1.
Canada geese
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The Canada goose is a large wild goose species with a black head and neck, white patches on the face, and a brown body. Native to arctic and temperate regions of North America, its migration occasionally reaches northern Europe and it has been introduced to the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, and the Falkland Islands. Like most geese, the Canada goose is primarily herbivorous and normally migratory, Canada geese are also among the most commonly hunted waterfowl in North America. The Canada goose was one of the species described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work Systema Naturae. It belongs to the Branta genus of geese, which species with largely black plumage. Branta is a Latinised form of Old Norse Brandgás, burnt goose, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first citation for the Canada goose dates back to 1772. The Canada goose is colloquially referred to as the Canadian goose. The British Ornithologists Union followed suit in June 2005, the AOU has divided the many subspecies between the two species. This has been aggravated by the overlap between the types of Canada goose and larger types of cackling goose. The old lesser Canada goose was believed to be a hybrid population, with the birds named B. c. taverneri considered a mixture of B. c. minima, B. c. occidentalis. In addition, the barnacle goose has been determined to be a derivative of the cackling goose lineage, the black head and neck with a white chinstrap distinguish the Canada goose from all other goose species, with the exception of the cackling goose and barnacle goose. The seven subspecies of this vary widely in size and plumage details. Some of the races can be hard to distinguish from the cackling goose. However, most subspecies of the goose are considerably smaller. The smallest cackling goose, B. h. minima, is larger than a mallard. In addition to the difference, cackling geese also have a shorter neck and smaller bill. Canada geese range from 75 to 110 cm in length and have a 127–185 cm wingspan. Among standard measurements, the chord can range from 39 to 55 cm, the tarsus can range from 6.9 to 10.6 cm
2.
Lancaster, California
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Lancaster /ˈlæn. kæstər/ is a charter city in northern Los Angeles County, in the Antelope Valley of the western Mojave Desert in Southern California. As of 2013, Lancaster was the 31st largest city in California, Lancaster is part of a twin city complex with its southern neighbor Palmdale and together they are the principal cities within the Antelope Valley region and Californias High Desert. Lancaster is located approximately 70 miles north of downtown Los Angeles and it is separated from the Los Angeles Basin by the San Gabriel Mountains to the south, and from Bakersfield and the San Joaquin Valley by the Tehachapi Mountains to the north. The population of Lancaster grew from 37,000 at the time of its incorporation in 1977 to over 156,000 in 2010, according to the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance report of 2015, Lancaster has a population of 168,049. The area where Lancaster is now located, known as the Antelope Valley, was home to the Paiute Indians. In 1876 the Southern Pacific completed the line through the Antelope Valley, linking San Francisco, train service brought passengers through the water-stop-turned-community, which, with the help of promotional literature, attracted new settlers. The following year, the Lancaster News started publication, making it the first weekly newspaper in the Antelope Valley, by 1890, Lancaster was bustling and booming, and thanks to adequate rainfall, farmers planted and sold thousands of acres of wheat and barley. Thanks to the construction of the 233-mile Los Angeles Aqueduct starting in 1908. In the 1980s through the end of the program, Edwards Air Force Base, the development of Air Force Plant 42 in 1958, augmented in the 1960s by construction of Lockheed Aircrafts Plant 10, created tens of thousands of jobs. High-wage employment hit its peak in the 1970s during the Lockheed L-1011 commercial wide body jetliner project, for which all assembly and some engineering,250 L-1011 aircraft were assembled and flown from this plant and airfield. Lancaster was a community in Los Angeles County until 1977. Lancaster State Prison opened in 1993 and before that Los Angeles County hosted no prisons, most of Lancasters civic leaders and residents opposed the building of the prison, and four inmates escaped from LAC in its first year of operation. Nevertheless, by 2000 a proposal to increase the proportion of maximum-security inmates received little criticism. In 2005, Hyundai Motor Co. announced the opening of a 4, 300-acre, $60 million Proving Ground. In 2010, the city opened The BLVD, a one-mile revitalized stretch of Lancaster Boulevard between 10th Street West and Sierra Highway, City leaders have set the ambitious goal of becoming the nations first Net-Zero municipality, wherein they will produce more clean energy than they consume. Much of the infrastructure including City Hall, local schools. In March 2013, Lancaster became the first city in the US to require solar panels on all new homes in an effort to make the community more carbon neutral, the rule took effect in January,2014. War Eagle Field is an airfield located in the Mojave Desert
3.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
4.
Great Basin
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The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America. The region spans several physiographic divisions, biomes/ecoregions, and deserts, the term Great Basin is applied to hydrographic, biological, floristic, physiographic, topographic, and ethnographic geographic areas. The name was coined by John C. Frémont, who, based on information gleaned from Joseph R. Walker as well as his own travels, the hydrographic definition is the most commonly used, and is the only one with a definitive border. The other definitions yield not only different geographical boundaries of Great Basin regions, the Great Basin physiographic section is a geographic division of the Basin and Range Province defined by Nevin Fenneman in 1931. The United States Geological Survey adapted Fennemans scheme in their Physiographic division of the United States, the section is somewhat larger than the hydrographic definition. The culture area covers approximately 400,000 sq mi, or just less than twice the area of the hydrographic Great Basin, the hydrographic Great Basin is a 209,162 square miles area that drains internally. All precipitation in the region evaporates, sinks underground or flows into lakes, as observed by Frémont, creeks, streams, or rivers find no outlet to either the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean. The region is bounded by the Wasatch Mountains to the east, the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges to the west, the south rim is less distinct. The Great Basin includes most of Nevada, half of Utah, substantial portions of Oregon and California and small areas of Idaho, Wyoming, the term Great Basin is slightly misleading, the region is actually made up of many small basins. The Great Salt Lake, Pyramid Lake, and the Humboldt Sink are a few of the drains in the Great Basin, the Salton Sink is another closed basin within the Great Basin. The Great Basin Divide separates the Great Basin from the watersheds draining to the Pacific Ocean, the southernmost portion of the Great Basin is the watershed area of the Laguna Salada. The Great Basins longest and largest river is the Bear River of 350 mi, Lake Tahoe, North Americas largest alpine lake, is part of the Great Basins central Lahontan subregion. The hydrographic Great Basin contains multiple deserts and ecoregions, each with its own set of flora. The ecological boundaries and divisions in the Great Basin are unclear, the Great Basin overlaps four different deserts, portions of the hot Mojave and Colorado Deserts to the south, and the cold Great Basin and Oregon High Deserts in the north. The deserts can be distinguished by their plants, the Joshua tree and creosote bush occur in the hot deserts, the cold deserts are generally higher than the hot, and have their precipitation spread throughout the year. The climate and flora of the Great Basin is strongly dependent on elevation, as the elevation increases, because of this, forests occur at higher elevations. Utah juniper/single-leaf pinyon and mountain mahogany form open pinyon-juniper woodland on the slopes of most ranges, stands of limber pine and Great Basin bristlecone pine can be found in some of the higher ranges
5.
San Gabriel Mountains
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The San Gabriel Mountains are a mountain range located in northern Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County, California, United States. The mountain range is part of the Transverse Ranges and lies between the Los Angeles Basin and the Mojave Desert, with Interstate 5 to the west and Interstate 15 to the east. This range lies in, and is surrounded by, the Angeles National Forest, the highest peak in the range is Mount San Antonio, commonly referred to as Mt. Baldy. Mount Wilson is another peak, famed for the Mount Wilson Observatory. The observatory may be visited by the public, on October 10,2014, President Obama designated the area the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. Much of the range features rolling peaks, the range lacks craggy features, but contains a large number of canyons and is generally very rugged and difficult to traverse. The San Gabriel Mountains are in effect a large block that was uplifted and then dissected by numerous rivers. North of San Fernando, the San Gabriel Mountains crest abruptly up to almost 4,000 feet, pacoima and Big Tujunga Canyons cut through the range just east of San Fernando, carrying runoff into the San Fernando Valley. Little Tujunga Canyon Road bridges the range in area, connecting the San Fernando Valley to the Santa Clara River valley in the north. Towering over Big Tujunga Canyon north of Big Tujunga Reservoir is Mount Gleason, which at 6,502 feet, is the highest in this region of the San Gabriels. South of the gorge are the foothills of the mountains, which rise abruptly 4,000 feet above the Los Angeles Basin and give rise to the Arroyo Seco. Southeast of Big Tujunga Canyon, the front range of the San Gabriels gradually grows in elevation. On the north the range is dissected by the canyon of the West Fork San Gabriel River. On the north slopes of the San Gabriel crest, the ranks of mountains drop down incrementally to the floor of the Mojave Desert in a much more gradual manner than the sheer southern flank. The Angeles Crest Highway, one of the routes across the San Gabriels. Little Rock, Big Rock and Sheep Creeks drain off the part of the mountains. To the east, the San Andreas Fault cuts across the range, forming a series of long, straight and narrow depressions, including Swarthout Valley, South of Mount San Antonio, San Antonio Creek drains the mountains, cutting the deep San Antonio Canyon. However, there are several notable peaks in this region, including Telegraph Peak, at 8,985 feet, Cucamonga Peak, at 8,859 feet
6.
Tehachapi Mountains
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The Tehachapi Mountains /təˈhætʃəpi/ are a mountain range in the Transverse Ranges system of California in the Western United States. The range extends for approximately 40 miles in southern Kern County, the Tehachapis form a geographic, watershed, habitat, and rain shadow divide separating the San Joaquin Valley to the northwest and the Mojave Desert to the southeast. The Tehachapis crest varies in height from approximately 4, 000–8,000 feet and they are southeast of Bakersfield and the Central Valley, and west of Mojave and the Antelope Valley. The range runs southwest to northeast connecting the Southern Sierra Nevada range on their northeast with the San Emigdio Mountains on the west, the Tehachapis are delineated from the San Emigdio Mountains by Tejon Pass at the ranges western end. The canyon was named after grapevines, the California grapevine. The California State Water Project is to the east, with the California Aqueduct pumped by the Edmonston Pumping Plant over/through the Tehachapis to Castaic Lake reservoir. The Tehachapis are delineated from the Sierra Pelona Mountains by California State Route 138 at the southwestern end, connecting Interstate 5. The Tehachapis are delineated from the Sierra Nevada by Tehachapi Pass and State Route 58 at the northeastern end, connecting the San Joaquin Valley. The Union Pacific north/south railroad line, with the famous Tehachapi Loop, the Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm is on its eastern side. Their relative lack of development, especially in the large Tejon Ranch section, have allowed the continuity of these functions to date. The Tehachapis are primarily in the California interior chaparral and woodlands sub-ecoregion, with grasslands, California oak woodlands. The higher montane elevations include the California mixed evergreen forest plant community, some of the chaparral woodland species include, canyon live oak, valley oak, blue oak, and gray pine. Montane species include, black oak, Coulter pine, incense cedar, white fir, the Tehachapi linanthus is a phlox plant species endemic to chaparral habitat in the Tehachapi Mountains and the southern Sierra Nevada. The Tehachapi ragwort is a plant species endemic to forest habitat in the Tehachapis. The Tehachapi buckwheat is known only from the chaparral of the Tehachapis, the Tehachapi slender salamander is endemic to the Tehachapi Mountains and a listed vulnerable species. The white-eared pocket mouse is endemic to the Tehachapis and San Bernardino Mountains, there are at least 107 bird species, including the Stellers jay and mountain chickadee, found in the Tehachapis, many which consume acorns of the black oak as part of their diet. Other flora found here include the buckbrush and mountain mahogany, the notable raptor is the California condor, a critically endangered species. As in many California mountains, larger fauna includes, mule deer, mountain lion, coyote, fox, black bear, feral pig, bobcat, the Tehachapi Mountains are also the last known breeding site of the jaguar in the United States
7.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
8.
