1.
Sierra Nevada (U.S.)
–
The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Basin and Range Province. The vast majority of the lies in the state of California. The Sierra runs 400 miles north-to-south, and is approximately 70 miles across east-to-west, the Sierra is home to three national parks, twenty wilderness areas, and two national monuments. These areas include Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks, the character of the range is shaped by its geology and ecology. More than one hundred years ago during the Nevadan orogeny. The range started to uplift four M. A. ago, the uplift caused a wide range of elevations and climates in the Sierra Nevada, which are reflected by the presence of five life zones. Uplift continues due to faulting caused by forces, creating spectacular fault block escarpments along the eastern edge of the southern Sierra. The Sierra Nevada has a significant history, the California Gold Rush occurred in the western foothills from 1848 through 1855. Due to inaccessibility, the range was not fully explored until 1912, the Sierra Nevada lies in Central and Eastern California, with a very small but historically important spur extending into Nevada. West-to-east, the Sierra Nevadas elevation increases gradually from 1,000 feet in the Central Valley to an height of about 10,500 feet at its crest only 50–75 miles to the east. The east slope forms the steep Sierra Escarpment, unlike its surroundings, the range receives a substantial amount of snowfall and precipitation due to orographic lift. The Sierra Nevada stretches from the Susan River and Fredonyer Pass in the north to Tehachapi Pass in the south and it is bounded on the west by Californias Central Valley and on the east by the Basin and Range Province. The geographical boundary between the Sierra and the Cascades is virtually indistinguishable, with the Fredonyer Pass designation being traditional, physiographically, the Sierra is a section of the Cascade-Sierra Mountains province, which in turn is part of the larger Pacific Mountain System physiographic division. The range is drained on its western slope by the Central Valley watershed, the northern third of the western Sierra is part of the Sacramento River watershed, and the middle third is drained by the San Joaquin River. The eastern slope watershed of the Sierra is much narrower, its rivers flow out into the endorheic Great Basin of eastern California and western Nevada. Although none of the eastern rivers reach the sea, many of the streams from Mono Lake southwards are diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct which provides water to Southern California, the height of the mountains in the Sierra Nevada increases gradually from north to south. Between Fredonyer Pass and Lake Tahoe, the range from 5,000 feet to more than 9,000 feet. The crest near Lake Tahoe is roughly 9,000 feet high, farther south, the highest peak in Yosemite National Park is Mount Lyell
Sierra Nevada (U.S.)
–
The Sierra's
Mills Creek cirque (center) is on the west side of the
Sierra Crest, south of
Mono Lake (top, blue).
Sierra Nevada (U.S.)
–
Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the range and the contiguous United States
Sierra Nevada (U.S.)
–
The Sierra hosts many waterways, such as the
Tuolumne River.
Sierra Nevada (U.S.)
–
Mount Tallac above
Lake Tahoe
2.
Cascade Range
–
The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades, the small part of the range in British Columbia is referred to as the Canadian Cascades or, locally, as the Cascade Mountains. The highest peak in the range is Mount Rainier in Washington at 14,411 feet, the Cascades are part of the Pacific Oceans Ring of Fire, the ring of volcanoes and associated mountains around the Pacific Ocean. All of the eruptions in the contiguous United States over the last 200 years have been from Cascade volcanoes, the two most recent were Lassen Peak from 1914 to 1921 and a major eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. Minor eruptions of Mount St. Helens have also occurred since, the Cascade Range is a part of the American Cordillera, a nearly continuous chain of mountain ranges that form the western backbone of North America, Central America, and South America. The Cascades extend northward from Lassen Peak in northern California to the confluence of the Nicola, the Fraser River separates the Cascades from the Coast Mountains. The highest volcanoes of the Cascades, known as the High Cascades, dominate their surroundings and they often have a visual height of one mile or more. The highest peaks, such as the 14, 411-foot Mount Rainier, Mount Baker in Washington recorded a world-record single-season snowfall in the winter of 1998–99 with 1,140 inches. Prior to that year, Mount Rainier held the record for snow accumulation at Paradise in 1978. It is not uncommon for some places in the Cascades to have over 500 inches of snow accumulation, such as at Lake Helen. Most of the High Cascades are therefore white with snow and ice year-round, annual rainfall is as low as 9 inches on the eastern foothills due to a rain shadow effect. Beyond the eastern foothills is a plateau that was largely created 17 to 14 million years ago by the many flows of the Columbia River Basalt Group. Together, these sequences of fluid volcanic rock form the 200, 000-square-mile Columbia Plateau in eastern Washington, Oregon, the Columbia River Gorge is the only major break of the range in the United States. When the Cascades began to rise 7 million years ago in the Pliocene, as the range grew, erosion from the Columbia River was able to keep pace, creating the gorge and major pass seen today. The gorge also exposes uplifted and warped layers of basalt from the plateau, in early 1792, British navigator George Vancouver explored Puget Sound and gave English names to the high mountains he saw. Mount Baker was named for Vancouvers third lieutenant, Joseph Baker, although the first European to see it was Manuel Quimper, Mount Rainier was named after Admiral Peter Rainier. Later in 1792, Vancouver had his lieutenant William Robert Broughton explore the lower Columbia River and he named Mount Hood after Lord Samuel Hood, an admiral of the Royal Navy. Mount St. Helens was sighted by Vancouver in May 1792 and it was named for Alleyne FitzHerbert, 1st Baron St Helens, a British diplomat
Cascade Range
–
Cascades in Washington, with
Mount Rainier, the highest mountain in the range, standing at 14,411 ft (4,392 m). Seen in the background (left to right) are
Mount Adams, the peak of
Mount Hood, and
Mount St. Helens.
Cascade Range
–
Map of the Cascade Range showing major volcanic peaks
Cascade Range
–
The
Columbia Gorge marks where the
Columbia River splits the Cascade Range between the states of Washington and Oregon.
Cascade Range
–
West side view of
Mount Shuksan in summer as seen from
Artist Point in
Washington
3.
Klamath Mountains
–
The Klamath Mountains are a rugged and lightly populated series of mountain ranges in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the western United States. As a consequence of the geology and soil types, the harbor several endemic or near-endemic trees. The mountains are home to a diverse array of fish and animal species, including black bears, large cats, owls, eagles. Millions of acres in the mountains are managed by the United States Forest Service and they are a section of the larger Pacific Border province, which in turn is part of the Pacific Mountain System physiographic division. The northernmost and largest sub-range of the Klamath Mountains are the Siskiyou Mountains, a large portion of the Klamath Mountains is managed by the United States Forest Service. A 211-mile stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail passes through these mountains as well and this section of the PCT is known locally as The Big Bend and is the transition from the California Floristic Province to the Cascades. The Bigfoot Trail is a 400-mile trail through the Klamath Mountains from the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness to Crescent City, the rocks of the Klamath Mountains originated as island arcs and continental fragments in the Pacific Ocean. The island masses consisted of rifted fragments of pre-existing continents and volcanic island masses created over subduction zones and these island masses contain rocks as old as 500 million years, dating to the early Paleozoic Era. A succession of eight island terranes moved eastward on the ancient Farallon plate, each accretion left a terrane of rock of a single age. During the accretion, subduction of the plate metamorphosed the overlying rock, serpentinite, produced by the metamorphism of basaltic oceanic rocks, and intrusive rocks of gabbroic to granodiorite composition are common rocks within the Klamath terranes. Subsequent lava flows from volcanoes in the Cascade Range and the erosion of the Oregon Coast Range to the north partially covered these rocks with basalt. These communities form the Klamath Mountains ecoregion, one of the principal plant communities in the Klamath Mountains is Mediterranean California Lower Montane Black Oak-Conifer Forest. The flowering plant Kalmiopsis leachiana, also endemic to the Klamaths, is limited to the Siskiyou sub-range in Oregon, conifers A large concentration of diverse coniferous species of trees exists in these mountains. The region also has several plant communities, adapted to specific soil types. In 1969, Drs. John O. Sawyer and Dale Thornburgh discovered 17 species of conifers in 1 square mile around Little Duck Lake and they called this diverse area the Miracle Mile. In 2013 Richard Moore identified an 18th species, western juniper and this is now considered the richest assemblage of conifers per unit area in any temperate region on Earth. Californias northernmost stand of pine is found here along the South Fork of the Salmon River. The vast forested wildlands, coupled with a low rate of settlement in the rugged remote terrain
Klamath Mountains
–
Mixed conifer forest in the
Trinity Alps
Klamath Mountains
–
California incense-cedar (Calocedrus decurrens)
Klamath Mountains
–
Russian Peak and
whitebark pine
Klamath Mountains
–
Red fox (Vulpes vulpes)
4.
California Coast Ranges
–
The Coast Ranges of California span 400 miles from Del Norte or Humboldt County, California south to Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges and the Klamath Mountains, physiographically, they are a section of the larger Pacific Border province, which in turn are part of the larger Pacific Mountain System physiographic division. UNESCO has included the California Coast Ranges Biosphere Reserve in its Man, the northern end of the California Coast Ranges overlap the southern end of the Klamath Mountains for approximately 80 miles on the west. They extend southward for more than 600 miles to where the coastline turns eastward along the Santa Barbara Channel, here the southern end meets the Los Angeles Transverse Ranges, or Sierras de los Angeles. The rocks themselves that comprise the mountains are of a great variety, most of the rocks were formed during the Tertiary, Cretaceous and Jurassic periods. All of the range has been folded and faulted during several periods, the California Ranges had a high production of mercury following the discovery of gold in the Sierra Nevada. In the Cache Creek Basin, Cenozoic cinnabar deposits near Clear Lake are the northernmost of a group of similar deposits associated with volcanism, during 1877, these deposits hit their peak production of mercury, producing approximately 2,776 metric tons. These abandoned mines are still a source of mine waste runoff in Cache Creek, the Northern Coast Ranges are a section of the California Coast Ranges. They run parallel to the Pacific Coast from the North San Francisco Bay Area to coastal Del Norte County, the Klamath Mountains, including the Siskiyou Mountains sub-range, lie to the north and northeast. The Southern Coast Ranges lie to the south, the Northern Coast Ranges run north-south parallel to the coast. Component ranges within the Northern Coast Ranges include the Mendocino Range of western Mendocino County and the Mayacamas, Sonoma, and Vaca Mountains and they also include the King Range, which meet the sea in the Lost Coast region. The southernmost peak of the Northern Coast Ranges is Mount Tamalpais, the highest point in the Northern Coast Ranges is Mount Linn, at 8,098 ft. The Northern Coast Ranges consist of two parallel belts of mountains, the Outer Northern Coast Ranges lying along the coast. They are separated by a system of valleys. The northern valley portion is drained by the Eel River and its tributaries, a series of short rivers, including the Mattole, Gualala, and Navarro rivers, drain the western slopes of the ranges. The eastern slopes of the drain into the Sacramento Valley. Clear Lake lies in the southeast portion of the range, U. S. Route 101 runs generally north-south in the valleys between the Outer and Inner Northern Coast Ranges. The seaward face of the coastal Outer Northern Coast Ranges is part of the Northern California coastal forests ecoregion, home to forests of Coast Redwood
California Coast Ranges
–
Santa Lucia Range
California Coast Ranges
–
Outer Northern Coast Ranges:
King Range meets the sea on the
Lost Coast.
California Coast Ranges
–
Monument Peak over
Milpitas, California
5.
