Editing Geography of California (section)

===Basin and Range===
[[File:Mono Lake from Mount Dana (1).jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Mono Lake]]
To the east of the Sierra is the [[Basin and Range Province|Basin and Range geological province]], which extends into [[Nevada]]. The Basin and Range is a series of mountains and valleys (specifically [[Horst (geology)|horst]]s and [[graben]]s), caused by the extension of the Earth's crust.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/province/basinrange.html|title=Basin and Range Province|publisher=United States Geological Survey|access-date=2012-01-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090125163038/http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/province/basinrange.html|archive-date=2009-01-25|url-status=dead}}</ref> One notable feature of the Basin and Range is [[Mono Lake]], which is the oldest lake in [[North America]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Harris|first=S.L.|year=2005|title=Fire Mountains of the West: The Cascade and Mono Lake Volcanoes|publisher=Mountain Press|isbn=978-0-87842-511-2|page=61}}</ref> The Basin and Range also contains the [[Owens Valley]], the deepest valley in North America (more than 10,000 feet (3&nbsp;km) deep, as measured from the top of Mount Whitney).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Smith|first1=Genny|first2=Jeff|last2=Putnam|year=1976|title=Deepest Valley: a Guide to Owens Valley, its roadsides and mountain trails|edition=2nd|publisher=Genny Smith books|isbn=0-931378-14-1}}</ref>

In the eastern part of the state, below the Sierra Nevada, there is a series of dry lake beds that were filled with water during the last ice age (fed by ice melt from [[glacier|alpine glacier]]s but never directly affected by [[glaciation]]; see [[pluvial]]).<ref>{{cite web|publisher=United States Geological Survey|title=Shoreline Butte: Ice age Death Valley|url=http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/usgsnps/deva/ftsho1.html|work=Death Valley Geology Field Trip Shoreline Butte|date=30 June 2000|access-date=2009-09-10|archive-date=2015-04-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150430063530/http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/usgsnps/deva/ftsho1.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Many of these lakes have extensive [[evaporite|evaporite deposit]]s that contain a variety of different [[salt (chemistry)|salt]]s. In fact, the salt sediments of many of these lake beds have been [[mining|mined]] for many years for various salts, most notably [[borax]] (this is most famously true for [[Owens Lake]] and [[Death Valley]]).

In this province reside the [[White Mountains (California)|White Mountains]], which are home to the oldest living organism in the world, the [[bristlecone pine]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/methuselah/explore.html|title=Explore the Methuselah Grove|work=NOVA Online: Methuselah Tree|publisher=PBS|last=Bain|first=G. Donald|year=2001}}</ref>