Palmdale, California
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Palmdale is a city in the center of northern Los Angeles County in the U. S. state of California. The San Gabriel Mountains separate Palmdale from the City of Los Angeles, on August 24,1962, Palmdale became the first community in the Antelope Valley to incorporate. 47 years later, in November 2009, voters approved making it a charter city and its population was 152,750 at the 2010 census, up from 116,670 at the 2000 census. Palmdale is the 33rd most populous city in California, in 2013, the Palmdale / Lancaster urban area had an estimated population of 513,547. According to area folklore, the travelers had been told they would know they were close to the ocean when they saw palm trees, never actually having seen palm trees before, they mistook the local Joshua trees for palms and so named their settlement after them. According to David L. Durham Joshua trees were sometimes called yucca palms at the time, the village was officially established upon the arrival of a post office on June 17,1888. By the 1890s farming families continued to migrate to Palmenthal and nearby Harold to grow grain, however, most of these settlers were unfamiliar with farming in a desert climate, so when the drought years occurred, most abandoned their settlement. By 1899, only one family was left in the original village, the rest of the settlers, including the post office, moved closer to the Southern Pacific railroad tracks. This new community was renamed Palmdale and was located where the present day civic center is, a railroad station was built along the tracks there. This railroad was operated by Southern Pacific and traveled between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the Wells Fargo stagecoach line that ran between San Francisco and New Orleans stopped there as well. During this period, crops of apples, pears and alfalfa became plentiful, in 1915, Palmdales first newspaper, the Palmdale Post, was published. Today it is called the Antelope Valley Press, in 1921, the first major link between Palmdale and Los Angeles was completed, Mint Canyon/Lancaster Road, later designated U. S. Route 6. Completion of this caused the local agricultural industry to flourish and was the first major step towards defining the metropolis that exists today. Presently this road is known as Sierra Highway, in 1924, the Little Rock Dam and the Harold Reservoir, present day Lake Palmdale, were constructed to assist the agricultural industry and have enough water to serve the growing communities. Agriculture continued to be the foremost industry for Palmdale and its northern neighbor Lancaster until the outbreak of World War II, in 1933, the United States government established Muroc Air Base six miles north of Lancaster in Kern County, now known as Edwards Air Force Base. They also bought Palmdale Airport in 1952 and established an aerospace development, one year later, in 1953, Lockheed established a facility at the airport. After this point in time, the industry took over as the primary local source of employment. Today the city is referred to as the Aerospace Capital of America because of its rich heritage in being the home of many of the aircraft used in the United States military
9.
California State Route 14
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State Route 14 is a north–south state highway in the U. S. state of California, largely in the Mojave Desert. The southern portion of the highway is signed as the Antelope Valley Freeway, legislatively, the route extends south of I-5 to State Route 1 in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles, however the portion south of the junction with I-5 has not been constructed. The southern part of the route is a busy commuter freeway serving and connecting the cities of Santa Clarita, Palmdale. This section is rural, following the line between the hot Mojave desert and the forming Sierra Nevada mountain range, linked with US395, this road connects Los Angeles with such places as Mammoth Mountain, Mono Lake, Yosemite National Park and Reno, Nevada. Route 14 was part of U. S. Route 6 prior to truncation in 1964, portions of Route 14 remain signed with names associated with US6, including Midland Trail, Theodore Roosevelt Highway and Grand Army of the Republic Highway. This route is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System, the southern portion of the freeway, from Interstate 5 to the Avenue D exit near Lancaster, has been designated the Antelope Valley Freeway by the state legislature. The Antelope Valley Freeway begins in the Santa Susana Mountains at the Newhall Pass interchange by splitting from the Golden State Freeway and this is the busiest portion of the route with an annual average daily traffic count of 169,000 vehicles per day. The freeway forms the boundary of Santa Clarita along its route. Past Santa Clarita, the continues to the northeast and crosses the Sierra Pelona Mountains. The ascent is mostly rugged and rural terrain, with two small towns along the ascent, first Agua Dulce and later Acton. Between the two towns the freeway forms the boundary of Vasquez Rocks Park, a county park. The highway crests the Sierra Pelona Mountains via Escondido Summit, at an elevation of 3,258 feet, the highway then crests the San Gabriel Mountains via Soledad Pass, at an elevation of 3,209 feet. The route of the highway through the mountains loosely parallels that of the line of the Southern Pacific Railroad. After cresting both mountain passes, the highway descends into the Antelope Valley, a valley within the Mojave Desert. The highway crosses Angeles Forest Highway and the California Aqueduct in the descent, Route 14 serves as the primary north–south thoroughfare for the communities of Palmdale and Lancaster. Between Palmdale Boulevard and Avenue D in Lancaster, SR14 runs concurrently with SR138, from the Pearblossom Highway exit south of Palmdale to its northern terminus at Route 395 near Inyokern, SR14 has been designated the Aerospace Highway. The freeway passes the Los Angeles/Kern County line at Avenue A, the freeway portion terminates just south of Mojave, where SR14 serves as the main street and runs through the downtown area. State Route 58 was formerly routed concurrent with SR14 through Mojave, before it was rerouted onto a bypass running north, the character of the highway changes as it leaves Mojave
10.
California State Route 58
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State Route 58 is an east-west highway across the California Coast Ranges, the southern San Joaquin Valley, the Tehachapi Mountains, which border the southern Sierra Nevada, and the Mojave Desert. It runs between its terminus near Santa Margarita and its eastern terminus at Barstow. It has junctions with Interstate 5 near Buttonwillow, State Route 99 in Bakersfield, State Route 202 in Tehachapi, State Route 14 in Mojave, Route 58 gives good access to Edwards Air Force Base. This route is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System and is eligible for the State Scenic Highway System, however, it is not a scenic highway as designated by Caltrans. The Korean War Veterans name honors the approximately 8,120 veterans from Kern County, the portion of the 58 from Barstow to Bakersfield is sometimes referred to as the Barstow–Bakersfield Highway. Route 58 between Santa Margarita and Buttonwillow is a mountain road through a thinly populated area. From its westernmost terminus at US101 near Santa Margarita, Route 58 heads east along the former US101 for one mile, Route 58 then heads east and up the winding mountain road, passing through thinly populated area and an intersection with State Route 229. Alternatives such as State Route 46 to the north or State Route 166 to the south are recommended, however, this section of SR58 does pass through the Carrizo Plain, which is known for its scenic beauty and geological features, including the San Andreas Fault. Route 58 then takes another winding road before joining with State Route 33 in the town of McKittrick. Route 33 then splits at the end of McKittrick before Route 58 then enters another. Route 58 then proceeds northeast for several miles before changing to an east-west alignment, a few miles later, Route 58 has an interchange with Interstate 5. Approximately 7 miles east of Interstate 5, Route 58 briefly joins State Route 43 before continuing east, Route 58 joins State Route 99 for about 1 mile through Bakersfield before splitting as a freeway and heading east. Route 58 briefly enters expressway status with two intersections in the Caliente area before resuming freeway status east of Caliente. Route 58 then reaches the Tehachapi city limits before continuing eastbound to Mojave, shortly after an intersection with State Route 14, Route 58 reverts to an expressway east of Mojave before resuming freeway status bypassing North Edwards, Edwards Air Force Base, and Boron. East of Boron, Route 58 reverts to one lane in each direction before a signal intersection with U. S. Route 395. Route 58 then changes from a road to a four-lane freeway just before reaching the easternmost terminus at Interstate 15 near Barstow. Construction started in April 2016 on a bypass of this section. Route 58 is a freeway from its junction with Route 99 in Bakersfield to several miles east of Mojave
11.
California State Route 138
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State Route 138 is an east–west state highway generally following the northern foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and the western Mojave Desert of southern California. The remaining section of the Ridge Route, Californias first highway connecting the San Joaquin Valley to the Los Angeles Basin, the Lancaster Freeway has four lanes, two for each direction of travel. Both Lancaster Road and Avenue D are 2-lane conventional roads, Avenue D is on a straight alignment over its 22 miles between 245th Street West and State Route 14. At Avenue T it tapers to two lanes and continues ahead on Pearblossom Highway through Littlerock, Pearblossom, and Llano to its west junction with State Route 18. Route 18s western terminus siphons off Las Vegas-bound travelers from 138, at its west junction with State Route 18, State Route 138 turns southeast on Antelope Highway to the Los Angeles/San Bernardino County line where it loses its alternative name, Antelope Highway. State Route 138 then descends through the West Cajon Valley and crosses Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass, from Interstate 15 to State Route 173, near the northwest corner of Silverwood Lake, traffic on State Route 138 is rather sparse. The remaining road past Silverwood Lake is mountainous, narrow, and twisting, the entire segment from Interstate 15 to the eastern terminus of State Route 138 at Mount Anderson Junction is known the El Cajon-Skyline Forest Highway. State Route 138 and 18 overlap each other in opposing termini, as SR 18s northwest most endpoint is in Llano with SR138 and this route is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System and is eligible for the State Scenic Highway System. One of the contributors to accidents on Route 138 of late is drivers passing on the two-lane highway in unsafe conditions. The State of California paid a $10 million settlement to the victims family, the area surrounding the highway is also prone to brush fires and flash floods. A project to widen the highway to four lanes and add shoulders between Ave T in Palmdale and Highway 18 in Llano was announced by the California Department of Transportation in 2009, work was projected to be completed by Spring 2012. However, as of December 2012, work on the project was still ongoing, a proposed bypass to the north of downtown Palmdale has been studied by Caltrans. The bypass would be located east of the Antelope Valley Freeway and south of LA/Palmdale Regional Airport along Avenue P-8, parts of the distinctive highway were used in the filming of the movie The Long, Long Trailer, a 1954 comedy with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Despite the rapid growth of Southern California in the fifty years. David Hockney composed the picturesque photographic collage Pearblossom Highway in 1986 off of the segment of Route 138 bearing that moniker and it may be viewed at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured on the road as it was in 1964, based on the alignment that existed at the time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage. R reflects a realignment in the route since then, M indicates a second realignment, L refers an overlap due to a correction or change, segments that remain unconstructed or have been relinquished to local control may be omitted. The numbers reset at county lines, the start and end postmiles in each county are given in the county column
12.