Geographic coordinate system
–
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
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
6.
Redding, California
–
Redding, officially the City of Redding, is the county seat of Shasta County, California, in the northern part of the state. It lies along the Sacramento River, which provided transportation and power in its early years, Interstate 5 bisects the entire city, which has a population of 89,861, from the south to north before it approaches Shasta Lake, located about 15 miles north of downtown. Redding is the largest city in the Shasta Cascade region, and it is the fourth-largest city in the Sacramento Valley, behind Sacramento, Elk Grove, the site of Redding was settled by Native Americans of the Wintu tribe around the year 1000. The original county seat was Shasta, located approximately 6 miles west on 299W, Redding became the county seat after the railroad was built. Situated along the Siskiyou Trail, Redding became a stop on a trade and travel route connecting Californias Central Valley, during the early 19th century, Hudsons Bay Company trappers and numerous European-American settlers passed through the site while traveling along the Siskiyou Trail. The first European-American settler in the area was Pierson B and he was an admirer of John Sutter. In 1844, Reading received the Rancho Buena Ventura Mexican land grant for the occupied by todays Redding and Cottonwood, California. At the time it was the northernmost nonnative settlement in California, the railroad routed the tracks through an area then known as Poverty Flats, stimulating the development of the European-American town of Redding. The railroad stop was named by the Southern Pacific for railroad man Benjamin B, in 1874 town residents changed the spelling of the name to Reading, to honor local pioneer Pierson B. But the railroad did not officially recognize the change and the town restored its original spelling, Redding, Redding was incorporated on October 4,1887 with a population of 600 people. By 1910, Redding had a population of 3,572 supported by a significant mineral extraction industry, however, with the decline of these industries, which had also produced significant amounts of pollution damaging to local agriculture, the population dropped to 2,962 in 1920. By 1930 the population had recovered to 4,188 and then boomed during the 1930s with the construction of nearby Shasta Dam, in 1892 brothers John and Charles Ruggles thought that they could make some easy money by robbing a stagecoach. On May 10,1892, the brothers robbed the Weaverville stage, later, on May 12, the brothers stopped the stage again but Charles was hit with buckshot fired by a guard riding inside the coach. On July 24,1892, a lynch mob wearing masks entered the jail, in what became known as the lynching of the Ruggles brothers, the two men were hanged together from a derrick. The city did not grow markedly until the 1950s, stimulated by postwar expansion of the industry to satisfy pent-up demand for new housing across the country. In addition, construction of the Whiskeytown and Keswick dams brought many workers to the area, completion of Interstate 5 in the late 1960s brought a higher level of traffic and added to development. By 1970, Redding had grown to 16,659 people, in the 1970s, Redding annexed the town of Enterprise, located on the eastern bank of the Sacramento River. The city acquired other county areas, increasing the population to around 35,000, Enterprise residents voted to support the annexation primarily to acquire less expensive electricity via Reddings municipal utility, which receives power from the dam
Redding, California
–
Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay
Redding, California
–
Redding from outer space in April 1994.
Redding, California
–
Motion picture show at the Cascade Theatre in Redding, California
Redding, California
–
A postcard depicting the Lorenz, c. 1902
7.
Chico, California
–
Chico is the most populous city in Butte County, California, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 86,187, Bidwell Park makes up over 17% of the city. Other cities in close proximity to the Chico Metropolitan Area include Paradise and Oroville, while towns and villages include Durham, Cohasset, Dayton, Nord. The Chico Metropolitan Area is the 14th largest Metropolitan Statistical Area in California, the nickname City of Roses appears on the Seal of the City of Chico. The city has designated a Tree City USA for 31 years by the National Arbor Day Foundation. The original inhabitants of the now known as Chico were the Mechoopda Maidu Native Americans. The City of Chico was founded in 1860 by John Bidwell, a member of one of the first wagon trains to reach California in 1843. During the American Civil War, Camp Bidwell, was established a mile outside Chico, by Lt. Col. A. E. Hooker with a company of cavalry and two of infantry, on August 26,1863. By early 1865 it was being referred to as Camp Chico when a post called Camp Bidwell was established in northeast California, the city became incorporated January 8,1872. Chico was home to a significant Chinese American community when it was first incorporated, old Hutch Hutchinson identified five events as the most seminal in Chico history. Several other significant events have unfolded in Chico more recently, Chico is at the northeast edge of the Sacramento Valley, one of the richest agricultural areas in the world. The Sierra Nevada mountains lie to the east, with Chicos city limits venturing several miles into the foothills, to the west, the Sacramento River lies 5 miles from the city limits. Chico sits on the Sacramento Valley floor close to the foothills of the Cascade Range to the north, Big Chico Creek is the demarcation line between the ranges. The citys terrain is flat with increasingly hilly terrain beginning at the eastern city limits. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 27.8 square miles. The city is bisected by Bidwell Park, which runs 5 miles from the city center deep into the foothills. The city is traversed by two creeks and a flood channel, which feeds the Sacramento River. They are named Big Chico Creek, Little Chico Creek, the downtown area of Chico is located generally between Big Chico Creek and Little Chico Creek
Chico, California
–
City Plaza in Chico
Chico, California
–
Bidwell Mansion
Chico, California
Chico, California
–
Kendall Hall at
Chico State
8.
Yuba City, California
–
Yuba City is a city in Northern California and the county seat of Sutter County, California, United States. The population was 64,925 at the 2010 census, Yuba City is the principal city of the Yuba City Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Sutter County and Yuba County. The metro areas population is 164,138 and it is the 21st largest metropolitan area in California ranked behind Redding and Chico. Its metropolitan statistical area is part of the Greater Sacramento CSA, the unemployment rate in the Yuba City MSA was 14.9 percent in September 2012, down from a revised 15.8 percent in August 2012, and below the year-ago estimate of 16.4 percent. This compares with an unemployment rate of 9.7 percent for California and 7.6 percent for the nation during the same period. The unemployment rate was 14.0 percent in Sutter County, the Maidu people were settled in the region when they were first encountered by Spanish and Mexican scouting expeditions in the early 18th century. One version of the origin of the name Yuba is that one of these expeditions, wild grapes were seen growing by a river, and so it was named Uba. At the same time, another town was developing on the bank of the Feather River. By 1852, Yuba City, was a landing, had one hotel, a grocery store. Yuba City was chosen as county seat for Sutter County, CA in 1854, the same year, however, voters decided that Nicolaus would be a better location, and the county seat was moved there. County voters returned to their first choice of Yuba City two years later, in 1856, and it has remained the county seat since, Yuba City saw its first major influx of population after World War II, pushing residential areas west and south from the citys original center. Orchards were turned into areas as new homes were built for people migrating to the city. In December 1955, a series of storms dropped torrential rain throughout northern California, the deluge caused all the rivers in the region to overflow their banks and to break through levees. The Christmas Eve levee break at Yuba City was particularly disastrous, with 38 people losing their lives, according to Dick Brandt, manager of the Yuba County airport in 1955, between 550 and 600 Sutter County residents were rescued from the floodwater by helicopter. On March 14,1961, a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress carrying nuclear weapons, flying near Yuba City encountered a pressurization problem, as such, more fuel than expected was used, and the aircraft ran out of fuel. It crashed before meeting with a tanker aircraft, the pilot gave the bailout command, and the crew egressed at 10,000 ft, except for the pilot, who ejected at 4,000 ft, while avoiding a populated area. The weapons, two Mark 39 thermonuclear bombs were destroyed on impact though no explosion took place, and there was no release of material as a result. Twenty-seven students and one adult chaperone died and twenty-three students were seriously injured, Yuba City has been home to a significant Muslim population, including Pakistani Americans descended from c.1902 immigrants
Yuba City, California
–
Yuba City, from the air
Yuba City, California
–
Sutter Buttes seen from Yuba City
Yuba City, California
–
Not to be confused with
Yuba, California.
9.
Sacramento, California
–
Sacramento is the capital city of the U. S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. It is at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the portion of Californias expansive Central Valley. Its estimated 2014 population of 485,199 made it the sixth-largest city in California, Sacramento is the cultural and economic core of the Sacramento metropolitan area, which includes seven counties with a 2010 population of 2,414,783. In 2002, the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University conducted for Time magazine named Sacramento Americas Most Diverse City, Sacramento became a city through the efforts of the Swiss immigrant John Sutter, Sr. his son John Augustus Sutter, Jr. and James W. Marshall. Sacramento grew quickly thanks to the protection of Sutters Fort, which was established by Sutter in 1839, the city was named after the Sacramento River, which forms its western border. The river was named by Spanish cavalry officer Gabriel Moraga for the Santísimo Sacramento, California State University, Sacramento, is the largest university in the city and one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. University of the Pacific is a university with one of its three campuses in Sacramento. In addition, the University of California, Davis, located in nearby Davis, operates its UC Davis Medical Center, nisenan and Plains Miwok Native Americans had lived in the area for perhaps thousands of years. Unlike the settlers who would eventually make Sacramento their home, these Native Americans left little evidence of their existence. Traditionally, their diet was dominated by acorns taken from the oak trees in the region, and by fruits, bulbs, seeds. In 1808, the Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga discovered and named the Sacramento Valley, a Spanish writer with the Moraga expedition wrote, Canopies of oaks and cottonwoods, many festooned with grapevines, overhung both sides of the blue current. Birds chattered in the trees and big fish darted through the pellucid depths, the air was like champagne, and drank deep of it, drank in the beauty around them. The valley and the river were then christened after the Most Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, John Sutter first arrived on August 13,1839 at the divergence of the American and Sacramento Rivers with a Mexican land grant of 50,000 acres. The next year, he and his party established Sutters Fort, representing Mexico, Sutter called his colony New Helvetia, a Swiss inspired name, and was the political authority and dispenser of justice in the new settlement. Soon, the colony began to grow as more and more pioneers headed west, within just a few short years, John Sutter had become a grand success, owning a ten-acre orchard and a herd of thirteen thousand cattle. Fort Sutter became a stop for the increasing number of immigrants coming through the valley. In 1847, Sutter hired James Marshall to build a sawmill so that he could continue to expand his empire, Sutter received 2,000 fruit trees in 1847, which started the agriculture industry in the Sacramento Valley. In 1848, when gold was discovered by James W. Marshall at Sutters Mill in Coloma and he hired topographical engineer William H
Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California
Sacramento, California
10.
