Editing Death Valley National Park (section)

===Stretching and lakes===
[[File:Amargosa.jpg|thumb|left|During very wet periods, the [[Amargosa River]] can flow at the surface, as it did in February 2005.]]
[[Basin and Range Province|Basin and Range]]-associated stretching of large parts of crust below southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico started around 16 million years ago and the region is still spreading.<ref name="Wright1997p611"/> This stretching began to affect the Death and Panamint valleys area by 3&nbsp;million years ago.<ref name="Kiver1999p278">{{harvnb|Kiver|1999|p=278}}</ref> Before this, rocks now in the Panamint Range were on top of rocks that would become the Black Mountains and the Cottonwood Mountains. Lateral and vertical transport of these blocks was accomplished by movement on normal [[fault (geology)|fault]]s. Right-lateral movement along strike-slip faults that run parallel to and at the base of the ranges also helped to develop the area.<ref name="Wright1997p616"/> Torsional forces, probably associated with northwesterly movement of the [[Pacific plate]] along the [[San Andreas Fault]] (west of the region), is responsible for the lateral movement.<ref name="Kiver1999p278"/>

Igneous activity associated with this stretching occurred from 12&nbsp;million to 4&nbsp;million years ago.<ref name="Wright1997p616">{{harvnb|Wright and Miller|1997|p=616}}</ref> Sedimentation is concentrated in valleys (basins) from material eroded from adjacent ranges. The amount of sediment deposited has roughly kept up with this subsidence, resulting in the retention of more or less the same valley floor elevation over time.<ref>{{Cite web |date=January 9, 2022 |title=Death Valley Geology |url=https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/nature/geology.htm |access-date=November 15, 2023 |publisher=National Park Service}}</ref>

[[Pleistocene]] ice ages started 2 million years ago, and melt from alpine [[glacier]]s on the nearby Sierra Nevada Mountains fed a series of lakes that filled Death and [[Lake Panamint|Panamint valleys]] and surrounding basins (see the top of the [[:image:Geologic events in Death Valley.png|timescale image]]). The lake that filled Death Valley was the last of a chain of lakes fed by the [[Amargosa River|Amargosa]] and [[Mojave River]]s, and possibly also the [[Owens River]]. The large lake that covered much of Death Valley's floor, which geologists call [[Lake Manly]], started to dry up 10,500&nbsp;years ago.<ref name="Sharp1997p41">{{harvnb|Sharp|1997|p=41}}</ref> [[Salt pan (geology)|Salt pans]] and [[Dry lake|playas]] were created as ice age glaciers retreated, thus drastically reducing the lakes' water source. Only faint shorelines are left.