DEATH VALLEY

Death Valley National Park

Company Name

Company Address

Date of Letter

Recipient's name

Recipient's title

Recipient's company

Recipient's company address

Recipient's Name:

Death Valley National Park, established on February 11, 1933, covers almost 3,000 square miles and is a vast natural museum, larger than the Yellowstone National Park. The floor of the Valley is almost 300 feet below sea level (at Badwater basin) and it is recognized as the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere and one of the hottest places on earth. 134 degrees F was recorded in 1913, second only to the 136 degrees registered in Libya in 1936. From the top of the 11,049 foot Telescope Peak in the Panamint Range Mountains, the floor of the Valley spreads out almost 2 miles below. It bears the grim name Death Valley.

All the great divisions of geological time. the eras and most of their subdivisions, are represented in the rocks of the mountains bordering the great valley. These rocks and the land forms tell a story of endless changes in the earth's crust - vast depositions, contortions, tiltings, alternate risings and lowerings, faultings and intense heats and pressures that changed the very nature of some rocks. (Wright, 2006, 4-16)

Climate too, has played its part. In recent geological time, powerful forces of water, wind, and gravity have sculptured much of the scenery that you see today. In the harsh environment of the floor of Death Valley, plants and animals must inexorably adapt and specialize - or perish. The average yearly rainfall here is less than 2 inches. Plants that do not grow near springs, pools, or other permanent water have developed specialized means to obtain and preserve water, or have adapted to quick growth and propagation through maximum use of the scant rains that fall upon them.

Between the valley floor and the mountain ridges, plant communities change ...