1.
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
Geographic coordinate system
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Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
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Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
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Flag
United States
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The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
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The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
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
California
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A forest of redwood trees in
Redwood National Park
California
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Flag
California
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Mount Shasta
California
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Aerial view of the
California Central Valley
4.
San Francisco County, California
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San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings. The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush
San Francisco County, California
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San Francisco and the
Golden Gate Bridge from
Marin Headlands
San Francisco County, California
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Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores)
San Francisco County, California
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1853
United States Coast Survey Map
San Francisco County, California
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Francis Samuel Marryat, Hilltop of San Francisco, California, Looking toward the Bay, 1849. M.& N. Hanhart Chromolithograph
5.
Marin County, California
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Marin County /məˈrɪn/ is a county located in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 252,409 and its county seat is San Rafael. Marin County is included in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, Marin County is one of the wealthiest localities in the United States, known for its affluence. In May 2009, Marin County had the fifth highest income per capita in the United States at about $91,480, the county is governed by the Marin County Board of Supervisors. The county is well known for its natural beauty and liberal politics. San Quentin Prison is located in the county, as is George Lucas Skywalker Ranch, autodesk, the publisher of AutoCAD, is also located there, as well as numerous other high-tech companies. The Marin County Civic Center was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and draws thousands of visitors a year to guided tours of its arch, in 1994, a new county jail facility was embedded into the hillside nearby. Marin Countys natural sites include the Muir Woods redwood forest, the Marin Headlands, Stinson Beach, the Point Reyes National Seashore, the United States oldest cross country running event, the Dipsea Race, takes place annually in Marin County, attracting thousands of athletes. Mountain biking was invented on the slopes of Mount Tamalpais in Marin, According to General Mariano Vallejo, who headed an 1850 committee to name Californias counties, the county was named for Marin, great chief of the tribe Licatiut. Marin had been named Huicmuse until he was baptized as Marino at about age 20, Marin / Marino was born into the Huimen people, a Coast Miwok tribe of Native Americans who inhabited the San Rafael area. Vallejo believed that Chief Marin had waged several fierce battles against the Spanish, starting in 1817, he served as an alcalde at the San Rafael Mission, where he lived from 1817 off and on until his death. The Coast Miwok Indians were hunters and gatherers whose ancestors had occupied the area for thousands of years, about 600 village sites have been identified in the county. The Coast Miwok numbered in the thousands, today, there are few left and even fewer with any knowledge of their Coast Miwok lineage. Efforts are being made so that they are not forgotten, francis Drake and the crew of the Golden Hind was thought to have landed on the Marin coast in 1579 claiming the land as Nova Albion. A bronze plaque inscribed with Drakes claim to the new lands and this so-called Drakes Plate of Brass was revealed as a hoax in 2003. In 1595, Sebastian Cermeno lost his ship, the San Agustin, the Spanish explorer Vizcaíno landed about twenty years after Drake in what is now called Drakes Bay. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 828 square miles. It is the fourth-smallest county in California by land area
Marin County, California
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Marin County Civic Center
Marin County, California
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The
Mission San Rafael Arcángel
Marin County, California
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The view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the Marin Headlands
Marin County, California
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Stinson Beach is one of the most popular beaches in West Marin
6.
Contra Costa County, California
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Contra Costa County is a county in the state of California in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,049,025, the name is Spanish for opposite coast, referring to its position on the other side of the bay from San Francisco. Contra Costa County is included in the San Francisco–Oakland–Hayward, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area and it occupies the northern portion of the East Bay region and is primarily suburban. In the northern part of the county, significant coal and sand deposits were formed in even earlier geologic eras, other areas of the county have ridges exposing ancient but intact seashells, embedded in sandstone layers alternating with limestone. Layers of volcanic ash ejected from geologically recent but now extinct volcanoes, compacted and now tilted by compressive forces, may be seen at the site of some road excavations. This county is an agglomeration of several distinct geologic terranes, as is most of the greater San Francisco Bay Area, younger deposits at middle altitudes include pillow lavas, the product of undersea volcanic eruptions. There is an extensive but little recorded human history pre-European settlement in this area, the earliest definitively established occupation by modern man appears to have occurred six to ten thousand years ago. However, there may have been human presence far earlier, at least as far as non–settling populations are concerned, extensive trading from tribe to tribe transferred exotic materials such as obsidian throughout the region from far distant Californian tribes. Unlike the nomadic Native American of the Great Plains it appears that these tribes did not incorporate warfare into their culture but were generally cooperative. Within these cultures the concept of individual or collective land ownership was nonexistent, early European settlers in the region, however, did not record much about the culture of the natives. Most of what is known comes from preserved contemporaneous and excavated artifacts. Although there were no missions established within this county, Spanish influence here was direct and extensive, in 1821 Mexico gained independence from Spain. Mission lands extended throughout the Bay Area, including portions of Contra Costa County, between 1836 and 1846, during the era when California was a province of independent Mexico, the following 15 land grants were made in Contra Costa County. Rough surveying was based on a map, or diseño, measured by streams, shorelines, and/or horseman who marked it with rope, lands outside rancho grants were designated el sobrante, as in surplus or excess, and considered common lands. The law required the construction of a house within a year, fences were not required and were forbidden where they might interfere with roads or trails. Locally a large family required roughly 2000 head of cattle and two leagues of land to live comfortably. Foreign entrepreneurs came to the area to provide goods that Mexico couldn’t, Rancho Canada de los Vaqueros was granted to Francisco Alviso, Antonio Higuera, and Manuel Miranda. Two ranchos, both called Rancho San Ramon, were granted by the Mexican government in the San Ramon Valley, in 1833, Bartolome Pacheco and Mariano Castro shared the two square league Rancho San Ramon
Contra Costa County, California
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The west face of
Mount Diablo, the most notable natural landmark in Contra Costa County
Contra Costa County, California
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Seal
Contra Costa County, California
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Mount Diablo from the Shell Ridge Open Space
Contra Costa County, California
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View of the Shell Martinez oil refinery
7.
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
San Francisco Bay
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San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay
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Aerial panorama of the northern Bay, the Bay Bridge,
Golden Gate, and
Marin Headlands on a clear morning. November 2014 photo by
Doc Searls.
San Francisco Bay
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San Francisco, Oakland, and the
Bay Bridge, 2014
San Francisco Bay
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San Francisco Bay, and the city skyline seen from Marin County in the
Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
8.
