时间：2022-10-05 06:58:52
Death Valley形成约在300万年前，因地球重力将地壳压碎成巨大的岩块而形成。至冰河时代，排山倒海的湖水灌入较低地势，之后经过几百万年火焰般日头的酷晒，这个太古世纪遗留下来的大盐湖终于干涸而尽。如今展露在大自然下的死谷，只是一层层覆盖的泥浆与岩盐层的堆积。
1849年冬，一列开往金山的淘金队伍抄捷径横越该谷，因不敌恶劣的天气，最终深陷无垠的黄沙中，致使白骨成堆。成功穿越山谷的少数人在离开此地时伤心地说了句“Goodbye, Death Valley”，“死亡谷”由此得名。
Named features on maps of Death Valley National Park include the Funeral Mountains（葬礼山）, Coffin Peak（棺材岭）, Hell’s Gate（鬼门关）, Starvation Canyon（饥饿峡谷） and Dead Man Pass（死人关）―this is clearly a place with a bad history, reflecting the troubles and misfortunes endured（忍耐） by the pioneers who first traversed（横贯）, inhabited and mined the region during the end of the last century. But despite the foreboding reputation（不祥的声誉）, visitors today will find a place of amazing beauty with many colorful rocks and canyons, miles of pristine sand dunes, unique evaporative salt features and even a diverse range of wildlife. The park also contains many relics from a hundred and fifty years of history, which give an insight into the harsh life of the early settlers―borax and metal ore mines, ghost towns, charcoal kilns and other ruins. Petroglyphs（岩石雕刻） and ancient foottrails provide evidence of the Shoshone Indians（肖松尼族印第安人） who lived here even earlier.
The valley is a long, low depression set in largely barren（贫瘠的） and unpopulated country of desert plains and rocky ridges, east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains（内华达山脉）. It is over 130 miles long, but only around 12 miles wide, running roughly north-south near the border with Nevada.
From an elevation（海拔） 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（恶水地带）, the lowest point in the Western hemisphere. The depth of the depression is partly responsible for the extreme high temperatures, which can exceed（超越） 130°F in summer. High, unvegetated（这里指靠不到边的） mountains of somber（沉闷的） reddish color flank（位于……两侧） the narrow valley on both sides; a few are high enough to have snow for many months of the year.
The protected area, proclaimed a National Monument in 1933, was extended in 1994to include an additional 1200,000 acres, mainly in the little-visited northwest section, and was upgraded（上坡） in status to a National Park; this now covers 3 million acres, making it the largest in the US outside Alaska. Nearly 550 square miles are below sea level.
（责编：张雯）