Los Angeles County
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Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, is the most populous county in both the United States and the state of California, the countrys most populous state. Its population is larger than that of 42 individual U. S. states and it has 88 incorporated cities and many unincorporated areas and at 4,083 square miles, it is larger than the combined areas of the U. S. states of Delaware and Rhode Island. The county is home to more than one-quarter of California residents and is one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the U. S and its county seat, the City of Los Angeles, is also its most populous city at about four million. Los Angeles County is one of the counties of California. The county originally included parts of what are now Kern, San Bernardino, Riverside, as the population increased, sections were split off to organize San Bernardino County in 1853, Kern County in 1866, and Orange County in 1889. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 4,751 square miles, Los Angeles County borders 70 miles of coast on the Pacific Ocean and encompasses mountain ranges, valleys, forests, islands, lakes, rivers, and desert. The western extent of the Mojave Desert begins in the Antelope Valley, most of the population of Los Angeles County is located in the south and southwest, with major population centers in the Los Angeles Basin, San Fernando Valley and San Gabriel Valley. Other population centers are found in the Santa Clarita Valley, Pomona Valley, Crescenta Valley, the county is divided west-to-east by the San Gabriel Mountains, which are part of the Transverse Ranges of southern California, and are contained mostly within the Angeles National Forest. Los Angeles County includes San Clemente Island and Santa Catalina Island, non-Hispanic whites numbered 2,728,321, or 28% of the population. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race numbered 4,687,889, 36% of Los Angeles Countys population was of Mexican ancestry,3. 7% Salvadoran, and 2. 2% Guatemalan heritage. The largest Asian groups of the 1,346,865 Asians in Los Angeles County are 4. 0% Chinese,3. 3% Filipino,2. 2% Korean,1. 0% Japanese,0. 9% Vietnamese,0. 8% Indian, and 0. 3% Cambodian. The racial makeup of the county is 48. 7% White,11. 0% African American,0. 8% Native American,10. 0% Asian,0. 3% Pacific Islander,23. 5% from other races, and 4. 9% from two or more races. 44. 6% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race, the largest European-American ancestry groups are German, Irish, English and Italian. 45. 9% of the population reported speaking only English at home,37. 9% spoke Spanish,2. 22% Tagalog,2. 0% Chinese,1. 9% Korean,1. 87% Armenian,0. 5% Arabic, and 0. 2% Hindi. At the census of 2000, there were 9,519,338 people,3,133,774 households, the population density was 2,344 people per square mile. There were 3,270,909 housing units at a density of 806 per square mile. 25% of all households were made up of individuals and 7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.98 and the average family size was 3.61. In the county, the population was out with 28% under the age of 18, 10% from 18 to 24, 33% from 25 to 44, 19% from 45 to 64
13.
Kern County, California
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Kern County is a county in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 839,631, Kern County comprises the Bakersfield, CA Metropolitan statistical area. The county spans the end of the Central Valley. Its northernmost city is Delano and its southern reach expands just beyond Lebec to the Grapevine, the countys economy is heavily linked to agriculture and to petroleum extraction. There is also an aviation, space, and military presence, such as Edwards Air Force Base, the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station. It is one of the fastest growing areas in the United States in terms of population growth, and suffers from significant water supply issues and poor air quality. The area was claimed by the Spanish in 1769, and in 1772 Commander Don Pedro Fages became the first European to enter it, in the beginning, the area that became Kern County was dominated by mining in the mountains and in the desert. The south of Tulare County was later organized as Kern County in 1866, with additions from Los Angeles and its first county seat was in the mining town of Havilah, in the mountains between Bakersfield and Tehachapi. The flatlands were considered inhospitable and impassable at the due to swamps, lakes, tule reeds. This changed when settlers started draining lands for farming and constructing canals, within 10 years the valley surpassed the mining areas as the economic center of the county, and the county seat was moved as a result from Havilah to Bakersfield in 1874. The discovery well of the Kern River Oil Field was dug by hand in 1899, soon the towns of Oil City, Oil Center and Oildale came into existence. The county derives its name from the Kern River, which was named for Edward Kern, frémonts 1845 expedition, which crossed Walker Pass. The Kern River was originally named Rio Bravo de San Felipe by Father Francisco Garces when he explored the area in 1776, severe earthquakes have struck Kern County within historical times, including the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake. On July 21,1952, an earthquake occurred with the epicenter about 23 miles south of Bakersfield and it measured 7.3 on the moment magnitude scale and killed 12 people. In addition to the deaths, it was responsible for hundreds of injuries, the main shock was felt over much of California and as far away as Phoenix, Arizona and Reno, Nevada. The earthquake occurred on the White Wolf Fault and was the strongest to occur in California since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Tehachapi suffered the greatest damage and loss of life from the earthquake, though its effects were widely felt throughout central and southern California. Ground disturbances that were created by the earthquakes were also surveyed, the details of these false accusations are covered extensively in the 2008 documentary Witch Hunt, narrated by Sean Penn. Kern county is considered to be a hotbed of country music, the Buck Owens Crystal Palace is located in Bakersfield
14.
Mojave Desert
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The Mojave Desert is an arid rain-shadow desert and the driest desert in North America. It is located in the southwestern United States, primarily within southeastern California and southern Nevada, very small areas also extend into Utah and Arizona. The central part of the desert is sparsely populated, while its peripheries support large communities such as Las Vegas, Lancaster, Palmdale, Victorville, the Mojave Desert is bordered by the Great Basin Desert to its north and the Sonoran Desert to its south and east. Topographical boundaries include the Tehachapi Mountains to the west, and the San Gabriel Mountains, the mountain boundaries are distinct because they are outlined by the two largest faults in California – the San Andreas and Garlock faults. The Mojave Desert displays typical basin and range topography and it occupies less than 50,000 sq mi, making it the smallest of the North American deserts. The Mojave Desert is often referred to as the desert, in contrast to the low desert. However, the Mojave Desert is generally lower than the Great Basin Desert to the north, the spelling Mojave originates from the Spanish language while the spelling Mohave comes from modern English. The Mojave Desert receives less than 13 in of rain a year and is generally between 2,000 and 5,000 feet in elevation, zion National Park in Utah lies at the junction of the Mojave, the Great Basin Desert, and the Colorado Plateau. Despite its aridity, the Mojave has long been a center of production, fed by irrigation coming from groundwater. The Mojave is a desert of temperature extremes and two distinct seasons, winter months bring comfortable daytime temperatures, which dip precipitously to around 20 °F on valley floors, and below 0 °F at higher elevations. Storms moving from the Pacific Northwest can bring rain and in places even snow. More often, the shadow created by the Sierra Nevada as well as mountain ranges within the desert such as the Spring Mountains, bring only clouds. By early June, it is rare for another Pacific storm to have a significant impact on the regions weather, summer weather is dominated by heat. Temperatures on valley floors can soar above 120 °F and above 130 °F at the lowest elevations, low humidity, high temperatures, and low pressure, draw in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico creating thunderstorms across the desert southwest known as the North American monsoon. Autumn is generally pleasant, with one to two Pacific storm systems creating regional rain events, october is one of the driest and sunniest months in the Mojave, and temperatures usually remain between 70 °F and 90 °F on the valley floors. After temperature, wind is the most significant weather phenomenon in the Mojave, during the June Gloom, cooler air can be pushed out into the desert from Southern California. In Santa Ana wind events, hot air from the desert blows out into the Los Angeles basin, wind farms in these areas generate power from these winds. The other major factor in the region is elevation
15.
Pronghorn
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The pronghorn is a species of artiodactyl mammal indigenous to interior western and central North America. It is the surviving member of the family Antilocapridae. During the Pleistocene period, about 12 antilocaprid species existed in North America, three other genera existed when humans entered North America but are now extinct. As a member of the superfamily Giraffoidea, the pronghorns closest living relatives are the giraffes, the Giraffoidea are in turn members of the infraorder Pecora, making pronghorns more distant relatives of the Cervidae and Bovidae, among others. The scientific name of the pronghorn is Antilocapra americana, the pronghorn is the sole extant member of the family Antilocapridae. This species was first described by American ornithologist George Ord in 1815, the expedition, which aimed to unravel water routes in the continent for commercial purposes, led to the discovery or formal recognition of a variety of flora and fauna of North America. Following the discovery of a few subspecies of the grouse, Lewis and Clark came across the pronghorn near the mouth of the Niobrara River. Clark was the first to kill a pronghorn, and described his experience as follows, Lewis and Clark made several other observations on the behavior of the pronghorn and how the local tribes hunted them. They described the animal, which referred to as the Antelope or the Goat, as follows. Shy and timorous they generally only on the ridges, which command a view of all the approaches of an enemy. When they first see the hunters they run with great velocity, the Indians near the Rocky Mountains hunt these animals on horseback, and shoot them with arrows. The Mandans mode of hunting them is to form a large, strong pen or fold, the animals are surrounded by the hunters, and gently driven towards this pen, in which they imperceptibly find themselves enclosed, and are then at the mercy of the hunters. Pronghorns have distinct white fur on their rumps, sides, breasts, bellies, adult males are 1. 3–1.5 m long from nose to tail, stand 81–104 cm high at the shoulder, and weigh 40–65 kg. The females are the height as males, but weigh 34–48 kg. The feet have two hooves, with no dewclaws and their body temperature is 38 °C. The orbits are prominent and set high on the skull, with never an anteorbital pit, as in the Giraffidae, skin covers the bony cores, but in the pronghorn, it develops into a keratinous sheath which is shed and regrown on an annual basis. Unlike the horns of the family Bovidae, the sheaths of the pronghorn are branched. Males have a horn sheath about 12. 5–43 cm long with a prong, females have smaller horns that range from 2. 5–15.2 cm and sometimes barely visible, they are straight and very rarely pronged
16.
Desert
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A desert is a barren area of land where little precipitation occurs and consequently living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to the processes of denudation, about one third of the land surface of the world is arid or semi-arid. This includes much of the regions where little precipitation occurs. Deserts can be classified by the amount of precipitation falls, by the temperature that prevails. Deserts are formed by weathering processes as large variations in temperature between day and night put strains on the rocks which consequently break in pieces, although rain seldom occurs in deserts, there are occasional downpours that can result in flash floods. Rain falling on hot rocks can cause them to shatter and the resulting fragments and this picks up particles of sand and dust and wafts them aloft in sand or dust storms. Wind-blown sand grains striking any solid object in their path can abrade the surface, rocks are smoothed down, and the wind sorts sand into uniform deposits. The grains end up as level sheets of sand or are piled high in billowing sand dunes, other deserts are flat, stony plains where all the fine material has been blown away and the surface consists of a mosaic of smooth stones. These areas are known as desert pavements and little further erosion takes place, other desert features include rock outcrops, exposed bedrock and clays once deposited by flowing water. Temporary lakes may form and salt pans may be left when waters evaporate, there may be underground sources of water in the form of springs and seepages from aquifers. Where these are found, oases can occur, plants and animals living in the desert need special adaptations to survive in the harsh environment. Plants tend to be tough and wiry with small or no leaves, water-resistant cuticles, some annual plants germinate, bloom and die in the course of a few weeks after rainfall while other long-lived plants survive for years and have deep root systems able to tap underground moisture. Animals need to cool and find enough food and water to survive. Many are nocturnal and stay in the shade or underground during the heat of the day and they tend to be efficient at conserving water, extracting most of their needs from their food and concentrating their urine. Some animals remain in a state of dormancy for long periods and they then reproduce rapidly while conditions are favorable before returning to dormancy. People have struggled to live in deserts and the surrounding lands for millennia. Nomads have moved their flocks and herds to wherever grazing is available, the cultivation of semi-arid regions encourages erosion of soil and is one of the causes of increased desertification. Many trade routes have been forged across deserts, especially across the Sahara Desert, large numbers of slaves were also taken northwards across the Sahara
17.