Richmond, California
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Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7,1905, under the McLaughlin Administration, Richmond was the largest city in the United States served by a Green Party mayor. As of the 2010 U. S. Census, the population is at 103,710. The largest, Richmond, Virginia, is the namesake of the California city, the Ohlone Indians were the first inhabitants of the Richmond area, settling an estimated 5,000 years ago. The name Richmond appears to predate actual incorporation by more than fifty years, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad had its terminus at Richmond. The first post office opened in 1900, Richmond was founded and incorporated in 1905, carved out of Rancho San Pablo, from which the nearby town of San Pablo inherited its name. Until the enactment of prohibition in 1919, the city had the largest winery in the world, in the 1920s the Ku Klux Klan was active in the city. In 1930 the Ford Motor Company opened a plant called Richmond Assembly Plant which moved to Milpitas in the 1960s. The old Ford plant has been a National Historic Place since 1988, the city was a small town at that time, until the onset of World War II which brought on a rush of migrants and a boom in the industrial sector. Standard Oil set up here in 1901, including a what is now the Chevron Richmond Refinery and tank farm. There is a pier into San Francisco Bay south of Point Molate for oil tankers, the western terminus of the Santa Fe Railroad was established in Richmond with ferry connections at Ferry Point in the Brickyard Cove area of Point Richmond to San Francisco. Many of these lived in specially constructed houses scattered throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including Richmond, Berkeley. A specially built rail line, the Shipyard Railway, transported workers to the shipyards, kaisers Richmond shipyards built 747 Victory and Liberty ships for the war effort, more than any other site in the U. S. The city broke many records and even built one Liberty ship in a five days. On average the yards could build a ship in thirty days, the medical system established for the shipyard workers at the Richmond Field Hospital eventually became todays Kaiser Permanente HMO. It remained in operation until 1993 when it was replaced by the modern Richmond Medical Center hospital, Point Richmond was originally the commercial hub of the city, but a new downtown arose in the center of the city. It was populated by many department stores such as Kress, J. C. Penney, Sears, Macys, during the war the population increased dramatically and peaked at around 120,000 by the end of the war. Once the war ended the workers were no longer needed
Richmond, California
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Point Richmond seen from nearby Nicholl Knob
Richmond, California
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Southern Richmond in 1930, at the time the town of
Stege, California.
Richmond, California
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An
E&SR streetcar in the Macdonald Avenue subway in downtown Richmond, 1906.
Richmond, California
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A 4,000 unit housing project was completed in Richmond during 1943.
9.
Selim E. Woodworth
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Selim E. Woodworth was a commander in the United States Navy, prominent San Francisco businessman, and member of the Woodworth political family. Woodworth was born in New York City, the son of poet. He was a descendant of colonial settler Walter Woodworth, at age twelve he and his friend Tom Jacobs ran away to cross the continent, but relatives living north of the city apprehended them in the Catskills. In 1834, Woodworth and Jacobs sailed as captains clerks on the ship Margaret Oakley, Morrell explored islands in the Bismark Sea and established trading relations with previously uncontacted native inhabitants. Woolworth and Jacobs found an uninhabited atoll suitable for a new colony, Woodworth eventually reached Mauritius and returned to New York after an absence of four years. Morrell, was now seen as piratical and on the run from authorities, although Woodworth was associated with the disastrous and piratical Margaret Oakley expedition, he was not held culpable and his father worked to have him enlisted into the Navy. Appointed a midshipman on June 16,1838, Woodworth was ordered to join the Wilkes Exploring Expedition because of the Polynesian language ability he had acquired in the Pacific, because his orders were misdirected, he arrived to find the expedition had already sailed. He was instead sent to the Mediterranean Sea for duty in the ship of the line Ohio, while serving on Falmouth, he learned of his fathers death and returned to New York where he was assigned to the receiving ship North Carolina. He served on Lawrence and then entered the Philadelphia Naval School, on May 20,1844, Woodworth was warranted a passed midshipman. After six months leave, he reported to the Jamestown, a new sloop-of-war and he was transferred to Truxtun, but detached on November 24,1845, and granted a three-month leave. In 1846, with the United States on the brink of war with Mexico and he set out with two companions from Independence, Missouri, on May 14 and arrived in Oregon 98 days later. Woodworth reported to authorities at the mouth of the Columbia River, where he remained until January 18,1847. There he volunteered for the efforts on behalf of the Donner Party. He was put in command and on February 7 sailed for Sacramento with supplies and he trekked into the mountains with men and provisions, but he failed to meet the rescue parties that were hoping to rendezvous with him. Donner Party survivors and rescuers regarded him as a braggart who had let them down, Woodworth arrived back in San Francisco on April 1,1847 and reported on board sloop-of-war Warren at Monterey Bay, California on May 17,1847. On October 8, he requested a leave of absence in order to make a trip across the part of South America. He left Warren on February 16,1848, to command of the bark Anita. From June 5,1848, until 1850, naval registers carry him as attached to the Pacific Squadron, however, in November 1849, a year before California became a state, Woodworth was elected to the legislature as a senator representing Monterey and immediately resigned his Navy commission
Selim E. Woodworth
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Woodworth was the first owner and resident of
Red Rock Island
Selim E. Woodworth
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Selim E. Woodworth
Selim E. Woodworth
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U.S. President
Abraham Lincoln recommended Woodworth receive special thanks from Congress for his service in the war
10.
Manganese
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Manganese is a chemical element with symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is not found as an element in nature, it is often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a metal with important industrial metal alloy uses, particularly in stainless steels, by the mid-18th century, Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele had used pyrolusite to produce chlorine. Scheele and others were aware that pyrolusite contained a new element, johan Gottlieb Gahn was the first to isolate an impure sample of manganese metal in 1774, which he did by reducing the dioxide with carbon. Manganese phosphating is used for rust and corrosion prevention on steel, ionized manganese is used industrially as pigments of various colors, which depend on the oxidation state of the ions. The permanganates of alkali and alkaline earth metals are powerful oxidizers, Manganese dioxide is used as the cathode material in zinc-carbon and alkaline batteries. In biology, manganese ions function as cofactors for a variety of enzymes with many functions. Manganese enzymes are essential in detoxification of superoxide free radicals in organisms that must deal with elemental oxygen. Manganese also functions in the complex of photosynthetic plants. The element is a trace mineral for all known living organisms but is a neurotoxin. In larger amounts, and apparently with far greater effectiveness through inhalation, Manganese is a silvery-gray metal that resembles iron. It is hard and very brittle, difficult to fuse, Manganese metal and its common ions are paramagnetic. Manganese tarnishes slowly in air and oxidizes like iron in water containing dissolved oxygen, naturally occurring manganese is composed of one stable isotope, 55Mn. Eighteen radioisotopes have been isolated and described, the most stable being 53Mn with a half-life of 3.7 million years, 54Mn with a half-life of 312.3 days, and 52Mn with a half-life of 5.591 days. All of the radioactive isotopes have half-lives of less than three hours, and the majority of less than one minute. Manganese also has three meta states, Manganese is part of the iron group of elements, which are thought to be synthesized in large stars shortly before the supernova explosion. 53Mn decays to 53Cr with a half-life of 3.7 million years, because of its relatively short half-life, 53Mn is relatively rare, produced by cosmic rays impact on iron. Manganese isotopic contents are combined with chromium isotopic contents and have found application in isotope geology
Manganese
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Manganese, 25 Mn
Manganese
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Electrolytically refined manganese chips and 1 cm 3 cube
Manganese
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Manganese(II) chloride crystals – the pale pink color of Mn(II) salts is due to a spin-forbidden 3d transition.