Sacramento River
–
The Sacramento River is the principal river of Northern California in the United States, and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for 400 miles before reaching the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, the Sacramento and its wide natural floodplain were once abundant in fish and other aquatic creatures, notably one of the southernmost large runs of chinook salmon in North America. For about 12,000 years, humans have depended on the vast natural resources of the watershed, the river has provided a route for trade and travel since ancient times. Hundreds of tribes sharing regional customs and traditions inhabited the Sacramento Valley, the Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga named the river Rio de los Sacramentos in 1808, later shortened and anglicized into Sacramento. In the 19th century gold was discovered on a tributary of the Sacramento River, starting the California Gold Rush, overland trails such as the California Trail and Siskiyou Trail guided hundreds of thousands of people to the gold fields. By the late part of the mining had ceased to be a major part of the economy. Many populous communities were established along the Sacramento River, including the capital of Sacramento. Intensive agriculture and mining contributed to pollution in the Sacramento River, since the 1950s the watershed has been intensely developed for water supply and the generation of hydroelectric power. Today, large dams impound the river and almost all of its major tributaries, the Sacramento is used heavily for irrigation and serves much of Central and Southern California through the canals of giant state and federal water projects. The Sacramento River originates in the mountains and plateaus of far northern California as three major waterways that flow into Shasta Lake, the Upper Sacramento River, McCloud River and Pit River. The Upper Sacramento begins near Mount Shasta, at the confluence of North, Middle and it flows east into a small reservoir, Lake Siskiyou, before turning south. The river flows through a canyon for about 60 miles, past Dunsmuir and Castella, the Pit River, by far the largest of the three, begins in Modoc County in the northeastern corner of California. Draining a vast and remote volcanic highlands area, it flows southwest for nearly 300 miles before emptying into Shasta Lake near Montgomery Creek, Goose Lake, straddling the Oregon–California border, occasionally overflows into the Pit River during wet years, although this has not happened since 1881. The Goose Lake watershed is the part of the Sacramento River basin extending into another state. Unlike most California rivers, the Pit and the McCloud Rivers are predominantly spring-fed, ensuring a large, at the lower end of Shasta Lake is Shasta Dam, which impounds the Sacramento River for flood control, irrigation and hydropower generation. Before the construction of Shasta Dam the McCloud River emptied into the Pit River, the Pit River Bridge, which carries Interstate 5 and the Union Pacific Railroad over the reservoir, is structurally the highest double-decked bridge in the United States. The Upper Sacramento River canyon also provides the route for I-5, below Shasta Dam the Sacramento River enters the foothills region of the northern Sacramento Valley. It flows through Keswick Dam, where it receives about 1,200,000 acre feet of water per year diverted from the Trinity River and it then swings east through Redding, the largest city of the Shasta Cascade region, and turns southeast, entering Tehama County
Sacramento River
–
Sacramento River from the old pumping station in
Sacramento, California
Sacramento River
–
Map of the Sacramento River
watershed
Sacramento River
–
The
Castle Crags, a series of granite peaks rising above the upper Sacramento River canyon just to the right.
Mount Shasta, the highest mountain in the Sacramento drainage, is seen in the distance.
Sacramento River
–
The
Carquinez Strait, which connects the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Suisun Bay to San Pablo and San Francisco Bays, and then the Pacific. The channel formed from water flooding over the Coast Ranges from a gigantic lake that formed in the Central Valley a few hundred thousand years ago, when the rising mountains blocked the Sacramento's route to the Pacific Ocean.
11.
Central Valley (California)
–
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
Central Valley (California)
–
Topography, major parts and cities of the Central Valley
Central Valley (California)
–
Part of the Valley as seen from the air
Central Valley (California)
–
An example of the extreme differences between the geology of the valley floor and that of the rugged hills of the Coast Ranges (Between Tracy and Patterson, CA:Interstate 5)
Central Valley (California)
–
Central Valley seen from space.
12.
U.S. state
–
A U. S. state is a constituent political entity of the United States of America. There are 50 states, which are together in a union with each other. Each state holds administrative jurisdiction over a geographic territory. Due to the shared sovereignty between each state and the government, Americans are citizens of both the federal republic and of the state in which they reside. State citizenship and residency are flexible, and no government approval is required to move between states, except for persons covered by certain types of court orders. States range in population from just under 600,000 to over 39 million, four states use the term commonwealth rather than state in their full official names. States are divided into counties or county-equivalents, which may be assigned some local authority but are not sovereign. County or county-equivalent structure varies widely by state, State governments are allocated power by the people through their individual constitutions. All are grounded in principles, and each provides for a government. States possess a number of powers and rights under the United States Constitution, Constitution has been amended, and the interpretation and application of its provisions have changed. The general tendency has been toward centralization and incorporation, with the government playing a much larger role than it once did. There is a debate over states rights, which concerns the extent and nature of the states powers and sovereignty in relation to the federal government. States and their residents are represented in the federal Congress, a legislature consisting of the Senate. Each state is represented in the Senate by two senators, and is guaranteed at least one Representative in the House, members of the House are elected from single-member districts. Representatives are distributed among the states in proportion to the most recent constitutionally mandated decennial census, the Constitution grants to Congress the authority to admit new states into the Union. Since the establishment of the United States in 1776, the number of states has expanded from the original 13 to 50, alaska and Hawaii are the most recent states admitted, both in 1959. The Constitution is silent on the question of states have the power to secede from the Union. Shortly after the Civil War, the U. S. Supreme Court, in Texas v. White, as a result, while the governments of the various states share many similar features, they often vary greatly with regard to form and substance
U.S. state
–
U.S. states
13.
California
–
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
–
A forest of redwood trees in
Redwood National Park
California
–
Flag
California
–
Mount Shasta
California
–
Aerial view of the
California Central Valley
14.
Northern California
–
Northern California, often abbreviated NorCal, is the northern portion of the U. S. state of California. The 48-county definition is not used for the Northern California Megaregion, the megaregions area is instead defined from Metropolitan Fresno north to Greater Sacramento, and from the Bay Area east across Nevada state line to encompass the entire Lake Tahoe-Reno area. The arrival of European explorers from the early 16th to the mid-18th centuries, in 1770, the Spanish mission at Monterey was the first European settlement in the area, followed by other missions along the coast—eventually extending as far north as Sonoma County. Northern California is not a geographic designation. Californias north-south midway division is around 37° latitude, near the level of San Francisco, popularly, though, Northern California usually refers to the states northernmost 48 counties. This definition coincides with the county lines at 35° 47′ 28″ north latitude, the term is also applied to the area north of Point Conception and the Tehachapi Mountains. Because of Californias large size and diverse geography, the state can be subdivided in other ways as well, the state is often considered as having an additional division north of the urban areas of the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento metropolitan areas. The coastal area north of the Bay Area is referred to as the North Coast while the region north of Sacramento is referred by locals as the Northstate. Since the events of the California Gold Rush, Northern California has been a leader on the economic, scientific. In science, advances range from being the first to isolate and name fourteen transuranic chemical elements, other examples of innovation across diverse fields range from Genentech to CrossFit as a pioneer in extreme human fitness and training. It is also Home to one of the largest Air Force Bases on the West Coast, Northern Californias largest metropolitan area is the San Francisco Bay Area which includes the cities of San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, and their many suburbs. In recent years the Bay Area has drawn more commuters from as far as Central Valley cities such as Sacramento, Stockton, Fresno, Turlock and Modesto. The 2010 U. S. Census showed that the Bay Area grew at a faster rate than the Greater Los Angeles Area while Greater Sacramento had the largest growth rate of any area in California. The states larger cities are considered part of Northern California in cases when the state is divided into two parts. The first European to explore the coast was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, sailing for the Spanish Crown, in 1542, beginning in 1565, the Spanish Manila galleons crossed the Pacific Ocean from Mexico to the Spanish Philippines, with silver and gemstones from Mexico. The Manila galleons returned across the northern Pacific, and reached North America usually off the coast of northern California, in 1579, northern California was visited by the English explorer Sir Francis Drake who landed north of todays San Francisco and claimed the area for England. In 1602, the Spaniard Sebastián Vizcaíno explored Californias coast as far north as Monterey Bay, other Spanish explorers sailed along the coast of northern California for the next 150 years, but no settlements were established. The first European inhabitants were Spanish missionaries, who built missions along the California coast, the mission at Monterey was first established in 1770, and at San Francisco in 1776
Northern California
–
Clockwise:
California State Capitol in
Sacramento,
Golden Gate Bridge,
San Francisco skyline,
San Jose skyline,
Muir Woods National Monument, the northern California coast as seen from
Muir Beach Overlook, view of the California side of
Lake Tahoe and
Natural Bridges State Beach in
Santa Cruz.
Northern California
–
Northern California counties in red
Northern California
–
Yosemite Valley in the Sierra Nevada.
Northern California
–
Map of northern California counties.
15.
Northern Coast Ranges
–
The Coast Ranges of California span 400 miles from Del Norte or Humboldt County, California south to Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges and the Klamath Mountains, physiographically, they are a section of the larger Pacific Border province, which in turn are part of the larger Pacific Mountain System physiographic division. UNESCO has included the California Coast Ranges Biosphere Reserve in its Man, the northern end of the California Coast Ranges overlap the southern end of the Klamath Mountains for approximately 80 miles on the west. They extend southward for more than 600 miles to where the coastline turns eastward along the Santa Barbara Channel, here the southern end meets the Los Angeles Transverse Ranges, or Sierras de los Angeles. The rocks themselves that comprise the mountains are of a great variety, most of the rocks were formed during the Tertiary, Cretaceous and Jurassic periods. All of the range has been folded and faulted during several periods, the California Ranges had a high production of mercury following the discovery of gold in the Sierra Nevada. In the Cache Creek Basin, Cenozoic cinnabar deposits near Clear Lake are the northernmost of a group of similar deposits associated with volcanism, during 1877, these deposits hit their peak production of mercury, producing approximately 2,776 metric tons. These abandoned mines are still a source of mine waste runoff in Cache Creek, the Northern Coast Ranges are a section of the California Coast Ranges. They run parallel to the Pacific Coast from the North San Francisco Bay Area to coastal Del Norte County, the Klamath Mountains, including the Siskiyou Mountains sub-range, lie to the north and northeast. The Southern Coast Ranges lie to the south, the Northern Coast Ranges run north-south parallel to the coast. Component ranges within the Northern Coast Ranges include the Mendocino Range of western Mendocino County and the Mayacamas, Sonoma, and Vaca Mountains and they also include the King Range, which meet the sea in the Lost Coast region. The southernmost peak of the Northern Coast Ranges is Mount Tamalpais, the highest point in the Northern Coast Ranges is Mount Linn, at 8,098 ft. The Northern Coast Ranges consist of two parallel belts of mountains, the Outer Northern Coast Ranges lying along the coast. They are separated by a system of valleys. The northern valley portion is drained by the Eel River and its tributaries, a series of short rivers, including the Mattole, Gualala, and Navarro rivers, drain the western slopes of the ranges. The eastern slopes of the drain into the Sacramento Valley. Clear Lake lies in the southeast portion of the range, U. S. Route 101 runs generally north-south in the valleys between the Outer and Inner Northern Coast Ranges. The seaward face of the coastal Outer Northern Coast Ranges is part of the Northern California coastal forests ecoregion, home to forests of Coast Redwood
Northern Coast Ranges
–
Santa Lucia Range
Northern Coast Ranges
–
Outer Northern Coast Ranges:
King Range meets the sea on the
Lost Coast.
Northern Coast Ranges
–
Monument Peak over
Milpitas, California
16.