Ecosystem
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An ecosystem is a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment, interacting as a system. These biotic and abiotic components are regarded as linked together through nutrient cycles, as ecosystems are defined by the network of interactions among organisms, and between organisms and their environment, they can be of any size but usually encompass specific, limited spaces. Energy, water, nitrogen and soil minerals are other essential components of an ecosystem. The energy that flows through ecosystems is obtained primarily from the sun and it generally enters the system through photosynthesis, a process that also captures carbon from the atmosphere. By feeding on plants and on one another, animals play an important role in the movement of matter and they also influence the quantity of plant and microbial biomass present. Ecosystems are controlled both by external and internal factors, other external factors include time and potential biota. Ecosystems are dynamic entities—invariably, they are subject to disturbances and are in the process of recovering from some past disturbance. Ecosystems in similar environments that are located in different parts of the world can have different characteristics simply because they contain different species. The introduction of species can cause substantial shifts in ecosystem function. Internal factors not only control ecosystem processes but are controlled by them and are often subject to feedback loops. Other internal factors include disturbance, succession and the types of species present, although humans exist and operate within ecosystems, their cumulative effects are large enough to influence external factors like climate. Biodiversity affects ecosystem function, as do the processes of disturbance, classifying ecosystems into ecologically homogeneous units is an important step towards effective ecosystem management, but there is no single, agreed-upon way to do this. The term ecosystem was first used in 1935 in a publication by British ecologist Arthur Tansley, Tansley devised the concept to draw attention to the importance of transfers of materials between organisms and their environment. He later refined the term, describing it as The whole system, including not only the organism-complex, but also the whole complex of physical factors forming what we call the environment. Tansley regarded ecosystems not simply as natural units, but as mental isolates, Tansley later defined the spatial extent of ecosystems using the term ecotope. G. Raymond Lindeman took these ideas one step further to suggest that the flow of energy through a lake was the driver of the ecosystem. Most mineral nutrients, on the hand, are recycled within ecosystems. Ecosystems are controlled both by external and internal factors, external factors, also called state factors, control the overall structure of an ecosystem and the way things work within it, but are not themselves influenced by the ecosystem
18.
Precipitation (meteorology)
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In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, graupel, Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor, so that the water condenses and precipitates. Thus, fog and mist are not precipitation but suspensions, because the vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate. Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated, Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Short, intense periods of rain in scattered locations are called showers, moisture that is lifted or otherwise forced to rise over a layer of sub-freezing air at the surface may be condensed into clouds and rain. This process is active when freezing rain is occurring. A stationary front is often present near the area of freezing rain, provided necessary and sufficient atmospheric moisture content, the moisture within the rising air will condense into clouds, namely stratus and cumulonimbus. Eventually, the droplets will grow large enough to form raindrops. Lake-effect snowfall can be locally heavy, thundersnow is possible within a cyclones comma head and within lake effect precipitation bands. In mountainous areas, heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation, on the leeward side of mountains, desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by compressional heating. The movement of the trough, or intertropical convergence zone. Precipitation is a component of the water cycle, and is responsible for depositing the fresh water on the planet. Approximately 505,000 cubic kilometres of water falls as precipitation each year,398,000 cubic kilometres of it over the oceans and 107,000 cubic kilometres over land. Given the Earths surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres, Climate classification systems such as the Köppen climate classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes. Precipitation may occur on celestial bodies, e. g. when it gets cold, Mars has precipitation which most likely takes the form of frost. Precipitation is a component of the water cycle, and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the planet. Approximately 505,000 km3 of water falls as precipitation each year,398,000 km3 of it over the oceans, given the Earths surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres. Mechanisms of producing precipitation include convective, stratiform, and orographic rainfall, Precipitation can be divided into three categories, based on whether it falls as liquid water, liquid water that freezes on contact with the surface, or ice
19.
Groundwater recharge
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Groundwater recharge or deep drainage or deep percolation is a hydrologic process where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater. Recharge is the method through which water enters an aquifer. This process usually occurs in the zone below plant roots and is often expressed as a flux to the water table surface. Recharge occurs both naturally and through anthropogenic processes, where rainwater and or reclaimed water is routed to the subsurface, groundwater is recharged naturally by rain and snow melt and to a smaller extent by surface water. Recharge may be impeded somewhat by human activities including paving, development and these activities can result in loss of topsoil resulting in reduced water infiltration, enhanced surface runoff and reduction in recharge. Use of groundwaters, especially for irrigation, may lower the water tables. Recharge can help move excess salts that accumulate in the zone to deeper soil layers. Tree roots increase water saturation into groundwater reducing water runoff, flooding temporarily increases river bed permeability by moving clay soils downstream, and this increases aquifer recharge. Artificial groundwater recharge is becoming important in India, where over-pumping of groundwater by farmers has led to underground resources becoming depleted. Another environmental issue is the disposal of waste through the water such as dairy farms, industrial. Wetlands help maintain the level of the table and exert control on the hydraulic head. This provides force for groundwater recharge and discharge to other waters as well, the extent of groundwater recharge by a wetland is dependent upon soil, vegetation, site, perimeter to volume ratio, and water table gradient. Groundwater recharge occurs through mineral soils found primarily around the edges of wetlands The soil under most wetlands is relatively impermeable, a high perimeter to volume ratio, such as in small wetlands, means that the surface area through which water can infiltrate into the groundwater is high. Groundwater recharge is typical in small wetlands such as prairie potholes, researchers have discovered groundwater recharge of up to 20% of wetland volume per season. If water falls uniformly over a field such that capacity of the soil is not exceeded. If instead water puddles in low-lying areas, the water volume concentrated over a smaller area may exceed field capacity resulting in water that percolates down to recharge groundwater. The larger the relative contributing runoff area is, the more focused infiltration is, the recurring process of water that falls relatively uniformly over an area, flowing to groundwater selectively under surface depressions is depression focused recharge. Water tables rise under such depressions, depression focused groundwater recharge can be very important in arid regions
20.
California Juniper
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Juniperus californica, the California juniper, is a species of juniper native to southwestern North America. It grows at altitudes of 750–1,600 metres. Juniperus californica is a shrub or small tree reaching 3–8 metres, the bark is ashy gray, typically thin, and appears to be shredded. The shoots are fairly thick compared to most junipers, between 1.5 and 2 millimeters in diameter. The leaves are arranged in decussate pairs or whorls of three, the adult leaves are scale-like,1 to 5 mm long on lead shoots and 1 to 1.5 mm broad. The juvenile leaves are needle-like,5 to 10 mm long, the cones are berry-like,7 to 13 mm in diameter, blue-brown with a whitish waxy bloom, turning reddish-brown, and contain a single seed. The seeds are mature in about 8–9 months, the male cones are 2 to 4 mm long, and shed their pollen in early spring. It is largely dioecious, producing cones of only one sex, Juniperus californica provides food and shelter for a variety of native ground and avian wildlife. It is a larval host for the native moth Sequoia sphinx, the plant was used as a traditional Native American medicinal plant, and as a food source, by the indigenous peoples of California, including the Cahuilla people, Kumeyaay people, and Ohlone people. They gathered the berries to eat fresh and to grind meal for baking. Juniperus californica is cultivated as a plant, as a dense shrub for use in habitat gardens, heat and drought-tolerant gardens. It is very tolerant of soils, and can provide erosion control on dry slopes. California Juniper is also a species for bonsai. Conservation An IUCN Least concern listed species, and not considered globally threatened currently, however, one of the southernmost populations, formerly on Guadalupe Island off the Baja California Peninsula coast, was destroyed by feral goats in the late 19th century. In, Flora of North America Editorial Committee, Flora of North America North of Mexico vol, adams, Robert P. Junipers of the World, The genus Juniperus. Trafford Publishing ISBN 1-4120-4250-X Charters, Michael L. Wildflowers and Other Plants of Southern California, IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. International Union for Conservation of Nature, león de la Luz, José Luis, Rebman, Jon P. & Oberbauer, Thomas, On the urgency of conservation on Guadalupe Island, Mexico, is it a lost paradise
21.
Joshua tree
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Yucca brevifolia is a plant species belonging to the genus Yucca. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its names, Joshua tree, yucca palm, tree yucca. It thrives in the grasslands of Queen Valley and Lost Horse Valley in Joshua Tree National Park. The name Joshua tree was given by a group of Mormon settlers crossing the Mojave Desert in the mid-19th century, the trees unique shape reminded them of a Biblical story in which Joshua reaches his hands up to the sky in prayer. Ranchers and miners who were contemporary with the Mormon immigrants used the trunks and branches as fencing and it is also called izote de desierto. It was first formally described in the literature as Yucca brevifolia by George Engelmann in 1871 as part of the Geological Exploration of the 100th meridian or Wheeler Survey. In addition to the autonymic subspecies Yucca brevifolia subsp, brevifolia, two other subspecies have been described, Yucca brevifolia subsp. Herbertii, though both are treated as varieties or forms. Joshua trees are fast growers for the desert, new seedlings may grow at a rate of 7.6 cm per year in their first ten years. The trunk consists of thousands of small fibers and lacks annual growth rings and this tree has a top-heavy branch system, but also what has been described as a deep and extensive root system, with roots reaching up to 11 m. If it survives the rigors of the desert, it can live for hundreds of years, the tallest trees reach about 15 m. New plants can grow from seed, but in some populations, the leaf margins are white and serrate. Flowers appear from February to late April, in panicles 30–55 cm tall and 30–38 cm broad, the tepals are lanceolate and are fused to the middle. The fused pistils are 3 cm tall and the cavity is surrounded by lobes. The semi-fleshy fruit that is produced is green-brown, elliptical, Joshua trees usually do not branch until after they bloom, and they do not bloom every year. Like most desert plants, their blooming depends on rainfall at the proper time and they also need a winter freeze before they bloom. Once they bloom, the trees are pollinated by the yucca moth, the moth larvae feed on the seeds of the tree, but enough seeds are left behind to produce more trees. The Joshua tree is able to actively abort ovaries in which too many eggs have been laid
22.
California Scrub Oak
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Quercus berberidifolia, the California scrub oak, is a small evergreen or semi-evergreen shrubby oak in the white oak section of Quercus. It is a native of the hills of California, and is a common member of chaparral ecosystems. The solitary or paired brown acorns are 1–3 cm long and 1–2 cm broad, in cooler, more exposed areas, scrub oak is usually a small, compact shrub, but in warm or sheltered areas the plant can spread out and grow several meters high. The epithet berberidifolia means barberry-leaved, referring to the leaf margins characteristic of Q. berberidifolia as well as of several species of Berberis. Many other scrub-type oaks may be found in regions, and careful inspection is required to identify individuals of Q. berberidifolia. Quercus berberidifolia sometimes hybridizes with other species, the word chaparral is derived from the Spanish word for scrub oak, chaparro. The non-specific meaning of the term is short in stature, because most scrub vegetation is rather low growing, the term is broadly applied to all of the vegetation in chaparral communities. California chaparral and woodlands Jepson Flora Project, Quercus berberidifolia New York Times article, Oldest Scrub Oak through self cloning
23.