Manganese
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Aqueous solution of KMnO 4 illustrating the deep purple of Mn(VII) as it occurs in permanganate
11.
Windward and leeward
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Windward is the direction upwind from the point of reference. Leeward is the direction downwind from the point of reference, the side of a ship that is towards the leeward is its lee side. If the vessel is heeling under the pressure of the wind, during the age of sail, the term weather was used as a synonym for windward in some contexts, as in the weather gage. Windward and leeward directions are important factors to consider when sailing a sailing ship, other terms with broadly the same meaning are widely used, particularly upwind and downwind. The windward vessel is normally the more maneuverable vessel, for this reason, rule 12 of the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea stipulates that the windward vessel gives way to the leeward vessel. The opposing warship to leeward could often do little but comply without exposing itself unduly and this was particularly important once artillery was introduced to naval warfare. The ships heeled away from the wind so that the vessel was exposing part of her bottom to shot. Leeward and windward refer respectively to what a game stalker would call downwind and upwind, the terms are used by seamen in relation to their ships but also in reference to islands in an archipelago and to the different sides of a single island. In the latter case, the side is that side of an island subject to the prevailing wind. The leeward side is the side protected by the elevation of the island from the prevailing wind, thus, leeward or windward siting is an important weather and climate factor on oceanic islands. In the case of an archipelago, windward islands are upwind and leeward islands are the downwind ones
Windward and leeward
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Example image showing definitions of windward (upwind) and leeward (downwind).
12.
California Department of Fish and Game
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The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, formerly known as the California Department of Fish and Game, is a state agency under the California Natural Resources Agency. The Department of Fish and Wildlife manages and protects the fish, wildlife, plant. It is responsible for related recreational, commercial, scientific, and it also works to prevent illegal poaching. The Game Act was passed in 1852 by the California State Legislature, the Game Act closed seasons in 12 counties for quail, partridge, mallard and wood ducks, elk, deer, and antelope. A second legislative action enacted the same year protected salmon runs, in 1854, the Legislature extended the act to include all counties of California. In 1860, protection controls were extended for trout, Lake Merritt was made the first game refuge of California in 1869, believed to be the first in the United States. In 1870, the Legislature, with the support of Governor Henry Huntly Haight, the Board stipulated that fish ladders were now required at state dams. The Board outlawed explosives or other substances, and created a $500 fine for violations. In 1870, the first fish ladder in the state was built on a tributary of the Truckee River, over the next 30 years, the Board of Fish Commissioners were given authority over game in the state as well as establishing hunting and fishing licenses. In 1909, the Board of Fish Commissioners changed its name to the Fish, the Division of Fish and Game was established in 1927, set up within the Department of Natural Resources. In 1951, the Reorganization Act elevated the Division of Fish and Game to the Department of Fish, California Fish and Game also collaborated with the indigenous Native American Tribes to ensure their proper fishing rights. The Yurok tribe has collaborated with them as recently as 2011, the Department also helped figure out the official count of fish killed in the 2002 Fish Kill on the Klamath River. The Klamath river is important to the tribes that live along that river. By 2012, California was one of only 13 states still using Game in the title of their wildlife agency, the State Legislature changed the Departments name to Fish and Wildlife on January 1,2013. The legislation followed recommendations of a 51-member stakeholder advisory group,18 other states use the term wildlife, while the others generally use natural resources or conservation, in the titles of their Departments. This change reflects the trend toward expansion of the Agencies missions from sport fishing and hunting alone, to protection of non-game wildlife, in June 2015, the CDFW phased out lead ammunition for hunting on state land in order to keep lead out of backcountry ecosystems. The Department of Fish and Wildlife divides the State of California into seven management regions whose boundaries mostly correspond to county borders, northern Region, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama and Trinity counties. North Central Region, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Lake, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Sierra, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties
California Department of Fish and Game
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Patch of the California Department of Fish and Game
13.
List of islands of California
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This list of islands of California is organized into sections, generally arranged from north to south. The islands within each section are listed in alphabetical order, the Geographic Names Information System lists 527 named islands in the state. All three islands in Humboldt Bay are located in the midsection of the bay. This portion of the bay is located within the City of Eureka and they consist of over twenty small islets divided into north, south and middle sections, as well as a major bank, Fanny Shoal. The surrounding waters were used as a disposal site for radioactive waste. Suisun Bay is an arm of the San Francisco Bay estuary which connects the Sacramento, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is an inverted delta at the juncture of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. There are about 57 named islands in the Delta, the Channel Islands are a group of eight main islands and several minor islands in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and Ventura counties in Southern California. The four northern islands are protected in Channel Islands National Park and these Islands are part of the Greater Los Angeles Area. The Greater Los Angeles Area is an area on the Pacific coast of southern California. The bay associated with Newport Harbor and the city of Newport Beach, geography of California List of coastal islands of the Californias List of islands of the United States Outline of California Martin, James A. Lee, Michael T. The Islands of San Francisco Bay, San Rafael, CA, Down Window Press. California Department of Water Resources. ca. gov, Delta Waterways
List of islands of California
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Sugarloaf Island,
List of islands of California
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Daby Island
List of islands of California
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Indian Island
List of islands of California
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Alcatraz Island
14.
Geographic Names Information System
–
It is a type of gazetteer. GNIS was developed by the United States Geological Survey in cooperation with the United States Board on Geographic Names to promote the standardization of feature names, the database is part of a system that includes topographic map names and bibliographic references. The names of books and historic maps that confirm the feature or place name are cited, variant names, alternatives to official federal names for a feature, are also recorded. Each feature receives a permanent, unique feature record identifier, sometimes called the GNIS identifier, the database never removes an entry, except in cases of obvious duplication. The GNIS accepts proposals for new or changed names for U. S. geographical features, the general public can make proposals at the GNIS web site and can review the justifications and supporters of the proposals. The Bureau of the Census defines Census Designated Places as a subset of locations in the National Geographic Names Database, U. S. Postal Service Publication 28 gives standards for addressing mail. In this publication, the postal service defines two-letter state abbreviations, street identifiers such as boulevard and street, department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey, National Mapping Division, Digital Gazeteer, Users Manual. Least Heat Moon, William, Blue Highways, A Journey Into America, standard was withdrawn in September 2008, See Federal Register Notice, Vol.73, No. 170, page 51276 Report, Principles, Policies, and Procedures, Domestic Geographic Names, U. S. Postal Service Publication 28, November 2000. Board on Geographic Names website Geographic Names Information System Proposals from the general public Meeting minutes
Geographic Names Information System
–
The seal of the
United States Board on Geographic Names
15.