Siskiyou Mountains
–
The Siskiyou Mountains are a coastal mountain range in the northern Klamath Mountains in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the United States. They extend in an arc for approximately 100 miles from east of Crescent City, California, northeast along the side of the Klamath River into Josephine. The mountain range forms a barrier between the watersheds of the Klamath River to the south and the Rogue River to the north. These mountains are not the highest of the Klamath Mountains, but due to the relief so close to the Pacific Ocean and this leads to forests that grow with heavy vegetation. Diversity abounds because western canyons can receive over 100 inches of rain in winters while eastern areas are slightly more arid. Since the Siskiyous trend both north to south and then east to west, they hold species that range from coastal, like Coast Redwood, to Cascadian, like Alaska Yellow-Cedar, much of the range is within the Rogue River – Siskiyou and Klamath national forests. The Pacific Crest Trail follows a portion of the ridge of the range, the Klamath-Siskiyou forests are noted for their high biodiversity. The origin of the word siskiyou is not known, one version is that it is the Chinook Jargon word for bob-tailed horse. According to historian Richard Mackie, siskiyou was a Cree word for a bob-tailed horse, the Cree were in the area as part of McLeods Hudsons Bay Company expedition, and had been recruited far away in their homeland in eastern Canada. Still others attribute the name to a tribe of Native Americans. Natives speaking the Athapaskan Language lived along the Rogue River prior to 1850 and these settlements were primarily winter residences, and the people likely spent much of the summer in the mountains. Most early exploration of the came from the coast, beginning in 1775. He would be followed in 1791 and 1792 by other explorers like captain George Vancouver, James Baker, the Siskiyou Trail stretched from Californias Central Valley through the Siskiyous to Oregons Willamette Valley. As settlement increased with a variety of new incentives, tensions over relations with the natives increased, in the 1850s, following the Donation Land Claim Act, settlers came to the area to prospect for gold. The new settlements grew enough for Jackson County to be founded, with its seat in Jacksonville, mines opened up as various claims were made. This led to the 1855 Rogue River Wars, which ended in 1856, the new population needed to be supported by an improved infrastructure. By 1859, the trail had been replaced by a toll road, a telegraph line was built over the summit in 1864. By the end of the 1870s, the first private lumber mills were established in the mountains had been established in some of the lower creeks, commercial orchards began to be planted in 1885
Siskiyou Mountains
–
Forest in the Siskiyou Mountains in California
Siskiyou Mountains
–
The Siskiyou Trail
Siskiyou Mountains
–
The
Red Buttes in the Siskiyou Mountains
Siskiyou Mountains
–
The
weeping spruce (Picea breweriana) is found only in the Klamath Mountains.
17.
Grassland
–
Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses, however sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica, grasslands are found in most ecoregions of the Earth. For example, there are five terrestrial ecoregion classifications of the grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome. Grassland vegetation can vary in height from short, as in chalk grassland, to quite tall, as in the case of North American tallgrass prairie, South American grasslands. Woody plants, shrubs or trees, may occur on some grasslands – forming savannas, scrubby grassland or semi-wooded grassland, as flowering plants and trees, grasses grow in great concentrations in climates where annual rainfall ranges between 500 and 900 mm. The root systems of perennial grasses and forbs form complex mats that hold the soil in place, graminoids are among the most versatile life forms. Existing forest biomes declined, and grasslands became much more widespread, following the Pleistocene ice ages, grasslands expanded in range in the hotter, drier climates, and began to become the dominant land feature worldwide. Grasslands often occur in areas with annual precipitation between 600 mm and 1,500 mm and average annual temperatures ranges from −5 and 20 °C. However, some occur in colder and hotter climatic conditions. Grassland can exist in habitats that are disturbed by grazing or fire. Grasslands dominated by unsown wild-plant communities can be called natural or semi-natural habitats. The majority of grasslands in temperate climates are semi-natural and these grasslands contain many species of wild plants – grasses, sedges, rushes and herbs –25 or more species per square metre is not unusual. Chalk downlands in England can support over 40 species per square metre, in many parts of the world, few examples have escaped agricultural improvement. For example, original North American prairie grasslands or lowland wildflower meadows in the UK are now rare and their associated wild flora equally threatened. Some of the worlds largest expanses of grassland are found in African savanna, grasslands may occur naturally or as the result of human activity. Grasslands created and maintained by human activity are called anthropogenic grasslands, hunting peoples around the world often set regular fires to maintain and extend grasslands, and prevent fire-intolerant trees and shrubs from taking hold. The tallgrass prairies in the U. S. Midwest may have been extended eastward into Illinois, Indiana, much grassland in northwest Europe developed after the Neolithic Period, when people gradually cleared the forest to create areas for raising their livestock. Grassland types by Schimper, meadow steppe savannah Grassland types by Ellenberg & Mueller-Dombois, terrestrial herbaceous communities A. Savannas and related grasslands B
Grassland
–
Grassland in
Magallanes Region,
Patagonia, Chile
Grassland
–
Grassland in the
Antelope Valley,
California
Grassland
–
The
Konza tallgrass prairie in the
Flint Hills of northeastern
Kansas
Grassland
–
A grassland in the
Philippines
18.
Rain shadow
–
A rain shadow is a dry area on the leeward side of a mountainous area. The mountains block the passage of rain-producing weather systems and cast a shadow of dryness behind them, wind and moist air is drawn by the prevailing winds towards the top of the mountains, where it condenses and precipitates before it crosses the top. The air, without much moisture left, advances behind the mountains creating a side called the rain shadow. The condition exists because warm moist air rises by orographic lifting to the top of a mountain range, as atmospheric pressure decreases with increasing altitude, the air has expanded and adiabatically cooled to the point that the air reaches its adiabatic dew point. At the adiabatic dew point, moisture condenses onto the mountain and it precipitates on the top, the air descends on the leeward side, but due to the precipitation it has lost much of its moisture. There are regular patterns of prevailing winds found in round the Earths equatorial region. The zone designated the trade winds is the zone between about 30° N and 30° S, blowing predominantly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere, the strongest westerly winds in the middle latitudes can come in the Roaring Forties between 30 and 50 degrees latitude. The Dasht-i-Lut in Iran is in the shadow of the Elburz. The Ordos Desert is rain shadowed by mountain chains including the Kara-naryn-ula, the Sheitenula, and the Yin Mountains, which link on to the south end of the Great Khingan Mountains. The Thar desert is bounded and rain shadowed by the Aravalli ranges to the south-east, the Himalaya to the northeast, Eastern Side of Sahyadri ranges on Deccan e. g. Northern Karnataka & Solapur, Beed, Osmanabad and Vidharba Plateau of India. The central region of Myanmar is in the shadow of the Arakan Mountains and is almost semi-arid with only 750 millimetres of rain as against as much as 5.5 metres on the Rakhine State coast. The High Peaks of Mount Lebanon rain-shadow the northern parts of the Beqaa Valley, the Judean Desert, the Dead Sea and the western slopes of the Moab Mountains on the opposite side are rain-shadowed by the Judean Hills. The Atacama Desert in Chile is the driest non-polar desert on Earth because it is blocked from moisture on both sides, Cuyo and Eastern Patagonia is rain shadowed from the prevailing westerly winds by the Andes range and is arid. The Argentinian wine region of Cuyo and Northern Patagonia is almost completely dependent on irrigation, on the largest scale, the entirety of the North American Interior Plains are shielded from the prevailing Westerlies carrying moist Pacific weather by the North American Cordillera. More pronounced effects are observed, however, in valley regions within the Cordillera. Most rainshadows in the western United States are due to the Sierra Nevada, champlain Valley in upstate New York. It is protected by the Adirondack Mountains, hawaii also has rain shadows, with some areas being desert. Orographic lifting produces the worlds second-highest annual precipitation record,12.7 meters, on the island of Kauai, the entire island of Kahoolawe lies in the rain shadow of Mauis East Maui Volcano
Rain shadow
–
An example of a rain shadow.
Rain shadow
–
The
Tibetan Plateau (top), perhaps the best example of a rain shadow. Rain does not make it past the
Himalayas, leading to an arid climate on the leeward side of the
mountain range.
Rain shadow
–
The
Agasthiyamalai hills cut off
Tirunelveli (
India) from the
monsoons, creating a rainshadow region
19.
California Gold Rush
–
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
California Gold Rush
–
Sailing to California at the beginning of the Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
–
Merchant ships fill
San Francisco harbor, 1850–51
California Gold Rush
–
Panning for gold on the
Mokelumne River
California Gold Rush
–
"Independent Gold Hunter on His Way to California", circa 1850. The gold hunter is loaded down with every conceivable appliance, much of which would be useless in California. The prospector says: "I am sorry I did not follow the advice of Granny and go around the Horn, through the Straights, or by Chagres [Panama]."
20.
Corning, California
–
Corning is a city in Tehama County, California that is located about 19 miles south of Red Bluff and about 500 miles north of Los Angeles. The population was 7,663 at the 2010 census, up from 6,741 at the 2000 census, Corning is located at 39°55′34″N 122°10′50″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 3.55 square miles. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Corning has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, the 2010 United States Census reported that Corning had a population of 7,663. The population density was 2,158.8 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Corning was 5,510 White,44 African American,201 Native American,82 Asian,11 Pacific Islander,1,496 from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 3,271 persons. The Census reported that 7,638 people lived in households,19 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, there were 224 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 12 same-sex married couples or partnerships. 633 households were made up of individuals and 259 had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.90. There were 1,848 families, the family size was 3.44. The median age was 29.2 years, for every 100 females there were 94.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.5 males, there were 2,871 housing units at an average density of 808.8 per square mile, of which 1,302 were owner-occupied, and 1,328 were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 3. 1%, the vacancy rate was 8. 4%. 3,765 people lived in owner-occupied housing units and 3,873 people lived in housing units. As of the census of 2000, there were 6,741 people,2,422 households, the population density was 2,320.3 people per square mile. There were 2,614 housing units at a density of 899.8 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 74. 48% White,0. 52% African American,2. 18% Native American,0. 53% Asian,0. 09% Pacific Islander,17. 42% from other races, and 4. 78% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 50. 82% of the population,26. 9% of all households were made up of individuals and 14. 0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.76 and the family size was 3.33
Corning, California
–
Solano Street in 2013
21.
Shasta Lake, California
–
The City of Shasta Lake is a city in Shasta County, California, United States. It is the closest settlement to Shasta Dam and Shasta Lake reservoir, the population was 10,164 at the 2010 census, up from 9,008 at the 2000 census. Project City was built at the intersection of Highway 99 and Shasta Dam Boulevard, Summit City at the intersection of Shasta Dam Blvd. and Lake Blvd. and Pine Grove at what today is the intersection of I-5 and Pine Grove Ave. The Bureau of Reclamation built the town of Toyon, first called Government Camp, Toyon was the premier community, built on 41 acres of what was once the Seaman Ranch. Initially, Toyon also had two large dormitories for bachelor employees, all the residents of Toyon worked for the US Bureau of Reclamation. Bureau headquarters office and maintenance facilities were located on Kenneth Ave, all bureau employees were forced to vacate Toyon by the end of 1964 when the facility was turned over to the Job Corps as a work camp as a part of President Lyndon Johnsons Great Society. The Job Corps supervision ended in 1972, Toyon was subsequently occupied by local Indians who hoped to stake claim and have Toyon recognized as tribal lands, this did not occur. Water and electric power were turned off after the Indians failed to pay a $28,000 utility bill, conflicts between law enforcement and the occupying Indians continued, and a large number of the homes burned to the ground. The historic Seaman Ranch Community House and the large USBR headquarters building burned to the ground in this era. Today, one metal storage building and the flagpole are the remaining structures other than overgrown streets. The site is fenced off from Shasta Dam Blvd, the workers at Shasta Dam built these communities because land was cheap and most families needed a low cost home while working on the dam. Later on, Central Valley became the hub of workers on Shasta Dam. Initially there was no water supply for these new communities, as Central Valley was in fact larger than Redding at the time, chaos began to brew over building. Toyon School in Summit City was the first elementary school to open in the Central Valley area, subsequent schools were Project City and Central Valley elementary. Central Valley High School opened in 1956, when oil production slowed down in the 70s Redding surpassed Central Valley in population in 1965. When it incorporated the community of Enterprise, )The population figures in 1980 were Central Valley at 3,424, Project City at 1,659, and Summit City at 1,139. Talks of Incorporation spread in 1993 and incorporation became a reality on July 2,1993 when 60% of the people voted for incorporation. A new McDonalds, Burger King inside the Chevron station, and several gas stations and these were all built around 2000 and several more fast food outlets and motels are planned for this interchange
Shasta Lake, California
–
Location in
Shasta County and the state of
California
22.
