds that form in the drier conditions.

Papoose Flat

In this image, late spring storms rise above the peaks that surround Papoose Flat. The flat served as a hunting ground and refuge for the Northern Paiute until well into the 20th Century.

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