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
United States Geological Survey
–
Clarence King, founder of the USGS
United States Geological Survey
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Seal of the United States Geological Survey
United States Geological Survey
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The USGS headquarters in
Reston, Virginia
United States Geological Survey
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USGS gauging station 03221000 on the
Scioto River below
O'Shaughnessy Dam near
Dublin, Ohio
16.
University of California Press
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University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish books and papers for the faculty of the University of California and its headquarters are located in Oakland, California. It also distributes titles published by the Huntington Library, Watershed Media, each year it publishes approximately 180 new books and 31 journals in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences and keeps about 3,500 book titles in print. The Press commissioned as its corporate typeface University of California Old Style from type designer Frederic Goudy from 1936-8, finley Joan of Arc, The Image of Female Heroism, Marina Warner Strong Democracy, Participatory Politics for a New Age, Benjamin R. These titles were selected for their merit and for their illumination of California history. The Ford by Mary Austin Thieves Market by A. I, by Al Young Official University of California Press website California Digital Library - University of California Libraries Free Online - UC Press E-Books Collection Mark Twain Project Online
University of California Press
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2008 conference booth
17.
OCLC
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The Online Computer Library Center is a US-based nonprofit cooperative organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the worlds information and reducing information costs. It was founded in 1967 as the Ohio College Library Center, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the largest online public access catalog in the world. OCLC is funded mainly by the fees that libraries have to pay for its services, the group first met on July 5,1967 on the campus of the Ohio State University to sign the articles of incorporation for the nonprofit organization. The group hired Frederick G. Kilgour, a former Yale University medical school librarian, Kilgour wished to merge the latest information storage and retrieval system of the time, the computer, with the oldest, the library. The goal of network and database was to bring libraries together to cooperatively keep track of the worlds information in order to best serve researchers and scholars. The first library to do online cataloging through OCLC was the Alden Library at Ohio University on August 26,1971 and this was the first occurrence of online cataloging by any library worldwide. Membership in OCLC is based on use of services and contribution of data, between 1967 and 1977, OCLC membership was limited to institutions in Ohio, but in 1978, a new governance structure was established that allowed institutions from other states to join. In 2002, the structure was again modified to accommodate participation from outside the United States. As OCLC expanded services in the United States outside of Ohio, it relied on establishing strategic partnerships with networks, organizations that provided training, support, by 2008, there were 15 independent United States regional service providers. OCLC networks played a key role in OCLC governance, with networks electing delegates to serve on OCLC Members Council, in early 2009, OCLC negotiated new contracts with the former networks and opened a centralized support center. OCLC provides bibliographic, abstract and full-text information to anyone, OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat—the OCLC Online Union Catalog, the largest online public access catalog in the world. WorldCat has holding records from public and private libraries worldwide. org, in October 2005, the OCLC technical staff began a wiki project, WikiD, allowing readers to add commentary and structured-field information associated with any WorldCat record. The Online Computer Library Center acquired the trademark and copyrights associated with the Dewey Decimal Classification System when it bought Forest Press in 1988, a browser for books with their Dewey Decimal Classifications was available until July 2013, it was replaced by the Classify Service. S. The reference management service QuestionPoint provides libraries with tools to communicate with users and this around-the-clock reference service is provided by a cooperative of participating global libraries. OCLC has produced cards for members since 1971 with its shared online catalog. OCLC commercially sells software, e. g. CONTENTdm for managing digital collections, OCLC has been conducting research for the library community for more than 30 years. In accordance with its mission, OCLC makes its research outcomes known through various publications and these publications, including journal articles, reports, newsletters, and presentations, are available through the organizations website. The most recent publications are displayed first, and all archived resources, membership Reports – A number of significant reports on topics ranging from virtual reference in libraries to perceptions about library funding
OCLC
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Fred Kilgour (1st director of OCLC)
OCLC
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Online Computer Library Center (OCLC)
OCLC
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OCLC headquarters (Ohio)
OCLC
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OCLC offices in Leiden (the Netherlands)
18.
San Francisco Bay Area
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The San Francisco Bay Area is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses the cities and metropolitan areas of San Jose, San Francisco. The Bay Areas nine counties are Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma. The combined statistical area of the region is the second-largest in California, the fifth-largest in the United States, the Bay Area has the second-most Fortune 500 Companies in the United States, and is known for its natural beauty, liberal politics, entrepreneurship, and diversity. The eastern side of the bay, consisting of Alameda and Contra Costa counties, is known locally as the East Bay, the inner East Bay is more densely populated, with generally older buildings, and a more ethnically diverse population. The word Lamorinda was coined by combining the names of the cities it includes, Lafayette, Moraga, walnut Creek is situated east of Lamorinda and north of the San Ramon Valley and, together with Concord, Martinez, and Pleasant Hill comprises Central Contra Costa County. The cities of Antioch, Pittsburg, Brentwood, Oakley and the areas surrounding them comprise East Contra Costa County. The Tri-Valley consists of the Amador, the Livermore, and the San Ramon Valleys, dublin and Pleasanton comprise the Amador Valley, Livermore lies in the Livermore Valley, and the San Ramon Valley consists of Alamo, Danville, Diablo and its namesake, San Ramon. The outer East Bay is connected to the inner East Bay by BART, Interstate 580 to the south, and State Routes State Route 4 to the north, the outer East Bays infrastructure was mostly built up after World War II. This area remains largely white demographically, although the Hispanic and Filipino populations have grown significantly over the past 2–3 decades, the region north of the Golden Gate Bridge is known locally as the North Bay. This area encompasses Marin County, Sonoma County, Napa County, the city of Fairfield, being part of Solano County, is often considered the easternmost city of the North Bay. With few exceptions, this region is affluent, Marin County is ranked as the wealthiest in the state. The North Bay is relatively rural compared to the remainder of the Bay Area, with areas of undeveloped open space, farmland. Santa Rosa in Sonoma County is the North Bays largest city, with a population of 167,815 and a Metropolitan Statistical Area population of 466,891, making it the fifth-largest city in the Bay Area. The North Bay is the section of the Bay Area that is not currently served by a commuter rail service. The area from San Francisco to the Silicon Valley, geographically part of the San Francisco Peninsula, is known locally as The Peninsula, many of these families are of foreign background and have significantly contributed to the diversity of the area. Whereas the term peninsula technically refers to the entire geographical San Franciscan Peninsula, in local terms, San Francisco is surrounded by water on three sides, the north, east, and west. The city squeezes roughly 870,000 people in under 47 square miles, on any given day, there can be as many as 1 million people in the city because of the commuting population and tourism
San Francisco Bay Area
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San Francisco
San Francisco Bay Area
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San Jose
San Francisco Bay Area
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Oakland
San Francisco Bay Area
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A view of the
San Francisco skyline from the bay.
