Few of us have any conception of the enormous timescales in our planet’s long history, and this narrow perspective underlies many of the environmental problems we are creating for ourselves. Deep time is a term related to the concept of geologic time which entails huge changes over the age of the Earth. A deep understanding of the history and processes of our planet provides us with the inspiration and the guidelines for our own effective functioning as individuals and as a species on this ‘pale blue dot’.

This series of photographs is a small selection that depicts one of Earth’s biggest geological calendars located in the -unjustly named-  Death Valley National Park. The oldest rocks in the area  are extensively metamorphosed by intense heat and pressure and are at least 1700 million years old. These rocks were intruded by a mass of granite 1400 Ma (million years ago) and later uplifted and exposed to nearly 500 million years of erosion.

Death Valley’s landscape has been changing for millions of years. It is changing now, and will continue to change long after we have departed. Erosion slowly carves away at the ancient rock formations, reshaping the surface of the land. The basin continues to subside and the mountains rise ever higher and our understanding of this fact can affect the future of this planet of which we are at the present moment part of.