Death Valley Earth at 134 °F (56.7 °C) on July 10, 1913, as well as the highest recorded natural ground surface temperature on Earth at 201 °F (93.9 °C) on July 15, 1972. Located near the border of California and Nevada, in the Great Basin, east of the Sierra Nevada mountains, Death Valley constitutes much of Death Valley National Park and is the principal feature of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve. It is located mostly in Inyo County, California. It runs from north to south between the Amargosa Range on the east and the Panamint Range on the west; the
Death Valley Grapevine Mountains and the Owlshead Mountains form its northern and southern boundaries, respectively. It has an area of about . The highest point in Death Valley itself is Telescope Peak in the Panamint Range, which has an elevation of . Death Valley is an excellent example of a graben, or a downdropped block of land between two mountain ranges. It lies at the southern end of a geological trough known as Walker Lane, which runs north to Oregon. The valley is bisected by a right lateral strike slip fault system, represented by the Death Valley Fault and the Furnace Creek