19.
Bodega Bay
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Bodega Bay is a shallow, rocky inlet of the Pacific Ocean on the coast of northern California in the United States. It is approximately 5 mi across and is located approximately 40 mi northwest of San Francisco and 20 mi west of Santa Rosa, the bay straddles the boundary between Sonoma County to the north and Marin County to the south. The bay is a marine habitat used for navigation, recreation, Bodega Bay is protected on its north end from the Pacific Ocean by Bodega Head, which shelters the small Bodega Harbor and is separated from the main bay by a jetty. The San Andreas Fault runs parallel to the coastline and bisects Bodega Head, which lies on the Pacific Plate, the village of Bodega Bay sits on the east side of Bodega Harbor. The bay connects on its end to the mouth of Tomales Bay. Streams flowing into Bodega Bay include the Estero de San Antonio, accessible beaches on Bodega Bay include Doran Regional Park and Pinnacle Gulch. Apart from the harbor, all of Bodega Bay lies within the boundaries of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, Coast Miwok Native Americans lived on the shores of Bodega Bay. Documented village names include, Helapattai, Hime-takala, Ho-takala, there is speculation that Bodega Bay may have been Sir Francis Drakes Nova Albion landing location on the California coast. His ship, the Sonora, anchored in the lee of Tomales Point on October 3,1775, Bodega y Quadra named Tomales Bay Puerto de la Bodega. There is no evidence in the journal or on the charts that Bodega y Quadra ever saw the entrance to Bodega Harbor or knew of the lagoon to the north, Bodega y Quadra planned to return, but was not able to. Later, as commandant of the base at San Blas, New Spain, Bodega y Quadra sent other expeditions to Bodega Bay with the intention of establishing a colony. It was decided, however, that the location was non-ideal, the first Russians to see Bodega Bay were the supervisors of the Aleut hunting parties aboard the American otter hunting ship Peacock in 1807. Timofei Osipovich Tarakanov of the Russian-American Company returned to Novo Arkhangelsk, Alaska and reported the location to Alexander Andreyevich Baranov, Baranov instructed his assistant Ivan Kuskov to survey the area for a settlement. Kuskov, the Commerce Counselor of the Russian-American Company sailing in the Kodiak, temporary buildings were erected to house the ships complement of 190 crew The Kodiak remained in Bodega Bay until October 1809, returning to Alaska with more than 2,000 otter pelts. Kuskov returned to Novo Arkhangelsk, reporting abundant fur bearing mammals, fish, timber, Baranov instructed Kuskov to return and establish a permanent settlement in the area. In 1811 Kuskov returned, this time aboard the Chirikov but found fewer otter in Bodega Bay, three American ships were also operating in the area from a base in Drakes Bay, sending hunters into San Francisco Bay and the surrounding bays. Zaliv Rumyantsev appears on the earliest Russian charts of Bodega Bay identifying present day Bodega Bay, Bodega Head was named Mouis Rumyantsev. Tomales Point was named Point Great Bodega and Tomales Bay Great Bodega Bay, on his return Kuskov found otter now scarce in Bodega Bay, the harbor having been frequented by numerous American and English otter-hunting expeditions
Bodega Bay
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Bodega Bay
Bodega Bay
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Bodega Bay viewed from Dillon Beach
Bodega Bay
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Bodega Bay, photographed on July 16, 2007
Bodega Bay
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Russian chart of Fort Ross to Bodega Bay, 1817-18. Bodega Harbor and Bay appear in the upper right
20.
Carquinez Strait
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The Carquinez Strait is a narrow tidal strait in northern California. It is part of the estuary of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers as they drain into the San Francisco Bay. The strait connects Suisun Bay, which receives the waters of the rivers, with San Pablo Bay. The strait forms part of the border between Solano and Contra Costa counties, and is approximately 15 mi north of Oakland, the cities of Benicia and Vallejo lie on the north side of the strait, while Martinez, Port Costa, and Crockett sit on the southern coast. The Napa River joins the strait, via the short Mare Island Strait, the strait is named after the Karkin, a linguistic division of the Ohlone Native Americans who resided on both sides of the strait. The California Maritime Academy is at the end of the strait on the northern waterfront. The C&H Sugar refinery is located on the shore in the small town of Crockett. The strait is crossed by two bridges, the Carquinez Bridge on Interstate 80 and the Benicia-Martinez Bridge on Interstate 680. Each highway bridge consists of two spans, Interstate 780 connects the two highways on the northern slope of the strait. State Route 4 connects these highways south of and inland from the strait, a rail bridge just east of the Benicia-Martinez bridge is used by the Capitol Corridor, California Zephyr, and Coast Starlight trains. A rail ferry, with the ferries Contra Costa and Solano provided service across the strait near the location of the current rail bridge until the bridge was built in 1930. Tall pylons carrying power lines cross the strait as well, the Carquinez Strait Powerline Crossing was the worlds first powerline crossing of a large river. The channel is navigable and is used for commercial and military shipping, deep water ship traffic bound for both the Port of Sacramento and the Port of Stockton traverse the strait. The narrow gap in the Coast Range that forms the strait has led to the formation of the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta, a river delta, upstream of it. The strait is too small to allow the passage of huge amounts of floodwaters created during years with heavy rainfall/snowmelt events. Because the Delta area is the first to fill and last to drain in an event, silt and soil have more time to drop out of suspension
Carquinez Strait
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Aerial view of the Carquinez Strait looking east, with the
Carquinez Bridge in the foreground and the
Benicia-Martinez Bridge in the background.
Carquinez Strait
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Carquinez Strait
Carquinez Strait
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Bodies of water
21.
