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[–] Memorexem ago  (edited ago)

Ah, yes, the Huffington post. The pinnacle of journalism. How about the National Parks Service website?

A good wildflower year depends on at least three things: 1.Well-spaced rainfall throughout the winter and spring 2.Sufficient warmth from the sun 3.Lack of drying winds

Warming Things Up: Wildflower seeds that sprout with cool winter storms often remain small and low to the ground until the springtime sun starts to warm the soil. They may not look like they are growing, but below the surface a strong root system is being built. As the temperatures get warmer the well established plants then put on a growth spurt and start to bloom.

It's been fun. Toodles!

Edit - forgot to include the site! My bad.

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[–] oedipusaurus_rex 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

okay kid. here is how it is. you are bitching about the quality of my sources when I put the date I was in death valley into google, and the words super, bloom, and death valley. I posted a picture of what was going on during the super bloom in death valley, when you posted some shitty, low quality, photoshop job, and I called you out on it and now you are being a bitch about it. And now I am going to tell you the difference between the Chilean Desert, and Death Valley.

Death Valley is up to 282 feet below sea level, and the air moving across the valley has been through the orographic effect 4 times before reaching the valley floor, where the Atacama Desert lies on a 13000 ft plateau bordering the Pacific coast. An orographic effect is what is commonly known as a rain shadow. Air comes in off the ocean, and is physically forced up by mountains. The lower pressure and temperatures lower the dew point of the air, and force the moisture out of the air via precipitation. This is the root cause of the temperate rainforest in the Pacific Northwest (Washington State, Oregon, and SW Canada). On the opposite side of the mountains the air moves down, following the topography and is dryer, hence no rain. This is what is meant by the term rain shadow. Again, the Panamints on the western edge of Death Valley are rain shadow # 4. The Atacama Desert on the other hand borders the ocean, so the orographic effect happens once before reaching the desert.

The Atacama Desert is on an active tectonic margin, where the Nazca Plate is being subducted by the South American Plate. This is why the Andes are there. They are currently being built up. Death Valley on the other hand is in the Basin and Range. Basin and Range topography is unique in that it was originally a mountain chain that was built up by the subduction of the Farralon Plate, of which all that is left is the Juan de Fuca off the coast of Oregon and Washington State. The old contact with the Farralon is now in contact with the Pacific Plate, and they move transform to each other (they are not pushing together, or pulling apart, but moving across each other, like cars driving on opposite sides of a street. If you look at the movement from either plate, the other one appears to be moving to the right). The compressive stresses that built up were released, and the ground started extending, stretching out, and thinning. Imagine you have a book shelf with a bunch of books on it, and they are all standing up strait. Now move a book end and the books will all start leaning, and it will create a series of valleys and ridges along the tops of the books. This is what is happening in the basin and range, and this is why there are 4 rain shadows that the air must go through before reaching Death Valley.

The weight of sediment on the surface of the valley floor is pushing the graben (a block of land that has dropped down due to extensional tectonic forces) deeper into the mantle. This process is ongoing, there is already more than 10000 feet of sediment on the valley floor, and as the Panamints, Funeral, and Black Mountains erode, this isn't going to stop. In fact, when California breaks off from Mainland US, Death Valley is the most likely suture point. Because of the extreme depth of the valley floor there is a blanket of warm air that traps air in the valley. This hot dry air is responsible for the hottest recorded temperature on earth (134° F, at Furnace Creek in 1913.)

The Atacama Desert and Death Valley do get precipitation. Death Valley gets around 2 inches a year, while parts of the Atacama get none at all. When the Atacama does get precipitation though, it is usually in the form of snow in Jan/Feb, and can receive more in one event than some humid subtropical places get in a year. The volume of precipitation, and the fact that it melts slowly is much more conducive to wildflower blooms than the occasional 15 minute showers that Death Valley receives. OP's picture was taken at a low angle, which makes the bloom look bigger than it is. Look in the hills and you will get a better idea of what it looks like standing up. My picture was taken at a low angle too though. Your picture is a shitty low quality photoshop.

TLDR; I finally had a reason to do a data dump on all the death valley shit I've been working on for the last couple of months. Punk ass bitch didn't know who he's dealing with.