Red Bluff, California
–
Red Bluff is a city in and the county seat of Tehama County, California, United States. The population was 14,076 at the 2010 census, up from 13,147 at the 2000 census, Red Bluff is on the northern edge of the Sacramento Valley, and is the third largest city in the Shasta Cascade region. It is about 30 mi south of Redding,40 mi northwest of Chico, the city is located at 40°10′36″N 122°14′17″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 7.7 square miles. 7.6 square miles of it is land and 0.1 square miles of it is water, the total area is 1. 48% water. The Nomlaki and Southern Yana people originally inhabited the area along the banks of the Sacramento River where Red Bluff was built, on April 10,1828, Jedediah Smith passed through on the way to Oregon. In 1843 Peter Lassen, John Bidwell, and John Burheim came in pursuit of horse thieves, the first house where Red Bluff now is an adobe structure put up late in 1849 by John Myers, who conducted it for a short time as a hotel. In the following spring Mr. Cooper erected a small adobe there, dibble built another at the Adobe Ferry, one mile north. This adobe has been associated with William B. Ide, whose home was south of Red Bluff, settlement began in 1850 when Sashel Woods and Charles L. Wilson began laying out a town called Leodocia. It was known by name and Covertsburg until 1854, when maps showed the community as Red Bluffs. In 1851 Captain Ellbridge G. Reed built and started a hotel near where the now known as Reeds Creek enters the Sacramento River. It languished later on with the subsidence of activity in the mines, in 1854 Red Bluff had a population of 1,000 people. In 1860 it had twice as many, on the organization of the county in 1856, there was a strong attempt to locate the county seat at Tehama, but in March,1857, Red Bluff was chosen. The city of Red Bluff was incorporated in 1876, Red Bluff has a Mediterranean climate with cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers. There are an average of 100.1 days annually with highs of 90 °F or higher, the record highest temperature was 121 °F on August 7,1981, and the record lowest temperature was 17 °F on January 9,1937. Annual precipitation averages 23.21 inches with measurable precipitation falling of an average of 71 days, the wettest year was 1983 with 52.98 inches and the driest year was 1976 with 7.20 inches. The most rainfall in one month was 21.47 inches in January 1995, the most snowfall in one month was 15.0 inches in January 1937
Red Bluff, California
–
A historic building in 2009.
Red Bluff, California
–
Cone & Kimball Plaza Clocktower
Red Bluff, California
–
Mountains
23.
Sutter Buttes
–
The summit of South Butte, at 2122+ feet, is the highest point in Sutter Buttes and the highest point in Sutter County. The Buttes are located just outside Yuba City in the Sacramento Valley, located at the base of the mountain is the small town of Sutter. They are named for John Sutter, who received a land grant from the Mexican government. The Sutter Buttes are referred to as the worlds smallest mountain range, the small range forms a rough circle approximately 10 miles from north to south and east to west. The Sutter Buttes were formed about 1.6 million years ago in the early Pleistocene Epoch by volcanic activity, the mountains are the remnants of a volcano that has been dormant for over a million years. The eruptions continued until about 1.4 million years ago, others suggest that its age places it with the volcanic elements of the California Coast Ranges, its composition is closer to that range but does have significant differences. The volcano is believed to have erupted along a now inactive fault line, the questions about their origin and connection to other regional volcanic activity are the subject of ongoing research. The rugged central part of the Buttes has a stony sandy loam soil of variable depth. The smoother perimeter has more variable soil with clay or silt loam areas among the sandy loams and these soils support grassland or oak woodland. The Sutter Buttes contain many flora and fauna species, wildflowers are represented by numerous taxa, included in these many wildflowers is the yellow mariposa lily, Calochortus luteus. The Sutter Buttes figure prominently in the stories and other traditions of the indigenous Maidu. The Maidu lived to the east of the Buttes and the Wintun to the west, no tribe claimed ownership of the Buttes, and there were only seasonal encampments in the mountain. Native Americans did visit the mountain regularly to gather acorns and other foods or to hunt game, the Buttes were also a center of regional Native American religion. According to anthropologist Alfred Kroeber, the Patwin village where the city of Colusa now stands was the “hotbed” where the Kuksu Cult was established and this religion spread through much of northern California. Ceremonies were performed in earthen dance lodges where spirit impersonators would re-enact ancient mythological events, the Maidu, who lived in their shadow for thousands of years, called them Esto Yamani, which means the Middle Mountain, the Wintun called the Sutter Buttes Onolai. In the Mexican land grant made to Captain John Sutter, the Sutter Buttes were called los tres picos or The Three Peaks, frémont in 1843 called them The Three Buttes. During the Gold Rush they acquired the name Marysville Buttes, public access to the Sutter Buttes is limited. The terms of the Deed of Conveyance include the stipulation that the land be used for supervised public educational access
Sutter Buttes
–
Bird's eye view of the Sutter Buttes, rising over the town of
Yuba City, California
Sutter Buttes
–
Sutter Buttes Terrain.
Sutter Buttes
–
A monument at the base of the mountains indicating that
John C. Frémont camped near here
Sutter Buttes
–
A close up of the inscription on the memorial. The inscription erreoneously uses 1848, rather than the correct 1846 year date.
24.
Volcano
–
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. Earths volcanoes occur because its crust is broken into 17 major, therefore, on Earth, volcanoes are generally found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging. This type of volcanism falls under the umbrella of plate hypothesis volcanism, Volcanism away from plate boundaries has also been explained as mantle plumes. These so-called hotspots, for example Hawaii, are postulated to arise from upwelling diapirs with magma from the boundary,3,000 km deep in the Earth. Volcanoes are usually not created where two plates slide past one another. Erupting volcanoes can pose hazards, not only in the immediate vicinity of the eruption. Historically, so-called volcanic winters have caused catastrophic famines, the word volcano is derived from the name of Vulcano, a volcanic island in the Aeolian Islands of Italy whose name in turn comes from Vulcan, the god of fire in Roman mythology. The study of volcanoes is called volcanology, sometimes spelled vulcanology, at the mid-oceanic ridges, two tectonic plates diverge from one another as new oceanic crust is formed by the cooling and solidifying of hot molten rock. Most divergent plate boundaries are at the bottom of the oceans, therefore, most volcanic activity is submarine, black smokers are evidence of this kind of volcanic activity. Where the mid-oceanic ridge is above sea-level, volcanic islands are formed, for example, subduction zones are places where two plates, usually an oceanic plate and a continental plate, collide. In this case, the plate subducts, or submerges under the continental plate forming a deep ocean trench just offshore. In a process called flux melting, water released from the subducting plate lowers the temperature of the overlying mantle wedge. This magma tends to be very viscous due to its high content, so it often does not reach the surface. When it does reach the surface, a volcano is formed, typical examples of this kind of volcano are Mount Etna and the volcanoes in the Pacific Ring of Fire. Because tectonic plates move across them, each volcano becomes dormant and is eventually re-formed as the plate advances over the postulated plume and this theory is currently under criticism, however. The most common perception of a volcano is of a mountain, spewing lava and poisonous gases from a crater at its summit, however. The features of volcanoes are more complicated and their structure. Some volcanoes have rugged peaks formed by lava domes rather than a summit crater while others have features such as massive plateaus
Volcano
–
Cleveland Volcano in the
Aleutian Islands of
Alaska photographed from the
International Space Station, May 2006
Volcano
–
Ash plumes reached a height of 19 kilometres (12 mi) during the climactic
explosive eruption at
Mount Pinatubo, Philippines in 1991.
Volcano
–
A 2007 eruptive column at
Mount Etna producing volcanic ash, pumice and lava bombs
Volcano
–
Ubinas Volcano
25.
Citrus
–
Citrus is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops like oranges, lemons, grapefruit, pomelo, the most recent research indicates an origin in Australia, New Caledonia and New Guinea. Citrus fruit has been cultivated in an area since ancient times. At various times, citrus plants were thought to be native to Asia, Europe, but the European oranges were originally brought from India at around the time of Alexander the Great, and the native oranges of Florida actually originated with the Spanish Conquistadors. The lemon reached Europe during the time of classical Rome, the generic name originated from Latin, where it referred to either the plant now known as Citron or a conifer tree. It is somehow related to the ancient Greek word for cedar and this may be due to perceived similarities in the smell of citrus leaves and fruit with that of cedar. Collectively, Citrus fruits and plants are known by the Romance loanword agrumes. The large citrus fruit of today evolved originally from small, edible berries over millions of years, Citrus plants diverged from a common ancestor about 15 million years ago, which was about when it diverged from the closely related severinia, for example the Chinese box orange. These estimates are made using genetic mapping of plant chloroplasts, the three original species in the citrus genus that have been hybridized into most modern commercial citrus fruit are the mandarin orange, pummelo, and citron. Within the last few years, all common citrus fruits were created by crossing those original species. Something similar has occurred with the array of chili peppers originating in the hybridization of a few initial species. Natural and cultivated citrus hybrids include commercially important fruit such as oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes, apart from these four core citrus species, there are Australian limes and the recently discovered Mangshanyegan. Kumquats and Clymenia sp. are now considered to belong within the citrus genus. Trifoliate orange, which is used as commercial rootstock, is an outgroup. Phylogenetic analysis suggests the species of Oxanthera from New Caledonia should be transferred to the genus Citrus and these plants are large shrubs or small to moderate-sized trees, reaching 5–15 m tall, with spiny shoots and alternately arranged evergreen leaves with an entire margin. The flowers are solitary or in corymbs, each flower 2–4 cm diameter, with five white petals and numerous stamens. The fruit is a hesperidium, a berry, globose to elongated, 4–30 cm long and 4–20 cm diameter. The outermost layer of the pericarp is a called the flavedo
Citrus
–
Citrus
Citrus
–
Slices of various citrus fruits
Citrus
–
Persian limes in a grocery store
Citrus
–
Mediterranean Mandarin (
Citrus ×deliciosa plantation, Son Carrió (
Mallorca)
26.
Nut (fruit)
–
A nut is a fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed, which is generally edible. In a general context, however, a variety of dried seeds are called nuts. The translation of nut in certain languages frequently requires paraphrases, as the word is ambiguous. Most seeds come from fruits that naturally free themselves from the shell, unlike nuts such as hazelnuts, chestnuts, and acorns, which have hard shell walls and originate from a compound ovary. The general and original usage of the term is less restrictive, and many nuts, such as almonds, pecans, pistachios, walnuts, common usage of the term often refers to any hard-walled, edible kernel as a nut. A nut in botany is a dry fruit with one seed in which the ovary wall becomes increasingly hard as it matures. Most nuts come from the pistils with inferior ovaries and all are indehiscent, true nuts are produced, for example, by some plant families of the order Fagales. Order Fagales Family Fagaceae Beech Chestnut Oak Stone-oak Tanoak Family Betulaceae Hazel, in botany, this term specifically refers to a pyrena or pyrene, which is a seed covered by a stony layer, such as the kernel of a drupe. Walnuts and hickories have fruits that are difficult to classify and they are considered to be nuts under some definitions, but are also referred to as drupaceous nuts. Tryma is a term for hickory fruits. In common use, a nut is, as the name implies. This most often comes up regarding allergies, where people are allergic specifically to peanuts. A nut in cuisine is a less restrictive category than a nut in botany. Any large, oily kernels found within a shell and used in food are called nuts. Nuts are an important source of nutrients for humans and wildlife. Because nuts generally have an oil content, they are a highly prized food. A large number of seeds are edible by humans and used in cooking, eaten raw, sprouted, or roasted as a food, or pressed for oil that is used in cookery. Nuts are also a significant source of nutrition for wildlife, Nuts used for food, whether true nut or not, are among the most common food allergens
Nut (fruit)
–
Chestnuts are both botanical and culinary nuts.
