Death Valley formed as north-south fault lines stretched and pulled the earth?s crust apart, forcing mountainous uplifts on either side while the expanding space in between sank. The resulting 120-mile long basin is known as a Graben, geologically defined as a depressed land mass paralleled by faults and escarpments at the base of uplifted mountain ranges. The Death Valley graben is bound by the Amargosa Range to the east and Panamint Range to the west.

The Salt Flats are part of Death Valley's greater salt pan, covering more than 200 square miles

Honeycombs of salt link together to form the flats

Extreme dry weather curls the edges of the salt flats creating challenging hiking conditions

Rains bring in new sediments, thickening, discoloring and further displacing the polygon-shaped salt flats

Mud is found on or just beneath smoother surfaces where the groundwater table is high, or wind and rain have recently stripped away top layers of salt

Below sea level and fully exposed, the salt flats can be exceedingly hot - only very short walks are recommended