Larrea tridentata
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In Sonora, it is more commonly called hediondilla. It is a plant in the family Zygophyllaceae. The specific name refers to its three-toothed leaves. The species grows as far east as Zapata County, Texas, L. tridentata is an evergreen shrub growing to 1 to 3 m tall, rarely 4 m. The stems of the plant bear resinous, dark green leaves with two opposite lanceolate leaflets joined at the base, with a deciduous awn between them, each leaflet 7 to 18 mm long and 4 to 8.5 mm broad. The flowers are up to 25 mm in diameter, with five yellow petals, galls may form by the activity of the creosote gall midge. The whole plant exhibits a characteristic odor of creosote, from which the name derives. In the regions where it grows, its smell is associated with the smell of rain. As the creosote bush grows older, its oldest branches eventually die and this normally happens when the plant is 30 to 90 years old. Eventually, the old crown dies and the new one becomes a clonal colony from the previous plant, the King Clone creosote ring is one of the oldest living organisms on Earth. It has been alive an estimated 11,700 years, in the central Mojave Desert near present-day Lucerne Valley, California. Measurements of the plant, as well as radiocarbon dating of fragments, were used to determine the plants mean annual growth rate outward from the center of the ring. By measuring the diameter of the ring, its age could be estimated. It is within the Creosote Rings Preserve of the Lucerne Valley, Creosote bush is most common on the well-drained soils of alluvial fans and flats. In parts of its range, it may cover areas in practically pure stands. Chemicals found in creosote bush roots have shown to inhibit the growth of burro bush roots. Creosote bush stands tend to display an evenly spaced distribution of plants, originally, it was assumed that the plant produced a water-soluble inhibitor that prevented the growth of other bushes near mature, healthy bushes. Owing to the harshness of the germination environment above mature root systems, germination is actually quite active during wet periods, but most of the young plants die very quickly unless water conditions are optimal
24.
California poppy
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Eschscholzia californica is a species of flowering plant in the Papaveraceae family, native to the United States and Mexico. It is a plant and it is used medicinally and in cooking. It is a perennial or annual plant growing to 5–60 in tall with alternately branching glaucous blue-green foliage, the leaves are alternately divided into round, lobed segments. The petals close at night and open again the following morning, the fruit is a slender, dehiscent capsule 3 to 9 cm long, which splits in two to release numerous small black or dark brown seeds. It survives mild winters in its range, dying completely in colder climates. Its native habitat includes California and extends to Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Sonora, the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve is located in northern Los Angeles County. At the peak of the season, orange flowers seem to cover all 1,745 acres of the reserve. Other prominent locations of California poppy meadows are in Bear Valley, California poppy is highly variable, with over 90 synonyms. Some botanists accept two subspecies — one with four varieties — though others do not recognize them as distinct, californica, native to California, Baja California, and Oregon, widely planted as an ornamental, and an invasive elsewhere. Californica var. californica, which is found along the coast from the San Francisco Peninsula north and they are perennial and somewhat prostrate, with yellow flowers. Californica var. maritima Jeps. which is found along the coast from Monterey south to San Miguel Island and they are perennial, long-lived, glaucous, short in stature, and have extremely prostrate growth and yellow flowers. Californica var. crocea Jeps. which grows in inland regions. They are perennial, taller, and have orange flowers, californica var. peninsularis Munz, which is an annual or facultative annual growing in arid inland environments. Clark, the Mexican Gold Poppy, which is found in the Sonoran Desert, some authorities refer to it as E. Mexicana. California poppy leaves were used medicinally by Native Americans and the pollen was used cosmetically, the plant is used as an herbal remedy, an aqueous extract of the plant has sedative and anxiolytic actions. The extract induced peripheral analgesic effects in mice but did not possess antidepressant, E. californica is drought-tolerant, self-seeding, and easy to cultivate. It is best grown as an annual in full sun and sandy, well-drained, horticulturalists have produced numerous cultivars with a range of colors and blossom and stem forms. These typically do not breed true on reseeding, seeds are often sold as mixtures
25.
Railroad track
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The track on a railway or railroad, also known as the permanent way, is the structure consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties and ballast, plus the underlying subgrade. It enables trains to move by providing a surface for their wheels to roll upon. For clarity it is referred to as railway track or railroad track. Tracks where electric trains or electric trams run are equipped with a system such as an overhead electrical power line or an additional electrified rail. The term permanent way also refers to the track in addition to structures such as fences etc. Most railroads with heavy traffic use continuously welded rails supported by sleepers attached via baseplates that spread the load, a plastic or rubber pad is usually placed between the rail and the tieplate where concrete sleepers are used. The rail is held down to the sleeper with resilient fastenings. For much of the 20th century, rail track used softwood timber sleepers and jointed rails, jointed rails were used at first because contemporary technology did not offer any alternative. The joints also needed to be lubricated, and wear at the mating surfaces needed to be rectified by shimming. For this reason jointed track is not financially appropriate for heavily operated railroads, timber sleepers are of many available timbers, and are often treated with creosote, copper-chrome-arsenic, or other wood preservative. Pre-stressed concrete sleepers are used where timber is scarce and where tonnage or speeds are high. Steel is used in some applications, the track ballast is customarily crushed stone, and the purpose of this is to support the sleepers and allow some adjustment of their position, while allowing free drainage. A disadvantage of traditional track structures is the demand for maintenance, particularly surfacing and lining to restore the desired track geometry. Weakness of the subgrade and drainage deficiencies also lead to maintenance costs. This can be overcome by using ballastless track, in its simplest form this consists of a continuous slab of concrete with the rails supported directly on its upper surface. There are a number of systems, and variations include a continuous reinforced concrete slab. Many permutations of design have been put forward, however, ballastless track has a high initial cost, and in the case of existing railroads the upgrade to such requires closure of the route for a long period. Its whole-life cost can be lower because of the reduction in maintenance, some rubber-tyred metros use ballastless tracks
26.
Central Valley (California)
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Californias Central Valley is a large, flat valley that dominates the geographical center of the U. S. state of California. It is 40 to 60 miles wide and stretches approximately 450 miles from north-northwest to south-southeast, inland from and it covers approximately 18,000 square miles, about 11% of Californias total land area. More than 7 million acres of the valley are irrigated via a system of reservoirs. The valley also has many cities, including the state capital Sacramento, as well as Redding, Stockton, Modesto, Fresno. The Central Valley watershed comprises 60,000 square miles, or over a third of California, the delta empties into the San Francisco Bay, and then ultimately flows into the Pacific. The Central Valley is commonly known to simply as the Valley. Older names include the Great Valley, a name often seen in scientific references, and Golden Empire. The Central Valley is outlined by the Cascade, Sierra Nevada, and Tehachapi mountain ranges on the east, the broad valley floor is carpeted by vast agricultural regions, and dotted with numerous population centers. While there are many large and small between these cities, these four cities act as hubs for regional commerce and transportation. About 6.5 million people live in the Central Valley today, there are 12 Metropolitan Statistical Areas and 1 Micropolitan Statistical Area in the Central Valley. Below, they are listed by MSA and μSA population, the largest city is Fresno, followed by the state capital, Sacramento. The valley is thought to have originated below sea level as an offshore area depressed by subduction of the Farallon Plate into a trench further offshore, the San Joaquin Fault is a notable seismic feature of the Central Valley. The valley was later enclosed by the uplift of the Coast Ranges, faulting moved the Coast Ranges, and a new outlet developed near what is now San Francisco Bay. The one notable exception to the valley floor is Sutter Buttes. Another significant geologic feature of the Central Valley lies hidden beneath the delta, the Stockton Arch is an upwarping of the crust beneath the valley sediments which extends southwest to northeast across the valley. However, much of the Central Valley environment has been removed or altered by human activity including the introduction of exotic plants, the oak woodlands and chaparral that fringe the valley have been categorized as the California interior chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. The wetlands have been the target of operations to restore areas nearly destroyed by agriculture. The dominant grass of the valley was Nassella pulchra mixed with other species, grassland flowers include California poppy, lupins, and purple owls clover which can still be seen, especially in Antelope Valley in the Tehachapi hills
27.
Bunch grass
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Tussock grasses or bunch grasses are found as native plants in natural ecosystems, as forage in pastures, and as ornamental grasses in gardens. As perennial plants usually, they more than one season. Many species have long roots that may reach 2 meters or more into the soil, which can aid slope stabilization, erosion control, also, their roots can reach moisture more deeply than other grasses and annual plants during seasonal or climatic droughts. The plants provide habitat and food for insects, birds, small animals and larger herbivores, the leaves supply material, such as for basket weaving, for indigenous peoples and contemporary artists. In western North American wildfires, bunch grasses tend to smolder and not ignite into flames, flavescens Festuca novaezelandiae Poa caespitosa P. colensoi P. http, //www. landcareresearch. co. nz/resources/identification/plants/grass-key
28.
Aquifer
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An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock, rock fractures or unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be extracted using a water well. The study of flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology. Related terms include aquitard, which is a bed of low permeability along an aquifer, and aquiclude, if the impermeable area overlies the aquifer, pressure could cause it to become a confined aquifer. Aquifers may occur at various depths and those closer to the surface are not only more likely to be used for water supply and irrigation, but are also more likely to be topped up by the local rainfall. Many desert areas have limestone hills or mountains within them or close to them that can be exploited as groundwater resources, overexploitation can lead to the exceeding of the practical sustained yield, i. e. more water is taken out than can be replenished. The beach provides a model to help visualize an aquifer, if a hole is dug into the sand, very wet or saturated sand will be located at a shallow depth. This hole is a well, the wet sand represents an aquifer. In 2013 large freshwater aquifers were discovered under continental shelves off Australia, China, North America and they contain an estimated half a million cubic kilometers of “low salinity” water that could be economically processed into potable water. The reserves formed when ocean levels were lower and rainwater made its way into the ground in areas that were not submerged until the ice age ended 20,000 years ago. The volume is estimated to be 100x the amount of extracted from other aquifers since 1900. The above diagram indicates typical flow directions in a view of a simple confined or unconfined aquifer system. The system shows two aquifers with one aquitard between them, surrounded by the bedrock aquiclude, which is in contact with a gaining stream, the water table and unsaturated zone are also illustrated. An aquitard is a zone within the earth that restricts the flow of groundwater from one aquifer to another, an aquitard can sometimes, if completely impermeable, be called an aquiclude or aquifuge. Aquitards are composed of layers of clay or non-porous rock with low hydraulic conductivity. Groundwater can be found at every point in the Earths shallow subsurface to some degree. Saturated means the head of the water is greater than atmospheric pressure. The definition of the table is the surface where the pressure head is equal to atmospheric pressure. Unsaturated conditions occur above the table where the pressure head is negative
29.
