Ancestral Mojave River

Dry lakes along the Mojave River were formed as the river itself evolved and the land took shape. Only 500,000 years ago the Mojave sloped toward the ocean and as the Transverse Ranges pushed the desert up the slope reversed and the river began to form lakes from the water flowing inland instead of toward the sea. The river would fill a swamp and then a lake, and the lake would flood and stretch the river a bit further and further to one lake and then another until the ultimate inland termination, Death Valley and its Lake Manly.

Original presentation by Dr. Norman Meek, Advisor Bob Reynolds, Images Walter Feller

click the map to read the presentation;