Pleistocene Lake Manix On-Site Images

Click on the image for a larger picture. The view is roughly eastward from the vicinity of Bassett Point; fossil-bearing Late Pleistocene sediments of the Manix Formation lie in foreground and midground.

Click on the image for a larger picture. The view is roughly southeastward from Bassett Point to the type locality (where a geologic rock formation was first named and described in the scientific literature) of the fossiliferous Upper Pleistocene Manix Formation.

Click on the image for a larger view. The individual is standing just downslope from Bassett Point (the view is roughly southeastward) amidst the sediments of the Upper Pleistocene Manix Formation; abundant, beautifully preserved skeletal elements from the Tui Mojave Chub, in addition to many kinds of fresh water mollusks, typically weather out of this interval in the Manix Formation; mammal and bird remains are rarer finds, but quite rewarding ones. Of course, the Manix Formation has recently been designated an Area of Critical Environmental Concern by the Bureau of Land Management--so, don't remove anything you find in the Manix Formation these days unless you have a special use permit from the BLM.

Click on the image for a larger picture. Here, the view is looking slightly north of eastward, just downslope from Bassett point, to the eroded uppermost sediments of Late Pleistocene Lake Manix. The gully which runs just behind the individual standing in the image was loaded with abundant, perfectly preserved skeletal elements from the Tui Mojave Chub, indicating widespread lacustrine (lake) conditions in this part of the present-day Mojave Desert some 19,000 years ago.

Click on the image for a larger view, plus more detailed information. Here's a photograph from our very first visit to the fossiliferous Upper Pleistocene Manix Formation. A geology acquaintance (left) and the author's Father learn that the jeep's engine block had frozen solid overnight, when temperatures plummeted to 20 degrees or lower during a mid December expedition.

Click on the image for a larger view. Late afternoon during our first visit to the Manix Formation badlands. Only a few hours later, our mid 50s December temperatures had dropped below freezing and we were all huddled around a blazing campfire trying to stave off a serious case of exposure. One of our geology acquaintances stands at far right.

Click on the image for a larger picture. Here, the view is essentially northward across the Mojave Desert flatlands near Bassett Point, amidst the youngest deposits in the Upper Pleistocene Manix Formation. The photograph was taken near the area from which we excavated a fossil camel metapodial (one of the foot bones) in the Manix Formation, long before the region was formally designated an Area of Critical Environmental Concern.

Click on the image for a larger view. This makeshift, home-brewed monument mysteriously appeared at Bassett Point sometime ago; not sure whether it's still there, but over the course of several successive visits we'd notice that the monument had "magically" acquired a number of new embellishments and curious additions.

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