It's me, Larry from the McKittrick Canyon Page , to show you some highlights from Death Valley. This basin, as much of this area, is a result of extensional tectonics, or pulling apart of the earth's crust. This causes faulting of the crust, and sections of crust drop down between the other blocks.
Death Valley is an example of such a down drop block.
The lowest point in the valley is at negative 282 feet. This is the lowest point in North or South America. At this stop we are standing on the base of an alluvial fan. Alluvial fans are formed when flash floods from the occasional thunder storm carries massive amounts of rock and debris down the mountains, and out onto the valley floor. These features look like fans from above, and this is where the name comes from.