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.

Surprise Valley

A recurring theme in the Basin and Range is the stark contrast of environments found between the horsts and grabens that form this region. An additional "surprise" in this picture is the abrupt transition between productive, irrigated pasture and the forbidding environment of the alkali playa.

Death Valley

Badlands consisting of silty deposits form the foreground in this view of snow capped Telescope Peak in Death Valley National Park. This scene shows the remarkable variation in climate that can exist between locations that are only a few miles apart.

White Mountain Peak

White Mountain peak (14,246 ft.) is the third tallest mountain in California. Owing to its elevation, its inland location and being in the rain shadow of the Sierra, it is home to one of the most extreme climates in the state.

Mono Basin

The Mono Basin forms a endorheic drainage basin separate from that of it's counterparts: Owens Valley and Death Valley in the South and Surprise Valley in the north. The most distinguishing feature of the basin is Mono Lake. This large alkaline lake is believed to have formed when the Long Valley Caldera erupted 760,000 years ago a few miles south of here. Volcanic eruptions in the Mono Basin have occurred as recently as 500 years ago. Today Mono Lake is an important fueling stop for migratory waterfowl.

Stark Contrasts

Whereas in the deserts or in the mountains of the northwest, the change in physiographic regions is gradual over dozens of miles, the boundary between the Basin and Range and the Sierra Nevada is startlingly abrupt.

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