Editing Death Valley (section)

===Flooding===
[[File:Lake Badwater, Death Valley, 2005.jpg|thumb|A [[Landsat 5]] satellite photo of Lake Badwater on February 9, 2005]]
[[File:Badwater tm5 2007046.jpg|thumb|A Landsat 5 satellite photo of [[Badwater Basin]] [[dry lake]] on February 15, 2007]]

In 2005, Death Valley received four times its average annual rainfall of {{convert|1.5|in|mm}}. As it has done before for hundreds of years, the lowest spot in the valley filled with a wide, shallow lake, but the extreme heat and aridity immediately began evaporating the [[ephemeral lake]].

The pair of images (seen at right) from NASA's [[Landsat 5]] satellite documents the short history of Death Valley's [[Lake Badwater]]: formed in February 2005 (top) and evaporated by February 2007 (bottom). In 2005, a big pool of greenish water stretched most of the way across the valley floor. By May 2005, the valley floor had resumed its more familiar role as [[Badwater Basin]], salt-coated [[Salt pan (geology)|salt flats]]. In time, this freshly dissolved and recrystallized salt will darken.<ref>Daley, Jason (2019). [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/flooding-creates-10-mile-long-lake-death-valley-180971699/ Flooding Creates a 10-Mile-Long Lake in Death Valley]. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved June 29, 2020.</ref>

The western margin of Death Valley is traced by [[alluvial fan]]s. During [[flash flood]]s, rainfall from the steep mountains to the west pours through narrow canyons, picking up everything from fine clay to large rocks. When these torrents reach the mouths of the canyons, they widen and slow, branching out into distributary channels. The paler the fans, the younger they are.