Clifton Court Forebay
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Clifton Court Forebay is a reservoir in the San Joaquin River Delta region of eastern Contra Costa County, California,17 mi southwest of Stockton. The estuary region the forebay is located in is only 1m to 3m above mean sea level, the body of water was created in 1969 by inundating a 2, 200-acre tract as part of the California State Water Project. It serves as the point of the California Aqueduct for transport to Southern California. If a large enough earthquake happens near or at the Clifton Court Forebay, several earthquakes have nearly shutdown the Forebay. The 2014 South Napa earthquake and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake came very close to shutting down the Forebay intake system, the Clifton Forebay is a wetland system that drained nearby small rivers into the Pacific Ocean. Only in recent times was its freshwater drainage functions turned into a gateway to water storage, the Central Valley region that this forebay interfaces with is very gradually filling in the central valley with sediments. The region may be rebounding from recent run ins with glaciations that affected North America, a documentary about the decline of the United States infrastructure, The Crumbling of America, was commissioned by the U. S. A&E network in the late 2000s, the documentary is typically shown on the History television channel in the United States, although other educational broadcasters globally have shown it. It features the Clifton Court Forebay as a piece of California freshwater infrastructure subject to shutdown for up to two years if struck by an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 or greater. List of dams and reservoirs in California List of lakes in California Reservoir map History of the California Aqueduct system
Clifton Court Forebay
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Outline
22.
Golden Gate
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The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, the strait is well known today for its depth and powerful tidal currents from the Pacific Ocean. Many small whirlpools and eddies can form in its waters, with its strong currents, rocky reefs and fog, the Golden Gate is the site of over 100 shipwrecks. The Golden Gate is often shrouded in fog, especially during the summer, heat generated in the California Central Valley causes air there to rise, creating a low pressure area that pulls in cool, moist air from over the Pacific Ocean. The Golden Gate forms the largest break in the hills of the California Coast Range, allowing a persistent, dense stream of fog to enter the bay there. Before the Europeans arrived in the 18th century, the area around the strait, descendants of both tribes remain in the area. The strait was surprisingly elusive for early European explorers, presumably due to this persistent summer fog. The strait is not recorded in the voyages of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo nor Francis Drake, the strait is also unrecorded in observations by Spanish galleons returning from the Philippines that laid up in nearby Drakes Bay to the north. These galleons rarely passed east of the Farallon Islands, fearing the possibility of rocks between the islands and the mainland, the first recorded observation of the strait occurred nearly two hundred years later than the earliest European explorations of the coast. Until the 1840s, the strait was called the Boca del Puerto de San Francisco, on 1 July 1846, before the discovery of gold in California, the entrance acquired a new name. Frémont wrote, To this Gate I gave the name of Chrysopylae, or Golden Gate, for the reasons that the harbor of Byzantium was called Chrysoceras. In the 1920s, no bridge spanned the watery expanse between San Francisco and Marin in California—so when the U. S, post Office issued a postage stamp on 1 May 1923, celebrating The Golden Gate, the issue naturally portrayed the scene without a bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge is a bridge spanning the Golden Gate. As part of both US Highway 101 and California Route 1, it connects the city of San Francisco on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula to Marin County. The Golden Gate Bridge was the longest suspension span in the world when completed in 1937. Since its completion, the length has been surpassed by eight other bridges. It still has the second longest suspension bridge span in the United States. In 2007, it was ranked fifth on the List of Americas Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects, Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of 1,017 acres of public grounds
Golden Gate
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The Golden Gate
Golden Gate
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Fog enters
San Francisco Bay through the Golden Gate, seen here in August 2012
Golden Gate
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The Golden Gate photographed from
Telegraph Hill by
Carleton Watkins circa 1868
Golden Gate
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The Golden Gate, looking south towards
San Francisco.
San Francisco Bay is on the left, and the
Pacific Ocean is on the right.
23.
Guadalupe River (California)
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The Guadalupe River mainstem is an urban, northward flowing 14 miles river in California whose much longer headwater creeks originate in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The river mainstem now begins on the Santa Clara Valley floor when Los Alamitos Creek exits Lake Almaden and joins Guadalupe Creek just downstream of Coleman Road in San Jose, from here it flows north through San José, California where it receives Los Gatos Creek, a major tributary. The Guadalupe River is the southernmost major U. S. river with a Chinook salmon run, much of the river is surrounded by parks. Two of the Guadalupe Rivers major tributaries, Los Gatos Creek, specifically, Juan Bautista de Anza camped along the banks of the Guadalupe River at Expedition Camp 97 on March 30,1776 near the present–day site of Agnews State Hospital. Both had to be moved away from the river because of mosquitoes in the summertime, today Santa Clara Mission is 2 miles away from the original location. Historically the Guadalupe River was even shorter, originating several miles further north and its main tributary was known as Arroyo Seco de Guadalupe on 1860 maps and then as Arroyo Seco de Los Capitancillos on the 1876 Thompson & West maps. On July 9,2005, the bones of a juvenile Columbian mammoth were discovered in the Lower Guadalupe River near the Trimble Road overcrossing. The discovery was made by San Jose resident, founder of the Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Group, the Pleistocene mammoth was nicknamed Lupe by area residents and Lupes fossils are exhibited at Childrens Discovery Museum of San Jose. Historically, the Guadalupe River flowed into Guadalupe Slough,1.0 mile west of its current drainage into Alviso Slough. To make it easier to get sailboats up the Guadalupe River to the port of Alviso, Alviso Slough, also known as Steamboat Slough historically, was relatively straight, while Guadalupe Slough meandered extensively through the marshes. Alviso Slough was historically not fed by any upland streams, but simply carried tidewater in, the re-routing of the river to Alviso Slough in the 1870s also disconnected it from several tributaries, and had the effect of shrinking the Guadalupe River Watershed. San Tomas Aquino Creek and its Saratoga Creek tributary and Calabazas Creek and these tributaries were disconnected from the river and re-routed directly into Guadalupe Slough between 1876 and 1890 according to historic maps. Reportedly, Saratoga Creek had steelhead and coho salmon runs and they now go dry in the summer months and their lower segments have become denuded ditches requiring continuous maintenance. Mission Creek used to harbor trout and salmon but today it is buried in a culvert, the historic watershed can be viewed in the Thompson and West 1876 maps. The Guadalupe Watershed today drains an area of 171 square miles, below its origination at the confluence of Guadalupe Creek and Los Alamitos Creek, the mainstem is joined by three other tributaries, Ross, Canoas, and Los Gatos Creeks. The SCVWD manages water flows and provides flood control on the river, the construction of salt evaporation ponds in the 1930s rerouted the Guadalupe River, cutting off tidal action. The current project will open a former Cargill Salt pond as the beginning of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, when complete, the project should restore 15,100 acres of industrial salt ponds to tidal wetlands. Pond A8 will be the first one worked on, early written documents record the local presence of migrating salmon in the ‘Rio Guadalupe’ dating as far back as the 18th century
Guadalupe River (California)
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Chinook salmon spawning on the
Los Gatos Creek tributary of Guadalupe River by
California Highway 17 in 1996
Guadalupe River (California)
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Tributary creeks of the Guadalupe River watershed 3D Topo Map
Guadalupe River (California)
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Opening day festivities at the Guadalupe River Park and Gardens
Guadalupe River (California)
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Urban Guadalupe River lies in heavily armored concrete channel
24.
