About This File
FS2002 Scenery--Death Valley California Terrain Mesh. A long, low depression set in largely barren and unpopulated country of desert plains and rocky ridges, east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Death Valley, CA, is over 130 miles long, but only around 12 miles wide, running roughly north-south near the border with Nevada. From an elevation of 1000 meters at the north end, the land slopes down steadily and for 70 miles the floor is below sea level, reaching a low point of -86 meters at Badwater, the lowest point in the Western hemisphere. The depth of the depression is partly responsible for the extreme high temperatures, which can exceed 130 degrees F in summer. High, unvegetated mountains of sombre reddish color flank the narrow valley on both sides. This high resolution terrain mesh is based on USGS 30 meter digital elevation models, resampled to LOD of 10 (38.2 meters). By Orlando Sotomayor.