California Aqueduct
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The over 400-mile aqueduct is the principal feature of the California State Water Project. The Department of Water Resources operates and maintains the California Aqueduct, including one pumped-storage hydroelectric plant, Gianelli is located at the base of San Luis Dam, which forms San Luis Reservoir, the largest offstream reservoir in the United States. It is named after California Governor Edmund Gerald Pat Brown Sr, the Central Valley of California is surrounded by high mountains that are eroding into the valley itself. The valley is somewhat rebounding from recent ice age interglacial glaciations, the region is prone to significant earthquakes due to the many faults and fault lines that pass through. The flatness of the valley bottom contrasts with the hills or gentle mountains that are typical of most of Californias terrain. The valley is thought to have originated below sea level as an offshore area depressed by subduction of the Farallon Plate into a trench further offshore, the San Joaquin Fault is a notable seismic feature of the Central Valley. The valley was later enclosed by the uplift of the Coast Ranges, faulting moved the Coast Ranges, and a new outlet developed near what is now San Francisco Bay. The aqueduct begins at the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta at the Banks Pumping Plant, Water is pumped by the Banks Pumping Plant to the Bethany Reservoir. The reservoir serves as a forebay for the South Bay Aqueduct via the South Bay Pumping Plant, from the Bethany Reservoir, the aqueduct flows by gravity approximately 60 mi to the ONeill Forebay at the San Luis Reservoir. From the ONeill Forebay, it flows approximately 16 mi to the Dos Amigos Pumping Plant, after Dos Amigos, the aqueduct flows about 95 mi to where the Coastal Branch splits from the main line. The split is approximately 16 mi south-southeast of Kettleman City, after the coastal branch, the line continues by gravity another 66 mi to the Buena Vista Pumping Plant. From the Buena Vista, it flows approximately 27 mi to the Teerink Pumping Plant, after Teerink it flows about 2.5 mi to the Chrisman Pumping Plant. Chrisman is the last pumping plant before Edmonston Pumping Plant, which is 13 mi from Chrisman, South of the plant the west branch splits off in a southwesterly direction to serve the Los Angeles Basin. At Edmonston Pumping Plant it is pumped 1,926 ft over the Tehachapi Mountains, Water flows through the aqueduct in a series of abrupt rises and gradual falls. The water flows down a long segment, built at a slight grade, the pumping station raises the water, where it again gradually flows downhill to the next station. However, where there are drops, the waters potential energy is recaptured by hydroelectric plants. The Edmonston Pumping station requires so much power that several power lines off of Path 15, a typical section has a concrete-lined channel 40 feet at the base and an average water depth of about 30 ft. The widest section of the aqueduct is 110 feet and the deepest is 32 feet, channel capacity is 13,100 cubic feet per second and the largest pumping plant capacity at Dos Amigos is 15,450 cubic feet per second
30.
Water table
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The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water, the water table is the surface where the water pressure head is equal to the atmospheric pressure. It may be visualized as the surface of the materials that are saturated with groundwater in a given vicinity. The groundwater may be from precipitation or from groundwater flowing into the aquifer, in areas with sufficient precipitation, water infiltrates through pore spaces in the soil, passing through the unsaturated zone. At increasing depths water fills in more of the spaces in the soils. Below the water table, in the zone, layers of permeable rock that yield groundwater are called aquifers. In less permeable soils, such as tight bedrock formations and historic lakebed deposits, the water table should not be confused with the water level in a deeper well. The elevation of the water in this well is dependent upon the pressure in the deeper aquifer and is referred to as the potentiometric surface. The water table may vary due to changes such as precipitation and evapotranspiration. Springs, rivers, lakes and oases occur when the table reaches the surface. Springs commonly form on hillsides, where the Earths slanting surface may intersect with the water table, Groundwater entering rivers and lakes accounts for the base-flow water levels in water bodies. Within an aquifer, the table is rarely horizontal, but reflects the surface relief due to the capillary effect in soils, sediments. In the aquifer, groundwater flows from points of pressure to points of lower pressure. The slope of the table is known as the hydraulic gradient, which depends on the rate at which water is added to and removed from the aquifer. This occurs when there is a layer of rock or sediment or relatively impermeable layer above the main water table/aquifer. If a perched aquifers flow intersects the Earths dry surface, at a wall for example. On low-lying oceanic islands with porous soil, freshwater tends to collect in lenticular pools on top of the denser seawater intruding from the sides of the islands, such an islands freshwater lens, and thus the water table, rises and falls with the tides. In some regions, for example, Great Britain or California, winter precipitation is higher than summer precipitation
31.
Subsidence
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Subsidence is the motion of a surface as it shifts downward relative to a datum such as sea level. The opposite of subsidence is uplift, which results in an increase in elevation, ground subsidence is of concern to geologists, geotechnical engineers and surveyors. Subsidence frequently causes problems in karst terrains, where dissolution of limestone by fluid flow in the subsurface causes the creation of voids. If the roof of these voids becomes too weak, it can collapse and this type of subsidence can result in sinkholes which can be many hundreds of meters deep. Several types of mining, and specifically methods which intentionally cause the extracted void to collapse will result in surface subsidence. Mining-induced subsidence is relatively predictable in its magnitude, manifestation and extent, mining-induced subsidence is nearly always very localized to the surface above the mined area, plus a margin around the outside. Where mining activity is planned, mining-induced subsidence can be successfully managed if there is co-operation from all of the stakeholders and this is accomplished through a combination of careful mine planning, the taking of preventive measures, and the carrying out of repairs post-mining. If natural gas is extracted from a gas field the initial pressure in the field will drop over the years. The gas pressure also supports the soil layers above the field, if the pressure drops, the soil pressure increases and this leads to subsidence at the ground level. Since exploitation of the Slochteren gas field started in the late 1960s the ground level over a 250 km² area has dropped by a current maximum of 30 cm, the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan reported immediate subsidence caused by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. In Northern Japan, subsidence of 0.50 m was observed on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Miyako, Tōhoku, while Rikuzentakata, in the south at Sōma, Fukushima,0.29 m was observed. The maximum amount of subsidence was 1.2 m, coupled with horizontal diastrophism of up to 5.3 m on the Oshika Peninsula in Miyagi Prefecture, the habitation of lowlands, such as coastal or delta plains, requires drainage. The resulting aeration of the leads to the oxidation of its organic components, such as peat. This applies especially when water levels are periodically adapted to subsidence, in order to maintain desired unsaturated zone depths. In addition to this, drained soils consolidate as a result of increased effective stress, in this way, land subsidence has the potential of becoming self-perpetuating, having rates up to 5 cm/yr. Water management used to be tuned primarily to such as crop optimisation but, to varying extents. When differential stresses exist in the Earth, these can be accommodated either by geological faulting in the brittle crust, or by flow in the hotter. Where faults occur, absolute subsidence may occur in the wall of normal faults
32.
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta
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The Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, or California Delta, is an expansive inland river delta and estuary in Northern California. The Delta is formed at the edge of the Central Valley by the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. The Delta is recognized for protection by the California Bays and Estuaries Policy, the city of Stockton is located on the San Joaquin River on the eastern edge of the delta. The total area of the Delta, including land and water, is about 1,100 square miles. The narrowness of the Carquinez Strait coupled with tidal action has caused the sediment to pile up, geologically, the Delta has existed for about 10,000 years, since the end of the last Ice Age. In its natural state, the Delta was a freshwater marsh, consisting of many shallow channels and sloughs surrounding low islands of peat. Since the mid-19th century, most of the region has been claimed for agriculture. The Delta consists of approximately 57 reclaimed islands and tracts, surrounded by 1,100 miles of levees that border 700 miles of waterways, the southwestern side of the Delta lies at the foothills of the California Coast Ranges, while to the northwest sit the lower Montezuma Hills. Most of the Delta lies within Contra Costa, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Solano, the total human population of the Delta was 515,264 as of 2000. Altogether, the Delta covers 1,153 square miles, with 841 sq mi, or nearly 73 percent, about 100 sq mi of the Delta area is urban and 117 sq mi are undeveloped land. The rivers, streams, sloughs and waterways of the Delta total about 95 sq mi of surface, although this greatly with seasons. Geologically, it is not considered a river delta, but rather an inverted river delta. The only other major river delta in the world located this far inland is the Pearl River Delta in China, the main source rivers include the Sacramento River from the north, the San Joaquin from the southeast, and the Calaveras and Mokelumne Rivers from the east. The Calaveras and Mokelumne are both tributaries of the San Joaquin River, the southwestern part of the Delta is also transected by the Middle River and Old River, former channels of the San Joaquin. These rivers transport more than 30 million acre feet of water through the Delta each year – about 50 percent of all Californias runoff. Nearby cities include Lodi and Stockton to the east, Tracy and Manteca to the south, Brentwood to the southwest, the state capital, Sacramento, is located just to the north of the Delta. The Sacramento River Deep Water Ship Channel connects the Delta to the Port of Sacramento, with its terminus located near Rio Vista, about 560,000 years ago, water breached the mountains, carving out the present-day Carquinez Strait and San Francisco Bay. The Delta in its contemporary state began to form about 10,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age
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Estuary
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An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a zone between river environments and maritime environments. They are subject both to marine influences—such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water—and to riverine influences—such as flows of fresh water and sediment. The inflows of sea water and fresh water provide high levels of nutrients both in the water column and in sediment, making estuaries among the most productive natural habitats in the world. Most existing estuaries formed during the Holocene epoch with the flooding of river-eroded or glacially scoured valleys when the sea began to rise about 10. Estuaries are typically classified according to their geomorphological features or to water-circulation patterns, the banks of many estuaries are amongst the most heavily populated areas of the world, with about 60% of the worlds population living along estuaries and the coast. The word estuary is derived from the Latin word aestuarium meaning tidal inlet of the sea, there have been many definitions proposed to describe an estuary. However, this definition excludes a number of water bodies such as coastal lagoons. This broad definition also includes fjords, lagoons, river mouths, an estuary is a dynamic ecosystem having a connection to the open sea through which the sea water enters with the rhythm of the tides. The sea water entering the estuary is diluted by the water flowing from rivers. The pattern of dilution varies between different estuaries and depends on the volume of water, the tidal range. Drowned river valleys are known as coastal plain estuaries. In places where the sea level is rising relative to the land, sea water progressively penetrates into river valleys and this is the most common type of estuary in temperate climates. Well-studied estuaries include the Severn Estuary in the United Kingdom and the Ems Dollard along the Dutch-German border, the width-to-depth ratio of these estuaries is typically large, appearing wedge-shaped in the inner part and broadening and deepening seaward. Water depths rarely exceed 30 m, examples of this type of estuary in the U. S. are the Hudson River, Chesapeake Bay, and Delaware Bay along the Mid-Atlantic coast, and Galveston Bay and Tampa Bay along the Gulf Coast. They are relatively common in tropical and subtropical locations and these estuaries are semi-isolated from ocean waters by barrier beaches. Formation of barrier beaches partially encloses the estuary, with only narrow inlets allowing contact with the ocean waters, bar-built estuaries typically develop on gently sloping plains located along tectonically stable edges of continents and marginal sea coasts. They are extensive along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U. S. in areas with active coastal deposition of sediments, barrier beaches form in shallow water and are generally parallel to the shoreline, resulting in long, narrow estuaries
34.
