The Selenite Range is a mountain range in western Pershing County,

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

. The range is a north–south trending feature approximately long and wide. The Fox Range lies to the west across the San Emidio Desert valley and the south end of the

Black Rock Desert The Black Rock Desert is a semi-arid region (in the Great Basin shrub steppe ecoregion) of lava beds and Dry lake, playa, or alkali flats, situated in the Black Rock Desert–High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area, a silt ...

playa. Gerlach and

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

are two communities on the foothills and just to the northwest of the range. These communities supported the

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate Hydrate, dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, drywall and blackboard or sidewalk ...

mines in the range during their active period. The large Empire gypsum quarry lies just west of Luxor Peak at 40° 30' N; 119° 18' W just northwest of Kumiva Peak.Empire, NV 7.5 minute quadrangle, USGS, 1990Kumiva Peak, NV 7.5 minute quadrangle, USGS, 1990 The range was named for deposits of selenite, a variety of gypsum. Named Peaks in the range from north to south include: Selenite Peak, ; Luxor Peak, ; Kumiva Peak, ; Purgatory Peak, ; and Mt. Limbo, .Purgatory Peak, NV 7.5 min. quadrangle, USGS, 1990

References

Mountain ranges of Pershing County, Nevada Mountain ranges of Nevada {{PershingCountyNV-geo-stub