Half Moon Bay (California)
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Half Moon Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean on the coast of San Mateo County, California. The bay is approximately semi-circular, hence the half moon. Coastal towns located there are Princeton-by-the-Sea, Miramar, El Granada, the surfing location Mavericks is located on the outer edge of the peninsula which forms the bay. Miramar Beach is located along the shore of the bay opposite the peninsula, marine species include flatfish, the commercially important English sole, rockfish, surfperch, Pacific herring, lingcod, and abundant winter species including starry flounder and top-smelt. The bay provides an example of a logarithmic spiral beach, pilarcitos Creek Half Moon Bay State Beach Half Moon Bay SB California State Park
Half Moon Bay (California)
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Half Moon Bay and Pillar Point (top), 2009
Half Moon Bay (California)
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A view of Half Moon Bay and surroundings
Half Moon Bay (California)
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Bodies of water
25.
Lake Berryessa
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Lake Berryessa is the largest lake in Napa County, California. This reservoir in the Vaca Mountains is formed by the Monticello Dam, the reservoir was named for the first European settlers in the Berryessa Valley, José Jesús and Sexto Sisto Berrelleza, who were granted Rancho Las Putas in 1843. The lake is over 20,000 acres when full and it is approximately 15.5 miles long but only 3 miles wide. It has approximately 165 miles of shoreline, near the dam on the southeast side of the reservoir is an open bell-mouth spillway,72 feet in diameter, which is known as the Glory Hole. The pipe has a drop of 200 feet, and the diameter shrinks down to about 28 feet. The spillway has a capacity of 48,000 cfs. The spillway operates when there is water in the reservoir, in 2017 after heavy rains it started flowing. In 1997 a woman was killed after being pulled inside the spillway, the active Green Valley Fault runs parallel to the Lake in the hills to the west. Prior to its inundation, the valley was an agricultural region, the main town in the valley, Monticello, was abandoned in order to construct the reservoir. This abandonment was chronicled by the photographers Dorothea Lange and Pirkle Jones in their book Death of a Valley. Construction of Monticello Dam began in 1953, completed in 1958, Monticello residents opposed the government and the Solano Project but were unsuccessful. Residents abandoned their homes, the Monticello cemetery had to be relocated, Monticello ranchers were evicted as equipment was auctioned away and the fertile land destroyed and flooded. The discovery of gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada caused an influx of people to the central valley, communities in Solano County grew quickly in the gold rush. Monticello Dam and Lake Berryessa were the result, interest in damming Putah Creek started around the early 1900s. In 1907, a few cities in the Bay Area were interested enough to hire three engineers, including Arthur Powell Davis and George Washington Goethals and their interest quickly evaporated in favor of larger projects, but the place continued to attract interest. Small irrigation projects had developed in the areas but had little success. In the end the Solano Water Council agreed to focus on Monticello Dam, some predicted the dam would be unsuccessful and the valley would never fill. Monticello, a farming town was founded by Ezra Peacock in 1867
Lake Berryessa
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Satellite photo
Lake Berryessa
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A panorama of Lake Berryessa
26.
Napa River
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The Napa River, approximately 55 miles long, is a river in the U. S. state of California. It drains a famous wine-growing region, called the Napa Valley, milliken Creek and Mt. Veeder watersheds are a few of its many tributaries. The mouth is at Vallejo where the inter-tidal zone of fresh, the Napa River rises in northwestern Napa County just south of the summit of Mt. St. Helena in the Mayacamas Mountains of the California Coast Ranges. The source begins as seasonal Kimball Canyon Creek in Robert Louis Stevenson State Park at an elevation of 3,745 feet which descends the slope of Mt. St. Helena to Kimball Canyon Dam. It flows south for 4 miles, entering the head of the slender Napa Valley north of Calistoga, in the valley, it flows southeast past Calistoga, St Helena, Rutherford, Oakville and through Napa, its head of navigation. Downstream from Napa, it forms an estuary, entering Mare Island Strait. It discharges into San Pablo Bay through the Napa Sonoma Marsh, the Napa River watershed encompasses approximately 426 square miles. Larger tributaries, such as Dry, Conn, and Soda creeks, several large dams were built between 1924 and 1959 on major eastside tributaries and the northern headwaters of the Napa River. In addition, many smaller dams can be throughout the watershed. These numerous dams are barriers to salmon and steelhead seeking their historic spawning grounds. The river also supports a diversity of fishes and recovering salmonid populations, especially chinook salmon. In 2003 the Napa County Resource Conservation District began an ongoing monitoring program. The Chinook run begins in late October through January, the Napa River basin is estimated to have historically supported a spawning run of 6, 000–8,000 steelhead, and as many as 2, 000–4,000 coho salmon. By the late 1960s, coho salmon were extirpated from the watershed, flow reductions in key rearing streams have reduced food availability for juvenile steelhead, causing reduced growth and survival. Recently, a salmon was caught in the river. In addition, a fourth species, sockeye salmon, was also identified in the Napa River. Because of this diversity the Napa River has been prioritized for special protection, white sturgeon and many other native and non-native fishes currently utilize the Napa River watershed. The California golden beaver was historically extant, recently beaver have recolonized the Napa River and have been documented in Napa as well as near Rutherford and Oak Knoll
Napa River
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The Napa River in
Napa, as viewed from
Copia
Napa River
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Aerial view of the southern end of the Napa River in the Napa-Sonoma Marsh
Napa River
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May 2014 photo of beaver gathering shore grasses on the Napa River. Courtesy of Cheryl Reynolds, Worth a Dam.
Napa River
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Beaver Lodge on Tulucay Creek at Soscol Avenue in downtown Napa, courtesy of Rusty Cohn
27.
Oakland Estuary
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The Oakland Estuary is the strait separating the cities of Oakland and Alameda in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. On its western end, it connects to San Francisco Bay, the Estuary is spanned by two underwater tubes and three bridges. S. The Oakland Estuary and tributary stream channels were used for shipping transport regularly by the 1850s, early maritime commerce featured movement of lumber, at this time land west of Lake Merritt Slough consisted of undeveloped marshlands. In 1853 the first dredging project of this estuary was initiated to enable ferry service to San Francisco, by the late 19th century further landside development occurred featuring wharf expansions, railroad service and shipbuilding. In recent years, several rowing clubs have chosen the Oakland Estuary to be their home, prepared for and published by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, San Francisco District, San Francisco, California Shreffler, D. K. R. M
Oakland Estuary
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A view over the estuary from above
Coast Guard Island. Alameda is on the left, with Oakland on the right and San Francisco Bay in the distance.
