The 704,000 acres of Basin and Range National Monument, created in 2015, preserve a large area having the eponymous geologic structure: long, north-south trending, fault-bounded mountain ranges separated by broad valleys, so characteristic of Nevada and environs. (Note that “Basin and Range” is not synonymous with “Great Basin.” The Great Basin has Basin and Range geologic structure but the basins have no exterior drainage to the sea. Las Vegas Valley, for example, is in the Basin and Range but not in the Great Basin, because the valley drains to the…
