Here the group is standing on the hard, clay surface of the playa at the north end of Panamint Valley. The surface is hard because the water table is much deeper than it was at the south end of the valley. The uniformly colored rocks in the left background belong to the Hunter Mountain batholith at the north end of the Panamint Range. The bedded rocks in the right background are the Cambrian through Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks in the Panamint Butte area. The dark rocks near the top of the Panamint Range are Tertiary basalt flows that had their source to the west (left) in the Argus Range. These basalt flows supply evidence for the amount and direction of extension that occurred during the development of the Panamint Valley.
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