Badwater Basin

USA / California / Furnace Creek /
 basin (geographical), dry lake
Death Valley National Park

Badwater Basin, the lowest area in the Western Hemisphere.
The 16 square miles of salt flats within this rectangle are all close to 280 feet below sea level, some places as low as 282.7' below sea level.
(Earth's only lower place: the Dead Sea in Israel).

During exceptionally wet winters the normally dry Amargosa River flows into this depression from the south, turning the playa into a temporary lake a mile wide and four inches deep.(as seen in the above photo, dated March 2005)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endorheic
www.topoquest.com/map.php?lat=36.25023&lon=-116.82588&d...
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badwater_Basin
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   36°13'58"N   116°49'13"W

Comments

  • A nice place for a bike ride in mid winter. Bring water and ride south to north.
  • Some of the data above is incorrect. This is the lowest point in North America, but is not the lowest point in the western hemisphere. Laguna del Carbón in Argentina is lower. Additionally, there are seven basins elsewhere in the world that are lower than Death Valley, not just the Dead Sea. They are: Dead Sea (-418m); Turfan Depression (-154m); Lake Assal (-153m); Caspian Sea (-138m); Qattara Depression (-133m); Afar Depression (-125m); Laguna del Carbón (-105m)...followed by Death Valley (-86m).
This article was last modified 5 years ago