United States Geological Survey
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The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its resources. The organization has four science disciplines, concerning biology, geography, geology. The USGS is a research organization with no regulatory responsibility. The USGS is a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior, the USGS employs approximately 8,670 people and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia. The USGS also has major offices near Lakewood, Colorado, at the Denver Federal Center, the current motto of the USGS, in use since August 1997, is science for a changing world. The agencys previous slogan, adopted on the occasion of its anniversary, was Earth Science in the Public Service. Prompted by a report from the National Academy of Sciences, the USGS was created, by a last-minute amendment and it was charged with the classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain. This task was driven by the need to inventory the vast lands added to the United States by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the legislation also provided that the Hayden, Powell, and Wheeler surveys be discontinued as of June 30,1879. Clarence King, the first director of USGS, assembled the new organization from disparate regional survey agencies, after a short tenure, King was succeeded in the directors chair by John Wesley Powell. Administratively, it is divided into a Headquarters unit and six Regional Units, Other specific programs include, Earthquake Hazards Program monitors earthquake activity worldwide. The National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines detects the location, the USGS also runs or supports several regional monitoring networks in the United States under the umbrella of the Advanced National Seismic System. The USGS informs authorities, emergency responders, the media, and it also maintains long-term archives of earthquake data for scientific and engineering research. It also conducts and supports research on long-term seismic hazards, USGS has released the UCERF California earthquake forecast. The USGS National Geomagnetism Program monitors the magnetic field at magnetic observatories and distributes magnetometer data in real time, the USGS operates the streamgaging network for the United States, with over 7400 streamgages. Real-time streamflow data are available online, since 1962, the Astrogeology Research Program has been involved in global, lunar, and planetary exploration and mapping. USGS operates a number of related programs, notably the National Streamflow Information Program. USGS Water data is available from their National Water Information System database
35.
Kawaiisu
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Today, some Kawaiisu people are enrolled in the Tule River Indian Tribe. Before European contact, the Kawaiisu lived in permanent winter villages of 60 to 100 people and they often divided into smaller groups during the warmer months of the year and harvested California native plants in the mountains and deserts, and animals, for food and raw materials. The Kawaiisu are related by language and culture to the Southern Paiute of southwestern Nevada and they may have originally lived in the desert before coming to the Tehachapi Mountains region, perhaps as early as 2000 years ago or before. The Kawaiisu have been known by other names, including the Caliente, Paiute, and Tehachapi Indians. The Kawaiisu maintained friendly relations with the neighboring Kitanemuk and also participated in cooperative antelope drives with the Yokuts, the Kawaiisu Language and Cultural Center, the Kawaiisu exhibit at the Tehachapi Museum. A local newspaper noted in 2010, There are also several hundred living Kawaiisu descendents, the Kawaiisu language, or Tehachapi, is a member of the Southern Numic division of the Uto-Aztecan language family. The Kawaiisu homeland was bordered by speakers of non-Numic Uto-Aztecan languages, the Kitanemuk to the south spoke Takic, the Tübatulabal to the north spoke the Tübatulabal language a linguistic isolate. The Yokuts to the west were non-Uto-Aztecan, because they also spoke a Southern Numic language, the Chemehuevi to the east are the closest linguistic relatives to Kawaiisu. Estimates for the populations of most native groups in California have varied substantially. Alfred L. Kroeber proposed the combined 1770 population of the Kawaiisu, Koso and he estimated the surviving population of the Kawaiisu, Koso, and Chemehuevi in 1910 as 500. Garfinkel, Alan P. Donald R. Austin, David Earle, myth, Ritual and Rock Art, Coso Decorated Animal-Humans and the Animal Master. Garfinkel, Alan P. and John F. Romani, dating Aboriginal Occupation at Tihesti-va’a-di, Changing Land Use Patterns at a Kawaiisu Village, Tehachapi, California. Kern County Archaeological Society Journal 10, 45-63, garfinkel, Alan P. and Harold Williams. The Handbook of the Kawaiisu, A Sourcebook and Guide to Primary Resources on the Native Peoples of the far southern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi Mountains, berkeley, CA, University of California Press. CS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Kawaiisu Language and Cultural Center Kawaiiasu of Tomo-Kahni Antelope Valley Indian Museum, Kawaiisu peoples Petroglyphs. us, Native American Rock Art
36.
Serrano (people)
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The Serrano are an indigenous people of California. They use the autonyms of Taaqtam, meaning people, Maarengayam, people from Morongo, today the Maarengayam are enrolled in the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, and the Yuhaviatam are enrolled in the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. Additionally, some Serrano people are enrolled in the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians, the Serrano historically lived in the San Bernardino Mountains and other Transverse Ranges, and in the southern Mojave Desert, within Southern California. The Serrano language is part of the Takic subset of the large Uto-Aztecan languages group of people of North America. The language family historically extended from Mexico along the West Coast and into the Great Basin and they were a branch of the Takic languages speaking people who arrived in Southern California around 2,500 years ago. Serrano means highlander or mountaineer in Spanish, the Spanish founded Mission San Gabriel Arcangel in 1771, south of the San Gabriel Mountains and southwest of the San Bernardino Mountains. With the Cahuilla and Quechan tribes, in 1812 the Serrano revolted against it, in 1834 the Mexican Alta California government forcibly relocated many Serrano to the missions. They suffered devastating smallpox outbreaks in 1840 and 1860, as they had no immunity to the Eurasian disease, in 1867 the Yuhaviatam band of Serrano were the victims of a massacre conducted by American settlers of the San Bernardino Valley, during a 32-day campaign at Chimney Rock. The massacre was a response to a raid, probably carried out by Chemehuevi Southern Paiutes, on a settlement at Lake Arrowhead. Three American ranch hands were killed at a ranch called Los Flores in Summit Valley, tribal leader Santos Manuel led the survivors from the mountains to the valley, where they established permanent residence adjacent to the hot springs near present-day Highland. In 1891 the United States established the San Manuel Reservation for the Serrano people, the Serrano populated the San Bernardino Mountains and extended northwest into the Mojave River area of the Mojave Desert and west into the Tejon Creek watershed in the Tehachapi Mountains. The Serrano populations along Tejon Creek were identified as the Cuahajai or Cuabajay, mountain camps were used for hunting. One such encampment was accidentally unearthed by the U. S. Forest Service fighting a wildfire in 2003 near Baldwin Lake, uncovered were artifacts of non-local jasper and obsidian, ash and charcoal, grinding stones, and fire pits possibly dating back 1,000 years. Their society was divided into two exogamous moieties and their villages had from 25 to a hundred people. Their dwellings were large and communal, framed with willow branches and covered over with woven mats, the lodges were made with fireplaces inside for each family. The men did not wear clothing and the women wore deerskin, otter, the Serrano who inhabited the San Bernardino Mountains would go to the milder areas of Apple Valley and Lucerne Valley during the winter, and the area in and around Big Bear Lake during the summer. They hunted small game such as rabbits, using traps along with bows and arrows and they did not hunt the grizzly bears, which they believed were reincarnations of their ancestors spirits. They were skilled craftsmen and experts in basketweaving, which created in a variety of sizes and shapes for different purposes, such as storage, carrying
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Colonization
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Colonization is a process by which a central system of power dominates the surrounding land and its components. The term is derived from the Latin word colere, which means to inhabit, Colonization was linked to the spread of tens of millions from Western European states all over the world. In many settled colonies, Western European settlers formed a majority of the population. Examples include the Americas, Australia and New Zealand and these colonies were occasionally called neo-Europes. In other places, Western European settlers formed minority groups, who were dominant in their places of settlement. When Britain started to settle Australia, New Zealand and various smaller islands. Terra nullius meaning empty land in Latin, due to the absence of European farming techniques, the land was deemed unaltered by man and therefore treated as uninhabited, despite the presence of indigenous populations. In the 19th century, laws and ideas such as Mexicos General Colonization Law, in ancient times, maritime nations such as the city-states of Greece and Phoenicia often established colonies to farm what they believed was uninhabited land. Land suitable for farming was often occupied by migratory barbarian tribes who lived by hunting and gathering, to ancient Greeks and Phoenicians, these lands were regarded as simply vacant. However, this did not mean that conflict did not exist between the colonizers and local/native peoples, Greeks and Phoenicians also established colonies with the intent of regulating and expanding trade throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East. Another period of colonization in ancient times was during the Roman Empire, the Roman Empire conquered large parts of Western Europe, North Africa and West Asia. In North Africa and West Asia, the Romans often conquered what they regarded as civilized peoples, as they moved north into Europe, they mostly encountered rural peoples/tribes with very little in the way of cities. In these areas, waves of Roman colonization often followed the conquest of the areas, the decline and collapse of the Roman Empire saw the large-scale movement of people in Eastern Europe and Asia. During this period there were the movements of peoples establishing new colonies all over western Europe. The events of time saw the development of many of the modern day nations of Europe like the Franks in France and Germany. In West Asia, during Sassanid Empire, some Persians established colonies in Yemen, the Vikings of Scandinavia also carried out a large-scale colonization. The Vikings are best known as raiders, setting out from their homelands in Denmark, southern Norway and southern Sweden. In time, the Vikings began trading, and established colonies, the Vikings discovered Iceland and established colonies before moving onto Greenland, where they briefly held some colonies
38.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
39.
