The basin was considered the lowest elevation in the Western Hemisphere until the discovery of Laguna del Carbón in Argentina at −344 ft (−105 m).īadwater Crater, the lowest place on Mars, is named after Badwater Basin due to their similarities.īadwater Basin elevation sign View of the Basins's salt flats Geography Īt Badwater Basin, significant rainstorms flood the valley bottom periodically, covering the salt pan with a thin sheet of standing water. The salt flats are hazardous to traverse (in many cases being only a thin white crust over mud), and so the sign marking the low point is at the pool instead. The pool is not the lowest point of the basin: the lowest point (which is only slightly lower) is several miles to the west and varies in position, depending on rainfall and evaporation patterns. The pool does have animal and plant life, including pickleweed, aquatic insects, and the Badwater snail.Īdjacent to the pool, where water is not always present at the surface, repeated freeze–thaw and evaporation cycles gradually push the thin salt crust into hexagonal honeycomb shapes. The site itself consists of a small spring-fed pool of "bad water" next to the road in a sink the accumulated salts of the surrounding basin make it undrinkable, thus giving it the name. Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States, is only 84.6 miles (136 km) to the northwest. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Badwater Basinīadwater Basin is an endorheic basin in Death Valley National Park, Death Valley, Inyo County, California, noted as the lowest point in North America and the United States, with a depth of 282 ft (86 m) below sea level.
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