Nut (fruit)
–
A
walnut, left, and its seed, right, having been removed from its pericarp.
Nut (fruit)
–
Korean Pine seeds — unshelled, and shell, above; shelled, below
Nut (fruit)
–
Raw
mixed nuts, sold as a snack food. This is a "fancy" mix, meaning that it does not include peanuts.
27.
Orchards
–
An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive purpose. A fruit garden is generally synonymous with an orchard, although it is set on a smaller non-commercial scale, most temperate-zone orchards are laid out in a regular grid, with a grazed or mown grass or bare soil base that makes maintenance and fruit gathering easy. Orchards are sometimes concentrated near bodies of water, where climatic extremes are moderated, an orchards layout is the technique of planting the crops in a proper system. There are different methods of planting and thus different layouts, some of these layout types include, Square method Rectangular method Quincunx method Triangular method Hexagonal method Contour method For different varieties, these systems may vary to some extent. The most extensive orchards in the United States are apple and orange orchards, the most extensive apple orchard area is in eastern Washington state, with a lesser but significant apple orchard area in most of Upstate New York. Extensive orange orchards are found in Florida and southern California, where they are widely known as groves. In eastern North America, many orchards are along the shores of Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, in Canada, apple and other fruit orchards are widespread on the Niagara Peninsula, south of Lake Ontario. This region is known as Canada Fruitbelt and, in addition to large-scale commercial fruit marketing, murcia is a major orchard area in Europe, with citrus crops. New Zealand, China, Argentina and Chile also have extensive apple orchards, tenbury Wells in Worcestershire has been called The Town in the Orchard, since the 19th century, because it was surrounded by extensive orchards. Today, this heritage is celebrated through an annual Applefest, streuobstwiese is a German word that means a meadow with scattered fruit trees or fruit trees that are planted in a field. Streuobstwiese, or a meadow orchard, is a landscape in the temperate. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Streuobstwiesen were a kind of a community orchard that were intended for productive cultivation of stone fruit. In recent years, ecologists have successfully lobbied for state subsidies to valuable habitats, biodiversity and natural landscapes, both conventional and meadow orchards provide a suitable habitat for many animal species that live in a cultured landscape. Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts was the residence of American celebrated writer Louisa May Alcott, fruita, Utah part of Capitol Reef National Park has Mormon pioneer orchards maintained by the United States National Park Service. The Orchard Link organisation provides advice on how to manage and restore the county of Devons orchards, an organisation called Orchards Live carries out similar work in North Devon. Peoples Trust for Endangered Species has mapped every traditional orchard within England, the UK Biodiversity Partnership lists traditional orchards and a priority UK Biodiversity Action Plan habitat
Orchards
–
A
lemon orchard in the
Upper Galilee in
Israel.
Orchards
–
A community
apple orchard originally planted for productive use during the 1920s, in
Westcliff on Sea (
Essex, England)
Orchards
–
Streuobstwiese, a rural community orchard, traditionally for productive use. Today endorsed for its quality of habitat and biodiversity
Orchards
–
Apple orchards in
Azwell, Washington surrounding a community of
pickers' cabins
28.
Cattle ranch
–
A ranch is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in Mexico, the Western United States and Canada, people who own or operate a ranch are called ranchers, cattlemen, or stockgrowers. Ranching is also a used to raise less common livestock such as elk, American bison or even ostrich, emu. Ranches generally consist of areas, but may be of nearly any size. In the western United States, many ranches are a combination of owned land supplemented by grazing leases on land under the control of the federal Bureau of Land Management. If the ranch includes arable or irrigated land, the ranch may also engage in an amount of farming, raising crops for feeding the animals, such as hay. Ranches that cater exclusively to tourists are called guest ranches or, colloquially, most working ranches do not cater to guests, though they may allow private hunters or outfitters onto their property to hunt native wildlife. Ranching is part of the iconography of the Wild West as seen in Western movies, the person who owns and manages the operation of a ranch is usually called a rancher, but the terms cattleman, stockgrower, or stockman are also sometimes used. If this individual in charge of management is an employee of the actual owner. A rancher who primarily raises young stock sometimes is called an operator or a cow-calf man. This person is usually the owner, though in cases, particularly where there is absentee ownership. The people who are employees of the rancher and involved in handling livestock are called a number of terms, including cowhand, ranch hand, people exclusively involved with handling horses are sometimes called wranglers. Ranching and the tradition originated in Spain, out of the necessity to handle large herds of grazing animals on dry land from horseback. During the Reconquista, members of the Spanish nobility and various military orders received large land grants that the Kingdom of Castile had conquered from the Moors and these landowners were to defend the lands put into their control and could use them for earning revenue. When the Conquistadors came to the Americas in the 16th century, followed by settlers, they brought their cattle, huge land grants by the Spanish government, part of the hacienda system, allowed large numbers of animals to roam freely over vast areas. A number of different traditions developed, often related to the location in Spain from which a settlement originated. For example, many of the traditions of the Jalisco charros in central Mexico come from the Salamanca charros of Castile, however, there were cattle on the eastern seaboard. Deep Hollow Ranch,110 miles east of New York City in Montauk, New York, claims to be the first ranch in the United States, the prairie and desert lands of what today is Mexico and the western United States were well-suited to open range grazing
Cattle ranch
–
View of the
Grant-Kohrs Ranch near
Deer Lodge,
Montana.
Cattle ranch
–
The historic 101 Ranch in Oklahoma showing the ranchhouse, corrals, and out-buildings.
Cattle ranch
–
An 1898
photochrom of a round-up in or near the town of
Cimarron, Colorado.
Cattle ranch
–
Cattle near the
Bruneau River in
Elko County, Nevada
29.
San Joaquin Valley
–
Although a majority of the valley is rural, it does contain urban cities such as Fresno, Bakersfield, Stockton, Modesto, Turlock, Porterville, Visalia, Merced, and Hanford. Unlike the Sacramento Valley, the system for which the San Joaquin Valley is named does not extend very far along the valley. Most of the south of Fresno, instead, drains into Tulare Lake. The valleys primary river is the San Joaquin, which drains north through half of the valley into the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta. The Kings and Kern Rivers are in the endorheic basin of the valley. The San Joaquin Valley began to form about 66 million years ago during the early Paleocene era, broad fluctuations in the sea level caused various areas of the valley to be flooded with ocean water for the next 60 million years. About 5 million years ago, the outlets began to close due to uplift of the coastal ranges. Starting 2 million years ago, a series of glacial episodes periodically caused much of the valley to become a fresh water lake, Lake Corcoran was the last widespread lake to fill the valley about 700,000 years ago. At the beginning of the Holocene there were three major lakes remaining in the part of the Valley, Tulare Lake, Buena Vista Lake. In the late 19th and in the 20th century, agricultural diversion of the Kern River eventually dried out these lakes and its rainy season normally runs from November through April, but since 2011 when a drought became evident it generally received minimal to no rain at all. The drought was still extant by mid-August 2014 with scientists saying it would continue indefinitely. Research from NASA shows that parts of the San Joaquin Valley sank as much as 8 inches in a four-month period, the sinking has destroyed thousands of groundwater well casings and has the potential to damage aqueducts, roads, bridges, and flood-control structures. In the long term, the caused by extracting groundwater could irreversibly reduce the underground aquifers water storage capacity. The National Weather Service Forecast Office for the San Joaquin Valley is located in Hanford, Weather forecasts and climatological information for the San Joaquin Valley are available from its official website. The total population of the eight counties comprising the San Joaquin Valley at the time of the 2010 U. S. Census was 3,971,659. Grapes—table, raisin, and to a lesser extent wine—are perhaps the valleys highest-profile product, but equally important are cotton, nuts, citrus, and vegetables. Though it has been called The food basket of the World, walnuts, oranges, peaches, garlic, tangerines, tomatoes, kiwis, hay, alfalfa and numerous other crops have been harvested with great success. DeRuosi Nut, a large processing plant in Escalon, has been in the valley since 1947
San Joaquin Valley
–
Fresno, California
San Joaquin Valley
–
Bakersfield, California
San Joaquin Valley
–
A map of the central valley of California
San Joaquin Valley
–
The San Joaquin River and its tributaries, showing the extent of the valley.
30.
Almond
–
The almond is a species of tree native to the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and North Africa. Almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree, within the genus Prunus, it is classified with the peach in the subgenus Amygdalus, distinguished from the other subgenera by corrugations on the shell surrounding the seed. The fruit of the almond is a drupe, consisting of a hull and a hard shell with the seed. Shelling almonds refers to removing the shell to reveal the seed, almonds are sold shelled or unshelled. Blanched almonds are shelled almonds that have been treated with hot water to soften the seedcoat, the almond is a deciduous tree, growing 4–10 m in height, with a trunk of up to 30 cm in diameter. The young twigs are green at first, becoming purplish where exposed to sunlight, the leaves are 3–5 inches long, with a serrated margin and a 2.5 cm petiole. The flowers are white to pink, 3–5 cm diameter with five petals, produced singly or in pairs. Almond grows best in Mediterranean climates with warm, dry summers and mild, the optimal temperature for their growth is between 15 and 30 °C and the tree buds have a chilling requirement of 300 to 600 hours below 7.2 °C to break dormancy. Almonds begin bearing an economic crop in the year after planting. Trees reach full bearing five to six years after planting, the fruit matures in the autumn, 7–8 months after flowering. The almond fruit measures 3. 5–6 cm long, in botanical terms, it is not a nut but a drupe. The outer covering or exocarp, fleshy in other members of Prunus such as the plum and cherry, is instead a thick, leathery, grey-green coat, inside the hull is a reticulated, hard, woody shell called the endocarp. Inside the shell is the seed, commonly called a nut. Generally, one seed is present, but occasionally two occur, the almond is native to the Mediterranean climate region of the Middle East, eastward as far as the Yamuna River in India. The wild form of domesticated almond grows in parts of the Levant, the fruit of the wild forms contains the glycoside amygdalin, which becomes transformed into deadly prussic acid after crushing, chewing, or any other injury to the seed. Selection of the type from the many bitter types in the wild marked the beginning of almond domestication. It is unclear as to which wild ancestor of the created the domesticated species. Zohary and Hopf believe that almonds were one of the earliest domesticated fruit trees due to the ability of the grower to raise attractive almonds from seed
Almond
–
Almond
Almond
Almond
–
Green almonds
Almond
–
Unshelled (left) and shelled (right) almonds
31.
