page_title: Places of interest in the Death Valley area
section_title: Ventifact Ridge
hierarchical_section_title: Places of interest in the Death Valley area / Ventifact Ridge
caption_attribution_description: Photo by Daniel Mayer. Released under terms of the en:GNU FDL
context_page_description: Places of interest in the Death Valley area are mostly located within Death Valley National Park in eastern California.
context_section_description: Ventifact Ridge is a part of a basaltic lava flow. The rocks on its exposed and barren ridge are famous for being shaped by wind erosion and are called ventifacts. Sharp edges of ventifacts called Kanters are formed when two or more facets (planar surfaces) intersect. Open grooves in the ventifacts are called flutes. Most of the holes in the basalt are vesicles that were formed when gas escaped from the cooling lava. Some of these have been expanded or even merged by sandblasting.
  Non-stop winds on this ridge are concentrated and compressed at the top of the hill and are very fast as a result. These strong winds pick-up dust and sand (mostly from the two closest alluvial fans), which literally sand-blast exposed surfaces. Winds strong enough for sandblasting come from the north and the south.
caption: Ventifact at Ventifact Ridge
exif: {}