Francisco Garces
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Francisco Hermenegildo Tomás Garcés, O. F. M. was a Spanish Franciscan friar who served as a missionary and explorer in the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain. He explored much of the region of North America, including present day Sonora and Baja California in Mexico. He was killed along with his companion friars during an uprising by the Native American population, the cause for his canonization was opened by the Church. Garcés was born April 12,1738, in Morata de Jalón, Aragon and he entered the Franciscan Order about 1758 and was ordained a priest in 1763 in Spain. Garcés travelled to New Spain and served at the Franciscan college of Santa Cruz in Querétaro, in 1768, when the King of Spain expelled the Jesuits from their extensive mission system in northwestern New Spain, Garcés was among the Franciscan replacements. He was assigned to Mission San Xavier del Bac in the Sonoran Desert, near present-day Tucson, the expulsion of the Jesuits by the Spanish King set in motion a sequence of dramatic events in the missions. The Franciscans from the college of Santa Cruz in Querétaro took over responsibility in the Sonoran Desert missions region in the present-day Mexican state of Sonora, serras Baja California Franciscans were also charged in 1769 with expanding a Spanish presence in the unsettled upper Las Californias Province. In 1773, control of the Baja California missions was transferred to the Dominican friars, many journeys were explorations on his own in the deserts. Garcés also crossed the Mojave Desert on the Mohave Trail and then the Old Tejon Pass, the eastern part of the route Garcés took from the Colorado River across the Mojave Desert is known to four-wheel-drive adventurers today as the Mojave Road. In 1779-81 Garcés and Juan Diaz established two churches on the lower Colorado River at Yuma Crossing, as part of a new pueblo. Garcés tried to keep peace between all parties, the formerly peaceful rapport with the Quechan was lost due to Spanish settlers violating the treaty with the native peoples, such as loss of crops and farmlands. In July 1781, Garcés, Diaz and their fellow friars were among killed in a civil resistance uprising at the Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer, known as the Yuma Uprising. Garcés body was reinterred at Mission San Pedro y San Pablo del Tubutama. He and the friars killed at those missions are considered martyrs by the Catholic Church. El Garces Hotel The El Garces Hotel, named in Francisco Garcés honor, is the historic 1908 Santa Fe Railroad station and it is located in eastern California above the Colorado River, a site Garcés passed through during the 1776 Anza expedition. The El Garces Hotel was built by the Santa Fe Railroad under contract with the Fred Harvey Company and it is designed in an elegant Neoclassical and Beaux-Arts style, and the El Garces was considered the Crown Jewel of the entire Fred Harvey chain. The name was discontinued in 1911 when it was combined with Coronado National Forest, reno, Nevada St. Thomas Aquinas Cathedral has a stained glass window dedicated to Fray Garces. Spanish missions in the Sonoran Desert Spanish missions in Baja California Garcés, on the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer, The Diary and Itinerary of Francisco Garcés
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Franciscan
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The Franciscans are a group of related mendicant religious orders within the Catholic Church, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. These orders include the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of Saint Clare, Francis began preaching around 1207 and traveled to Rome to seek approval from the Pope in 1209. The original Rule of Saint Francis approved by the Pope disallowed ownership of property, the austerity was meant to emulate the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Franciscans traveled and preached in the streets, while boarding in church properties, Saint Clare, under Franciss guidance, founded the Poor Clares in 1212, which remains a Second Order of the Franciscans. The extreme poverty required of members was relaxed in final revision of the Rule in 1223, the degree of observance required of members remained a major source of conflict within the order, resulting in numerous secessions. The Order of Friars Minor, previously known as the Observant branch, is one of the three Franciscan First Orders within the Catholic Church, the others being the Capuchins and Conventuals. The Order of Friars Minor, in its current form, is the result of an amalgamation of smaller orders completed in 1897 by Pope Leo XIII. The latter two, the Capuchin and Conventual, remain distinct religious institutes within the Catholic Church, observing the Rule of Saint Francis with different emphases, Franciscans are sometimes referred to as minorites or greyfriars because of their habit. In Poland and Lithuania they are known as Bernardines, after Bernardino of Siena, the name of original order, Friars Minor, means lesser brothers, and stems from Francis of Assisis rejection of extravagance. Francis was the son of a cloth merchant, but gave up his wealth to pursue his faith more fully. Francis adopted of the tunic worn by peasants as the religious habit for his order. Those who joined him became the original Order of Friars Minor and they all live according to a body of regulations known as the Rule of St Francis. First Order The First Order or the Order of Friars Minor are commonly called simply the Franciscans and this Order is a mendicant religious order of men, some of whom trace their origin to Francis of Assisi. Their official Latin name is the Ordo Fratrum Minorum, St. Francis thus referred to his followers as Fraticelli, meaning Little Brothers. Franciscan brothers are informally called friars or the Minorites and they all live according to a body of regulations known as the Rule of St Francis. These are The Order of Friars Minor, known as the Observants, most commonly simply called Franciscan friars, official name, the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin or simply Capuchins, official name, Friars Minor Capuchin. The Conventual Franciscans or Minorites, official name, Friars Minor Conventual, Second Order The Second Order, most commonly called Poor Clares in English-speaking countries, consists of religious sisters. The order is called the Order of St. Clare, but in the century, prior to 1263, this order was referred to as The Poor Ladies, The Poor Enclosed Nuns
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San Francisco Bay
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San Francisco Bay is a shallow estuary in the U. S. state of California. It is surrounded by a region known as the San Francisco Bay Area, dominated by the large cities San Francisco, Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from approximately 40 percent of California and it then connects to the Pacific Ocean via the Golden Gate strait. However, this group of interconnected bays is often called the San Francisco Bay. The bay was designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance on February 2,2013, the bay covers somewhere between 400 and 1,600 square miles, depending on which sub-bays, estuaries, wetlands, and so on are included in the measurement. The main part of the bay measures 3 to 12 miles wide east-to-west and it is the largest Pacific estuary in the Americas. Later, wetlands and inlets were filled in, reducing the Bays size since the mid-19th century by as much as one third. Recently, large areas of wetlands have been restored, further confusing the issue of the Bays size, despite its value as a waterway and harbor, many thousands of acres of marshy wetlands at the edges of the bay were, for many years, considered wasted space. As a result, soil excavated for building projects or dredged from channels was often dumped onto the wetlands, from the mid-19th century through the late 20th century, more than a third of the original bay was filled and often built on. The idea was, and remains, controversial, there are five large islands in San Francisco Bay. Alameda, the largest island, was created when a shipping lane was cut in 1901 and it is now predominantly a bedroom community. Angel Island was known as Ellis Island West because it served as the point for immigrants from East Asia. It is now a park accessible by ferry. Mountainous Yerba Buena Island is pierced by a tunnel linking the east and west spans of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, attached to the north is the artificial and flat Treasure Island, site of the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. From the Second World War until the 1990s, both served as military bases and are now being redeveloped. Isolated in the center of the Bay is Alcatraz, the site of the federal penitentiary. The federal prison on Alcatraz Island no longer functions, but the complex is a popular tourist site, despite its name, Mare Island in the northern part of the bay is a peninsula rather than an island. During the last ice age, the now filled by the bay was a large linear valley with small hills
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Jedediah Smith
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Jedediah Strong Smith, was a clerk, frontiersman, hunter, trapper, author, cartographer, and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the North American West, and the Southwest during the early 19th century. Coming from a modest family background, Smith traveled to St. Louis and joined William H. Ashley, Smith led the first documented exploration from the Salt Lake frontier to the Colorado River. From there, Smiths party became the first white Americans to cross the Mojave Desert into California, on the return journey, Smith and his companions were the first United States citizens to explore and eastwardly cross the Sierra Nevada and the treacherous Great Basin Desert. Smith and his companions were also the first white Americans to travel up the California coast to reach the Oregon Country, surviving three Indian massacres and one bear mauling, Jedediah Smiths explorations and documented travels were important resources to later American westward expansion. In March 1831, while in St. Louis, Smith requested of Secretary of War John H, Eaton a federally funded exploration of the West, but to no avail. Smith informed Eaton that he was completing a map of the West derived from his own journeys, in May, Smith and his partners launched a planned para-military trading party to Santa Fe. On May 27, while searching for water in present-day southwest Kansas and it was learned some weeks later that he had been killed during an encounter with the Comanche. After his death, Smiths memory and his accomplishments were mostly forgotten by his countrymen, at the beginning of the 20th century, scholars and historians made efforts to recognize and study his achievements. In 1918, a book by Harrison Clifford Dale was published covering Ashley-Smith western explorations, in 1935, Smiths summary autobiography was finally listed in a biographical dictionary. Smiths first comprehensive biography by Maurice S. Sullivan was published in 1936, a popular Smith biography by Dale Morgan, published in 1953, established Smith as an authentic national hero. Smiths map of the West in 1831 was superimposed by the U. S. Army, Smiths father was a New Hampshire native. Smith received an adequate English instruction, learned some Latin, and was taught how to write decently. Around 1810, Smiths father, who owned a store, was caught up in a legal issue involving counterfeit currency, after which the elder Smith moved his family west to Erie County. At the age of 13, Smith worked as a clerk on a Lake Erie freighter and this work gave Smith an ambition for adventurous wilderness trade. According to Dale L. Morgan, Smiths love of nature and adventure came from his mentor, Dr. Titus G. V. Simons, Smith would provide Clark, who had become Superintendant of Indian Affairs, much information on Smiths expeditions into the West. In 1817, the Smith family moved again, to Ohio. Coming from a family of very modest means, Smith struck out to make his own way and he may have left his family in search of a trade or employment a year prior to their settlement in Green Township. In 1822, Smith was living in St. Louis, the same year Smith responded to an advertisement in the Missouri Gazette placed by Gen. William H. Ashley
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California Gold Rush
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The California Gold Rush began on January 24,1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutters Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States, the Gold Rush initiated the California Genocide, with 100,000 Native Californians dying between 1848 and 1868. By the time it ended, California had gone from a thinly populated ex-Mexican territory to the state of the first nominee for the Republican Party. The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial, whole indigenous societies were attacked and pushed off their lands by the gold-seekers, called forty-niners. The first to hear confirmed information of the rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands, and Latin America. While most of the newly arrived were Americans, the Gold Rush attracted tens of thousands from Latin America, Europe, Australia, agriculture and ranching expanded throughout the state to meet the needs of the settlers. San Francisco grew from a settlement of about 200 residents in 1846 to a boomtown of about 36,000 by 1852. Roads, churches, schools and other towns were built throughout California, in 1849 a state constitution was written. The new constitution was adopted by vote, and the future states interim first governor. In September,1850, California became a state, at the beginning of the Gold Rush, there was no law regarding property rights in the goldfields and a system of staking claims was developed. Prospectors retrieved the gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, although the mining caused environmental harm, more sophisticated methods of gold recovery were developed and later adopted around the world. New methods of transportation developed as steamships came into regular service, by 1869 railroads were built across the country from California to the eastern United States. At its peak, technological advances reached a point where significant financing was required, Gold worth tens of billions of todays dollars was recovered, which led to great wealth for a few. However, many returned home with more than they had started with. The Mexican–American War ended on February 3,1848, although California was firmly in American hands before that, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided for, among other things, the formal transfer of Upper California to the United States. The California Gold Rush began at Sutters Mill, near Coloma, on January 24,1848, James W. Marshall, a foreman working for Sacramento pioneer John Sutter, found shiny metal in the tailrace of a lumber mill Marshall was building for Sutter on the American River. Marshall brought what he found to John Sutter, and the two tested the metal. However, rumors started to spread and were confirmed in March 1848 by San Francisco newspaper publisher
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Tejon Pass (Kern County)
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The Old Tejon Pass, is a mountain pass in the Tehachapi Mountains linking Southern and Central California. The pass is located in Kern County, California, fifteen miles to the northeast of the present Tejon Pass. It runs at the top of a divide between a point about five miles east of the Rancho Tejon boundary in Tejon Creek Canyon and it lies at an elevation of 5,285 feet, and sits between two peaks of 5,491 feet and 5,566 feet. The ancient native trail which utilized what is now known as the Old Tejon Pass was found, the pass was used in 1776 by missionary explorer, padre Francisco Garcés. In 1806, Lt. Francisco Ruiz named it Tejon Pass while on an expedition into the San Joaquin Valley, Ruiz also named Tejon Canyon and Tejon Creek, all referencing the dead badger he had found at the canyon mouth. Rancho El Tejón, a large 1843 Mexican land grant in the Tehachapi Mountains, was headquartered below the pass along Tejon Creek, eventually, a road running straight north, across westernmost Antelope Valley, and then over this Tejon Pass evolved. In 1853, the road used the Old Tejon Pass was surveyed by Robert Stockton Williamson of the U. S. Army for suitability as a rail-bed for the planned transcontinental railroad into California. The commander of the expedition found the wagon road over the pass to be one of the worst he had ever seen. He much preferred the Grapevine Canyon route, a better road further west. Williamson scouted it and found it would be far more suitable for rail lines, the name Tejon was transferred west to the Fort Tejon Pass, an integral part of the Stockton – Los Angeles Road, which was established through Grapevine Canyon. From then on, the old pass was used less and less, afterward, Fort Tejon was abandoned, and the Fort was eventually dropped from the pass name, becoming simply, the Tejon Pass as it is known today. See Map and profile of the Tejon Pass, from explorations and surveys made under the direction of the Hon. Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, engrs. and Mr. Isaac Williams Smith, Civ. Raremaps. com, Features a plate from the US Pacific RR Survey, Great Basin from the Summit of Tejon Pass, an 1853 view of the Old Tejon Pass, looking to the northeast in to the San Joaquin Valley
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