The Hanaupah-Fan shoreline deposit at Tule Spring, a gravelly shoreline deposit of Pleisticene Lake Manly, Death Valley, California, USA

Abstract

The Hanaupah-Fan Shoreline Deposit (HSD) is an as yet undescribed occurrence of shoreline sediments of late Pleistocene Lake Manly in Death Valley, California. It is located in the southern part of Death Valley, at the northeastern periphery of Hanaupah Fan. The HSD is a gently sloping, WSW-ENE elongated ridge, about 600 m long, 165 m wide and 8 m high. Its surface extends from -12 to +28 m in elevation, i.e. it has a vertical range of 40 m. We interpret the deposit as a sediment body that extended from the Hanaupah Fan east into the lake. Rising lake level, and waves approaching both from the north and south eroded fan materials, and produced a sediment body with a complex architecture. Fetch for waves approaching from either direction was about 40 km. The sedimentary inventory consists of cross-stratified gravel beds of various size ranges, dipping towards the north, south, and east, and of horizontal berm gravel beds, and horizontal silt layers. A discordant gravel layer covers the entire surface of the deposit, probably produced by wave action during the last phase of lake regression. This uniform gravel layer forms a surface that is distinctly different from the surrounding fan surfaces. It is relatively fine grained, much better sorted, and densely packed. Rock varnish is very well developed, and imparts a dark color to the surface, which makes it easily recognizable on aerial photographs. No absolute age date is available as yet, but circumstantial evidence places the formation of the deposit at the peak of marine isotope stage 2 (Wisconsinan/Weichsellian glacial maximum)