Q 01/05

Death Valley National Park straddles the border between which two states?

A) California and Nevada

B) California and Arizona

C) Nevada and Utah

D) Arizona and Nevada

Answer · why

A) California and Nevada

Most of it lies in California east of the Sierra Nevada; small parts spill over into Nevada.

Q 02/05

Death Valley holds which trio of superlatives among US national parks?

A) Largest, oldest and highest

B) Hottest, driest and lowest

C) Coldest, wettest and windiest

D) Newest, smallest and quietest

Answer · why

B) Hottest, driest and lowest

It is also the largest national park in the contiguous United States and the fifth-largest overall, bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

Q 03/05

Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America, lies how far below sea level?

A) 82 feet

B) 582 feet

C) 282 feet

D) 1,282 feet

Answer · why

C) 282 feet

Only Argentina's Laguna del Carbón is lower in the Western Hemisphere; Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48, is just 85 miles away.

Q 04/05

What air temperature, recorded at Furnace Creek on 10 July 1913, is the highest ever measured on Earth?

A) 124 °F

B) 144 °F

C) 129 °F

D) 134 °F

Answer · why

D) 134 °F

A 136 °F reading from Libya in 1922 was later thrown out; the average July high there is 117 °F.

Q 05/05

How much rain falls at Badwater in an average year?

A) About 6 inches

B) About 1.5 inches

C) About 12 inches

D) About 0.1 inch

Answer · why

B) About 1.5 inches

Some years register nothing at all; the surrounding mountains can get over 15 inches, and rare storms bring flash floods that remodel the landscape.