Oakland Estuary
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High Street Bridge
Oakland Estuary
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Outline
28.
Petaluma River
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The Petaluma River is a river in the California counties of Sonoma and Marin that becomes a tidal slough for the majority of its length. The headwaters are in the area southwest of Cotati, the word Petaluma may derive from the Miwok words pe’ta, flat, and luma, back. The Miwok people lived in Sonoma County for more than 2500 years, Petaluma was the name of a village on a low hill east of Petaluma creek and north east of the present day town of Petaluma. The first recorded exploration of the Petaluma River was by Captain Fernando Quiros in October,1776, located in southern Sonoma County, California, and a portion of northeastern Marin, the Petaluma River Watershed drains 146 square miles. The watershed is approximately 19 miles long and 13 miles wide with the City of Petaluma near its center, the lower 12 miles of the Petaluma River flow through the Petaluma Marsh, the largest remaining salt marsh in San Pablo Bay. The marsh covers 5,000 acres and is surrounded by approximately 7,000 acres of reclaimed wetlands, in the marshes west of Lakeville, the river is joined by San Antonio Creek, at which point it becomes the boundary between Marin County and Sonoma County. The river flows under State Route 37 at Green Point and enters northwest San Pablo Bay just north of Petaluma Point, while the rivers source lies over 300 ft above sea level, it descends to 50 ft within about 0.4 mi. The river is fully tidal 11 mi from its mouth, indicating its slight gradient through the marshes below Petaluma, the United States Army Corps of Engineers dredges this section to keep it navigable by gravel barges and pleasure craft. The Petaluma River Watershed hosts several federally endangered animals including the salt marsh harvest mouse, endangered flora include soft bird’s-beak, Baker’s stickyseed, Burke’s goldfields, showy Indian clover, and Sebastopol meadowfoam. Steelhead that spawn and rear in the Petaluma River watershed are wild, not hatchery, Chinook salmon are seen in the main stem of the Petaluma River and The United Anglers of Casa Grande High School have seen chinook at the turning basin, near the Lynch Creek confluence. The high school constructed a salmonid hatchery in 1993 and in 200274 Chinook salmon returned to spawn in the Adobe Creek tributary. The marshes provide an important wildlife habitat and fish hatchery, however, since the onset of intensive immigration in the mid-1850s, the water quality has diminished, partly due to overgrazing and other agricultural uses. Pollutants present in the river include nitrates, phosphates, petroleum hydrocarbons, pesticides, urban runoff, particularly from the City of Petaluma, adds heavy metals and hydrocarbons to the river. Starting about 1990, material steps were taken to mitigate the pollution, because the Petaluma River is relatively well-protected, most of the pollution comes from nearby storm drains. It is up to the people of Petaluma to keep the river clean, because most of the length of the waterway is tidal and urban/suburban, there is a significant collection of tidally deposited debris along the banks. Despite the poor aesthetics including turbidity, the quality is not particularly poor. It has been alleged that the greatest threat to the Petaluma River is the planned Dutra asphalt plant, the reported concerns involve the loud noises it will create that will scare away the birds and throw off the entire ecosystem. The longest highway span, the 4-lane Route 37 bridge, is 2,183 ft long and was built in 1958, the oldest public bridge, built in 1925, is a 114 ft concrete triple span carrying two lanes of Petaluma Boulevard North
Petaluma River
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The river flowing through
Petaluma. View is to the southeast.
Petaluma River
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The mouth of the Petaluma River on San Pablo Bay. View is to the northeast.
Petaluma River
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Petaluma River Watershed 2007 Steelhead Trout Biosurvey
Petaluma River
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Outline
29.
Richardson Bay
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Richardson Bay is a shallow, ecologically rich arm of San Francisco Bay, managed under a Joint Powers Agency of four northern California cities. The 911-acre Richardson Bay Sanctuary was acquired in the early 1960s by the National Audubon Society, the bay was named for William A. Richardson, early 19th century sea captain and builder in San Francisco. Richardson Bay is one of the most pristine estuaries on the Pacific Coast in spite of its periphery, since it supports extensive eelgrass areas. It is a feeding and resting area for a panoply of estuarine and pelagic birds, while its associated marshes and littoral zones support a variety of animal and plant life. Owing to its lack of depth and complicated structure, Richardson Bay is limited in boating uses to kayaking. There are extensive hiking and bicycling paths at the bay perimeter, especially in the areas of Mill Valley. Martinez, for whom the town of Martinez is named, decided to invite the Captain to reside with their family, maria married the captain after he joined the Catholic Church, being baptized Guillermo Antonio Richardson. This wedding, held at Mission Dolores on May 12,1826 was the first great Spanish-Anglo Saxon wedding in North America and he had charge of several schooners belonging to the Mission Dolores and Mission Santa Clara. Richardson Bay was thus named in the honor of this early settler and builder. The Tiburon Peninsula on the northeast side of the bay was part of Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio granted to John Thomas Reed in 1834, according to local sources and period maps, the Bays original given name was possessive, Richardsons Bay. However, the United States Board on Geographic Names discourages the use of apostrophes in United States place names, the bay muds are widespread in San Francisco Bay and, at Richardson Bay, are approximately 80 to 95 feet deep. The Bay Muds are of Holocene Age and they overlie firm alluvial soils which contain two sand layers at 92 and 110 feet, respectively. These assemblages of Franciscan rocks are referred to as tectonostratigraphic terrains, Richardson Bay is an important ecological area being managed by Audubon California as the Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary. There are significant estuarine resources, marsh birdlife, mammalian species, in addition to being designated a high score IBA, Richardsons Bay has been dedicated as a Hemispheric Reserve of the Western Shorebird Network. A special resident of Bothin Marsh, Blackies Creek mouth and DeSilva Island is the California clapper rail, fishery characteristics of Richardson Bay include a Pacific herring fishery and oyster beds. The herring fishing fleet serving all of San Francisco Bay is based in Richardson Bay at the Sausalito harbor, herring spend most of their lives in the open ocean and come to Richardson Bay and other estuaries for winter spawning in the shallow protected waters. In Richardson Bay their eggs attach to assorted surfaces such as eelgrass, after the eggs hatch, the herring larvae consume plankton, before hatching the eggs are subject to predation by gulls at low tide and sturgeon and other assorted estuarine fauna at higher tides. Locally oysters are preyed upon by the bat ray and certain crabs, the extensive mudflats of Richardson Bay provide a rich habitat for marine invertebrates
Richardson Bay
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Richardson Bay viewed from
Mount Tamalpais
Richardson Bay
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William Richardson
Richardson Bay
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Black-necked stilt foraging in Richardson Bay mudflat
Richardson Bay
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The outlet of
Coyote Creek, which drains Tam Valley into upper Richardson's Bay
