Alabama Hills
The Alabama Hills are a deeply weathered granitic body a few miles west of Lone Pine, CA.
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The Alabama Hills sit in the shadow of Mt. Whitney and the eastern Sierras. Because of this visually startling juxtaposition, they appear in over 150 movies, including Gunga Din, Star Trek: Generations, and Gladiator.
Although the granites of the Alabama Hills are only 90 Ma, they are so deeply weathered that they appear much older. Large, >10 cm K-spar phenocrysts are plentiful.
These rocks are deeply chemically eroded.
Part of this weathering is the result of pervasive jointing, which allow pathways for chemical weathering.
Rocks of the Poleta Folds and White-Inyo Mountains, as seen from the Alabama Hills.
OWEN'S LAKE from ALABAMA HILLS
This "lake" is now a dry, alkaline bed, although it was a shallow lake as late as 1924. Mulholland's theft of water from the Owen's Valley to slake the thirst of Los Angeles dried the lake, destroying a major wetland and stopover for migratory birds.
The Owen's Valley Aqueduct, water heading for LA. I may not like it--but I can still send LA my little contribution by pissing in the water. :)
THE 1872 LONE PINE EARTHQUAKE
On 26 March 1872 a ~M8 earthquake occurred near the town of Lone Pine, population ~300. Twenty-three people perished when 52 of the 59 houses in town were destroyed.
The Lone Pine Fault moved in a 15-20 foot vertical, and 35-40 foot horizontal displacement. Because of rapid settling of unconsolidated alluvial fan cobbles, the scarp is now much less prominent than 15-20 feet; it is now less than 10 feet, but still a prominent topographic feature.
Innumerable such fault movements have, in fact, created the low graben of the Owen's Valley itself. Note, though, that the horizontal displacement was twice the vertical, although we typically think of Basin & Range activity as resulting from vertical, normal faulting.
You can see the fault scarp to the west of Lone Pine, a short walk from Whitney Portal Rd.
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This particular rock has been drilled by Lubetkin & Clark, 1988 as part of a study to determine the ages of past offsets. See also Smoot, and Lee.
The fault scarp exposes fresh Mt. Whitney Granite (90 Ma). This granite has large (10 cm) K-spar phenocrysts.
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