The Central Basin in California is a geologic trough (known as the Walker Lane) roughly aligned with the border between California and Nevada and traverses southward to where Death Valley intersects the Mojave Desert. The area where Death Valley is located is known as where Manly Lake existed during the Pleistocene epoch.

The northern end of this trough travels north into Nevada towards Pyramid Lake and northwest into California above Lake Tahoe towards Lassen Peak where the Central Basis trough there intersects the conjunction of the (1) Pyramid Lake Fault Zone; the (2) Warm Springs Valley Fault, and the (3) Honey Lake Fault Zone. These three fault zones are a transverse tectonic zone which forms the southern boundary of the Modoc Plateau in the Northern Basin ecoregion of northeast California.

Uto-Aztecan Numic Family Groups, Mono group

Tuttle Creek

Walker Lane Geologic Trough

Manzanar National Historical Site

Alabama Hills BLM

Owens River Valley