Death Valley: The Hottest Place on Earth. Where? Who Lives?

The hottest place in the world is Death Valley in the USA. Death Valley is in the Mohave Desert, on California’s border with Nevada. Moreover, the valley forms a large part of the desert. Death Valley is an interesting region in many ways: it is the hottest and driest region in North America. However, the valley also hosts mountains higher than 3 thousand meters.

It is an area of ​​approximately 7,800 km² stretching in a north-south direction, between the Amargosa Region in the east, the Panamint Region in the west, the Sylvania Mountains in the north and the Owlshead Mountains in the south.

Distance from Lowest to Highest of Death Valley

Death Valley is just 123 km from the highest point in America, Mount Whitney at 4,421 meters.

Earth’s Hottest Region

According to the data of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the highest air temperature ever measured on earth was recorded as 56.7 ºC in Death Valley in California, USA on July 10, 1913. In Death Valley, which is a narrow and long basin surrounded by high mountains, the thermal radiation emitted from the surfaces heated by the effect of the sun’s rays is trapped in the valley before it can spread into space.

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Who Lives in Death Valley

Death Valley has hosted many Native American tribes throughout history. The Timbisha tribe, which has still been in the valley for at least 1,000 years, has inhabited the area.

Animals

Death Valley is home to many different species of small mammals, birds and reptiles. Large mammals such as sheep, jackals, foxes and mountain lions also live in the region.

Flora

With the exception of areas close to water, the entire region consists of dwarf shrublands and completely arid areas. In high areas, Joshua trees and pine trees grow. When the winter rains end and spring begins, the vegetation revives and the valley is covered with flowers.

Geographical Status of Death Valley

Due to the movement on the fault lines, mountains and valleys have been formed in the basin. There is evidence of the existence of more than one volcano in the region that caused violent eruptions. One of them is the 1.5 km wide Ubehebe Crater.

Many areas of Death Valley contain rocks of rare and extraordinary beauty that were formed as a result of the violent movement of the earth. These rocks, which are black, dark brown, red, gray and even yellow, are covered with striped cavities bearing the traces of being under the ocean for thousands of years.

Salt

Death Valley had an inland sea during the Pleistocene Age (starting about 1.8 million years ago and ending 11,700 years ago), the only ice age that mankind has ever seen. With the onset of the Holocene period (last 100 thousand years), warming began, the inland sea evaporated and dried, leaving lands covered with salt.

Becoming a National Monument

On February 11, 1933, Death Valley was declared a National Monument by President Herbert Hoover. In 1994, the region became a National Park.

Source: https://www.science.org/content/article/move-over-death-valley-these-are-two-hottest-spots-earth