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Near Ash Hill in the Mojave Desert, California, there is an impressive channel that is cut in bedrock. The channel is in a pass through which Lake Manly, the pluvial lake that occupied Death Valley, could have overflowed. indeed, the channel has been attributed to such overflow. The pass, however, is 500 m above the highest shorelines of Lake Manly in Death Valley, and evidence from cores from dry lakes on either side of the pass does not support the overflow hypothesis.

Despite its size, new field observations suggest that the channel was actually eroded by local runoff. Water from several tributaries collects into a single channel at this point, and the resulting discharge is apparently sufficient to cause retreat of a knickpoint from the downstream edge of the basalt flow into which the channel is cut. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.