Walnut
–
A walnut is the nut of any tree of the genus Juglans, particularly the Persian or English walnut, Juglans regia. Technically a walnut is the seed of a drupe or drupaceous nut and it is used for food after being processed while green for pickled walnuts or after full ripening for its nutmeat. Nutmeat of the black walnut from the Juglans nigra is less commercially available. The walnut is nutrient-dense with protein and essential fatty acids, walnuts are rounded, single-seeded stone fruits of the walnut tree commonly used for the meat after fully ripening. Following full ripening, the removal of the husk reveals the wrinkly walnut shell, during the ripening process, the husk will become brittle and the shell hard. The shell encloses the kernel or meat, which is made up of two halves separated by a partition. The seed kernels – commonly available as shelled walnuts – are enclosed in a seed coat which contains antioxidants. The antioxidants protect the seed from atmospheric oxygen, thereby preventing rancidity. Walnuts are late to grow leaves, typically not until more than halfway through the spring and they secrete chemicals into the soil to prevent competing vegetation from growing. Because of this, flowers or vegetable gardens should not be planted close to them, the two most common major species of walnuts are grown for their seeds – the Persian or English walnut and the black walnut. The English walnut originated in Persia, and the black walnut is native to eastern North America, the black walnut is of high flavor, but due to its hard shell and poor hulling characteristics it is not grown commercially for nut production. Numerous walnut cultivars have been developed commercially, which are nearly all hybrids of the English walnut, other species include J. californica, the California black walnut, J. cinerea, and J. major, the Arizona walnut. In 2013, worldwide production of walnuts was 3.458 million tonnes, other major producers were, Iran, United States, Turkey and Ukraine. The average worldwide walnut yield was about 3.5 tonnes per hectare in 2013, eastern European countries had the highest yield, with Slovenia and Romania each harvesting about 22 tonnes per hectare. The United States is the worlds largest exporter of walnuts, followed by Turkey, the Central Valley of California produces 99 percent of United States commercial English walnuts. Walnuts, like tree nuts, must be processed and stored properly. Poor storage makes walnuts susceptible to insect and fungal mold infestations, a mold-infested walnut batch should be entirely discarded. The ideal temperature for longest possible storage of walnuts is in the −3 to 0 °C and low humidity – for industrial and home storage
Walnut
–
The common walnut in growth.
Walnut
–
Californian
black walnut in growth.
Walnut
–
Walnut shell inside its green husk
Walnut
–
A whole walnut kernel, with both halves unbroken.
32.
Rice
–
Rice is the seed of the grass species Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima. As a cereal grain, it is the most widely consumed staple food for a part of the worlds human population. It is the agricultural commodity with the third-highest worldwide production, after sugarcane and maize, wild rice, from which the crop was developed, may have its native range in Australia. Chinese legends attribute the domestication of rice to Shennong, the emperor of China. Genetic evidence has shown that rice originates from a single domestication 8, previously, archaeological evidence had suggested that rice was domesticated in the Yangtze River valley region in China. From East Asia, rice was spread to Southeast and South Asia, Rice was introduced to Europe through Western Asia, and to the Americas through European colonization. There are many varieties of rice and culinary preferences tend to vary regionally, in some areas such as the Far East or Spain, there is a preference for softer and stickier varieties. Rice, a monocot, is grown as an annual plant, although in tropical areas it can survive as a perennial. The rice plant can grow to 1–1.8 m tall, occasionally more depending on the variety and it has long, slender leaves 50–100 cm long and 2–2.5 cm broad. The small wind-pollinated flowers are produced in a branched arching to pendulous inflorescence 30–50 cm long, the edible seed is a grain 5–12 mm long and 2–3 mm thick. Rice cultivation is well-suited to countries and regions with low costs and high rainfall, as it is labor-intensive to cultivate. However, rice can be grown practically anywhere, even on a hill or mountain area with the use of water-controlling terrace systems. Although its parent species are native to Asia and certain parts of Africa, centuries of trade, the traditional method for cultivating rice is flooding the fields while, or after, setting the young seedlings. The name wild rice is used for species of the genera Zizania and Porteresia. The Greek word is the source of all European words, the origin of the Greek word is unclear. It is sometimes held to be from the Tamil word அரிசி, however, Krishnamurti disagrees with the notion that Old Tamil arici is the source of the Greek term, and proposes that it was borrowed from descendants of Proto-Dravidian *wariñci instead. The varieties of rice are typically classified as long-, medium-, the grains of long-grain rice tend to remain intact after cooking, medium-grain rice becomes more sticky. Medium-grain rice is used for dishes, for risotto in Italy
Rice
–
A mixture of brown, white, and red indica rice, also containing
wild rice, Zizania species
Rice
–
Oryza sativa with small
wind-pollinated flowers
Rice
–
Cooked brown rice from Bhutan
Rice
–
Rice can come in many shapes, colours and sizes. Photo by the
IRRI.
33.
Sunsweet Growers
–
Sunsweet Growers Incorporated is an agricultural marketing cooperative founded in 1917 as the California Prune and Apricot Growers Association. Sunsweet is headquartered in Yuba City, California, USA, the company operates the largest dried fruit plant in the world. Sunsweet manufactures a variety of dried fruit and juice products, although it is best known for prunes, the company produces and distributes prunes, cranberries, apricots, nectarines, pineapples, mangoes and dates. Other recent Sunsweet products include Ones, Jumbo Red Raisins, PlumSweets, PlumSmart plum juice, and Specialty mangoes, blueberries, cherries, the company controls more than two-thirds of the prune market worldwide. Forty thousand cases of fruit are marked and sealed for distribution daily at the headquarters while its juice products are bottled in Fleetwood. Over half the growers in California belong to Sunsweet, the entire U. S. exports about 48% of prunes worldwide while the two major competitors, Chile produces 13% and France only about 12%. These statistics are affected by Sunsweets production
Sunsweet Growers
–
Sunsweet Growers, Inc.
34.
Yuba City
–
Yuba City is a city in Northern California and the county seat of Sutter County, California, United States. The population was 64,925 at the 2010 census, Yuba City is the principal city of the Yuba City Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Sutter County and Yuba County. The metro areas population is 164,138 and it is the 21st largest metropolitan area in California ranked behind Redding and Chico. Its metropolitan statistical area is part of the Greater Sacramento CSA, the unemployment rate in the Yuba City MSA was 14.9 percent in September 2012, down from a revised 15.8 percent in August 2012, and below the year-ago estimate of 16.4 percent. This compares with an unemployment rate of 9.7 percent for California and 7.6 percent for the nation during the same period. The unemployment rate was 14.0 percent in Sutter County, the Maidu people were settled in the region when they were first encountered by Spanish and Mexican scouting expeditions in the early 18th century. One version of the origin of the name Yuba is that one of these expeditions, wild grapes were seen growing by a river, and so it was named Uba. At the same time, another town was developing on the bank of the Feather River. By 1852, Yuba City, was a landing, had one hotel, a grocery store. Yuba City was chosen as county seat for Sutter County, CA in 1854, the same year, however, voters decided that Nicolaus would be a better location, and the county seat was moved there. County voters returned to their first choice of Yuba City two years later, in 1856, and it has remained the county seat since, Yuba City saw its first major influx of population after World War II, pushing residential areas west and south from the citys original center. Orchards were turned into areas as new homes were built for people migrating to the city. In December 1955, a series of storms dropped torrential rain throughout northern California, the deluge caused all the rivers in the region to overflow their banks and to break through levees. The Christmas Eve levee break at Yuba City was particularly disastrous, with 38 people losing their lives, according to Dick Brandt, manager of the Yuba County airport in 1955, between 550 and 600 Sutter County residents were rescued from the floodwater by helicopter. On March 14,1961, a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress carrying nuclear weapons, flying near Yuba City encountered a pressurization problem, as such, more fuel than expected was used, and the aircraft ran out of fuel. It crashed before meeting with a tanker aircraft, the pilot gave the bailout command, and the crew egressed at 10,000 ft, except for the pilot, who ejected at 4,000 ft, while avoiding a populated area. The weapons, two Mark 39 thermonuclear bombs were destroyed on impact though no explosion took place, and there was no release of material as a result. Twenty-seven students and one adult chaperone died and twenty-three students were seriously injured, Yuba City has been home to a significant Muslim population, including Pakistani Americans descended from c.1902 immigrants
Yuba City
–
Yuba City, from the air
Yuba City
–
Sutter Buttes seen from Yuba City
Yuba City
–
Not to be confused with
Yuba, California.
35.
Tornado
–
A tornado is a rapidly rotating column of air that spins while in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than 110 miles per hour, are about 250 feet across, the most extreme tornadoes can attain wind speeds of more than 300 miles per hour, are more than two miles in diameter, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles. Various types of tornadoes include the multiple vortex tornado, landspout and waterspout, waterspouts are characterized by a spiraling funnel-shaped wind current, connecting to a large cumulus or cumulonimbus cloud. They are generally classified as non-supercellular tornadoes that develop over bodies of water and these spiraling columns of air frequently develop in tropical areas close to the equator, and are less common at high latitudes. Other tornado-like phenomena that exist in nature include the gustnado, dust devil, fire whirls, downbursts are frequently confused with tornadoes, though their action is dissimilar. Tornadoes have been observed and documented on every continent except Antarctica, however, the vast majority of tornadoes occur in the Tornado Alley region of the United States, although they can occur nearly anywhere in North America. There are several scales for rating the strength of tornadoes, the Fujita scale rates tornadoes by damage caused and has been replaced in some countries by the updated Enhanced Fujita Scale. An F0 or EF0 tornado, the weakest category, damages trees, an F5 or EF5 tornado, the strongest category, rips buildings off their foundations and can deform large skyscrapers. The similar TORRO scale ranges from a T0 for extremely weak tornadoes to T11 for the most powerful known tornadoes, Doppler radar data, photogrammetry, and ground swirl patterns may also be analyzed to determine intensity and assign a rating. The word tornado is a form of the Spanish word tronada. This in turn was taken from the Latin tonare, meaning to thunder and it most likely reached its present form through a combination of the Spanish tronada and tornar, however, this may be a folk etymology. A tornado is also referred to as a twister, and is also sometimes referred to by the old-fashioned colloquial term cyclone. The term cyclone is used as a synonym for tornado in the often-aired 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, the term twister is also used in that film, along with being the title of the 1996 tornado-related film Twister. A tornado is a rotating column of air, in contact with the ground, either pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud. For a vortex to be classified as a tornado, it must be in contact with both the ground and the cloud base. Scientists have not yet created a definition of the word, for example. Tornado refers to the vortex of wind, not the condensation cloud and this results in the formation of a visible funnel cloud or condensation funnel. There is some disagreement over the definition of cloud and condensation funnel
Tornado
–
A tornado near
Anadarko, Oklahoma. The funnel is the thin tube reaching from the cloud to the ground. The lower part of this tornado is surrounded by a
translucent dust cloud, kicked up by the tornado's strong winds at the surface. The wind of the tornado has a much wider radius than the funnel itself.
Tornado
–
A tornado near
Seymour, Texas 1987
Tornado
–
This tornado has no funnel cloud; however, the rotating dust cloud indicates that strong winds are occurring at the surface, and thus it is a true tornado.
Tornado
–
A wedge tornado, nearly a mile wide, which hit
Binger, Oklahoma in 1981
36.
Colusa County, California
–
Colusa County is a county in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 21,419 and it is in the Central Valley of California, northwest of the state capital, Sacramento. Colusa County is one of the counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. Parts of the territory were given to Tehama County in 1856. The county was named after the 1844 Rancho Colus Mexican land grant to John Bidwell, the name of the county in the original state legislative act of 1850 was spelled Colusi, and often in newspapers was spelled Coluse. The word is derived from the name of a Native American tribe living on the west side of the Sacramento River, the name was changed to Colusa shortly after. The actual origin of the name is unknown, according to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,156 square miles, of which 1,151 square miles is land and 5.6 square miles is water. A large number of streams drain the county, including Elk Creek, the countys eastern boundary is formed, in part, by the Sacramento River. The racial makeup of Colusa County was 13,854 White,195 African American,419 Native American,281 Asian,68 Pacific Islander,5,838 from other races, Hispanic or Latino of any race were 11,804 persons. As of the census of 2000, there were 18,804 people,6,097 households, the population density was 16 people per square mile. There were 6,774 housing units at a density of 6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 64. 3% White,0. 6% Black or African American,2. 3% Native American,1. 2% Asian,0. 4% Pacific Islander,26. 7% from other races, and 4. 5% from two or more races. 46. 5% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,8. 5% were of German,5. 6% English,5. 5% American and 5. 4% Irish ancestry according to Census 2000. 58. 7% spoke English and 40. 4% Spanish as their first language,21. 5% of all households were made up of individuals and 10. 1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.01 and the family size was 3.51. In the county, the population was out with 31. 6% under the age of 18,10. 3% from 18 to 24,26. 9% from 25 to 44,19. 8% from 45 to 64. The median age was 32 years, for every 100 females there were 103.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 103.8 males, the median income for a household in the county was $35,062, and the median income for a family was $40,138
Colusa County, California
–
Colusa County Courthouse
Colusa County, California
–
Seal
37.
Tule fog
–
Tule fog /ˈtuːliː/ is a thick ground fog that settles in the San Joaquin Valley and Sacramento Valley areas of Californias Great Central Valley. Tule fog forms from late fall through early spring after the first significant rainfall, the official time frame for tule fog to form is from November 1 to March 31. This phenomenon is named after the tule grass wetlands of the Central Valley, Tule fog is the leading cause of weather-related accidents in California. Tule fog is a fog, which condenses when there is a high relative humidity, calm winds. The nights are longer in the months, which allows an extended period of ground cooling. In California, tule fog can extend from Bakersfield to Red Bluff, Tule fog is characteristically confined mainly to the Great Central Valley due to the mountain ranges surrounding it. Tule fog often contains light drizzle or freezing drizzle where temperatures are sufficiently cold. Tule fog is a low cloud, usually below 2,000 feet in altitude, above the cold, foggy layer, the air is typically warm, dry and clear. Once tule fog has formed, turbulent air is necessary to break through the inversion layer. Daytime heating sometimes evaporates the fog in patches, although the air remains chilly and hazy below the inversion, Tule fog usually remains longer in the southern and eastern parts of the Central Valley, because more winter storms affect the northern Central Valley. Visibility in tule fog is less than an eighth of a mile. Visibility can vary rapidly, in only a few feet, visibility can go from 10 feet to near zero, the variability in visibility is the cause of many chain-reaction pile-ups on roads and freeways. In one such accident on Interstate 5 near Elk Grove south of Sacramento,25 cars and 12 big-rig trucks collided inside a fog bank in December 1997, five people died and 28 were injured. In February 2002, two people were killed in an 80-plus-car pile-up on State Route 99 between Kingsburg and Selma. On the morning of November 3,2007, heavy fog caused a massive pile-up that included 108 passenger vehicles and 18 big-rig trucks on northbound State Route 99 between Fowler and Fresno. Visibility was about 200 feet at the time of the accident, there were two fatalities and 39 injuries in the crash. Tule fog events are accompanied by drizzle and freezing drizzle. Because of the lack of penetrating the fog layer, temperatures may struggle to climb above freezing
Tule fog
–
Tule fog captured by
NASA 's Terra Satellite
Tule fog
–
Dense Tule fog in
Bakersfield, California. Visibility in this photo is less than 500 feet (150 m).
Tule fog
–
Tule fog settled on an
orchard in
Stanislaus County in late December.
Tule fog
–
Tule fog in
Bakersfield, California
38.
Sacramento Executive Airport
–
Sacramento Executive Airport is a public airport three miles south of downtown Sacramento, in Sacramento County, California. The airport covers 540 acres and has three runways and a helipad, when it opened in 1930, Executive Airport was known as Sutterville Aerodrome. As the city-owned facility expanded, in 1941 construction was underway to pave, the U. S. Army Air Corps took over the airport during World War II. After the war, control was returned to the city and the facility was renamed Sacramento Municipal Airport, during the late 1940s and early 1950s, improvements were made to parking and taxiway paving, water and sewer systems, and runway/taxiway lighting. The terminal building was built in 1955 along with some navigational aids, flights by Pacific Air Lines to the north continued to Chico, Eureka/Arcata, Crescent City and Portland, OR. Pacific Air Lines flight 771 flew Reno-Lake Tahoe-Sacramento-San Francisco-San Jose-Fresno-Bakersfield-Burbank-Los Angeles-San Diego, united Airlines flight 224 was a Boeing 727-100 San Francisco-Sacramento-Reno-Denver-Chicago-New York La Guardia. Aircraft included Martin 4-0-4s and Fairchild F-27s, Lockheed L-188 Electras, Boeing 727-100s and Boeing 720Bs, in October 1967 the airlines moved to the new Sacramento Metropolitan Airport and Sacramento Municipal Airport was renamed Sacramento Executive Airport. The County of Sacramento became the operator of both airports, since then Executive Airport has become Northern Californias primary general aviation airport. Executive Airport is self-supporting, receiving no city, county, or tax money, all operating expenses are paid by users. On September 24,1972, a former military Canadair Sabre Mk.5 jet in civilian ownership with US registration N275X was set to perform an air display at the Golden West Sport Aviation Show. Due to pilot error, the failed to become airborne, went off the end of the runway, across a road. The explosion killed 22, twelve of those children, and injured 28 more people, the tragedy prompted closure of that runway, stricter regulations at the airport, and the opening of the Sacramento Firefighters Burn Institute. A memorial was constructed at the site and dedicated in March 2003. Sacramento Executive Airport is a general aviation airport with facilities and services. In addition to an FAA tower, the airport has three paved runways and has tie-downs and hangar rentals, in 2004, aircraft operations averaged 370 per day. Over 20 businesses are located at Executive, providing, air charters, aircraft sales, rentals and repairs, flight training, pilot supplies, computer-based testing, and car rentals. Located 10 minutes from downtown Sacramento, Executive is close to tourist attractions such as Old Sacramento, the State Capitol, Cal Expo State Fairgrounds, the airport is also located near three public golf courses and major shopping areas. Executive has three runways, two lighted, Runway 2/20 measures 5,503 ft x 150 ft, a Medium Intensity Approach Light System with Runway Alignment Indicator Lights is installed on Runway 2, while REIL and VASI are on Runway 20
Sacramento Executive Airport
–
2006 USGS Photo
39.
Precipitation
–
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
Precipitation
–
A thunderstorm with heavy precipitation
Precipitation
–
Long-term mean precipitation by month
Precipitation
–
Late-summer
rainstorm in
Denmark
Precipitation
–
Lenticular cloud forming due to mountains over Wyoming
40.
Sunshine duration
–
It is a general indicator of cloudiness of a location, and thus differs from insolation, which measures the total energy delivered by sunlight over a given period. Sunshine duration is usually expressed in hours per year, or in hours per day, the first measure indicates the general sunniness of a location compared with other places, while the latter allows for comparison of sunshine in various seasons in the same location. Another often-used measure is percentage ratio of recorded bright sunshine duration, an important use of sunshine duration data is to characterize the climate of sites, especially of health resorts. This also takes account the psychological effect of strong solar light on human well-being. It is often used to promote tourist destinations, if the Sun were to be above the horizon 50% of the time for a standard year consisting of 8,760 hours, apparent maximal daytime duration would be 4,380 hours for any point on Earth. However, there are physical and astronomical effects that change that picture, namely, atmospheric refraction allows the Sun to be still visible even when it physically sets below the horizon. For that reason, average daytime is longest in polar areas, places on the Arctic Circle have the longest total annual daytime,4,647 hours, while the North Pole receives 4,575. Because of elliptic nature of the Earths orbit, the Southern Hemisphere is not symmetrical, the Equator has a total daytime of 4,422 hours per year. Given the theoretical maximum of daytime duration for a given location, bright sunshine hours represent the total hours when the sunlight is stronger than a specified threshold, as opposed to just visible hours. Visible sunshine, for example, occurs around sunrise and sunset, measurement is performed by instruments called sunshine recorders. For the specific purpose of sunshine duration recording, Campbell–Stokes recorders are used, when the intensity exceeds a pre-determined threshold, the tape burns. The total length of the trace is proportional to the number of bright hours. Another type of recorder is the Jordan sunshine recorder, newer, electronic recorders have more stable sensitivity than that of the paper tape. In 2003, the duration was finally defined as the period during which direct solar irradiance exceeds a threshold value of 120 W/m². The sky is clear in these regions, and fair weather is virtually perpetual, the descending branch of the Hadley cell and the long-term lack of atmospheric disturbances helps to explain the seemingly endless supply of sunny, cloud-free days in the deserts. Low clouding conditions are associated with rainfall shortage, as seen in these dry regions. In the belt encompassing northern Chad and the Tibesti Mountains, northern Sudan, southern Libya, some places in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula receive 3, 600–3,800 hours of bright sunshine annually. The largest sun-baked region in the world is North Africa, the sunniest month in the world is December in Eastern Antarctica, with almost 23 hours of bright sun daily
Sunshine duration
–
Campbell–Stokes recorder measures sunshine
41.
Interstate 5 (California)
–
Interstate 5 is a major north–south route of the Interstate Highway System in the U. S. state of California. It begins at the Mexico–United States border at the San Ysidro crossing, goes north across the length of California and crosses into Oregon south of the Medford-Ashland metropolitan area. It is the important and most used of the two major north-south routes on the Pacific Coast, the other being U. S. Route 101. This highway links the major California cities of San Diego, Santa Ana, Los Angeles, Stockton, Sacramento, Interstate 5 has several named portions, the Montgomery Freeway, San Diego Freeway, Santa Ana Freeway, Golden State Freeway, and West Side Freeway. I-5 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System and is eligible for the State Scenic Highway System, however, it is a scenic highway as designated by Caltrans only from State Route 152 to I‑580. Interstate 5 begins at the San Ysidro Port of Entry from Mexico in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego, immediately after the border, I-805 splits off to the northeast and serves as a bypass of I-5 that avoids the downtown San Diego area. I-5 itself continues northwest and intersects with the end of the SR905 freeway. I-5 then continues northward and joins the end of SR75. I-5 then enters Chula Vista, briefly leaving the San Diego city limits and it continues along the east side of San Diego Bay where it intersects with SR54 and enters National City. From there, I-5 veers around the San Diego Naval Base, I-5 subsequently interchanges with four state routes — SR15, SR75 and the Coronado Bay Bridge, the western end of SR94, and the southern end of SR163. In addition to serving downtown San Diego, I-5 also provides access to Balboa Park from the Pershing Drive exit. The portion of I-5 from the border to downtown San Diego is named the Montgomery Freeway in honor of John J. Montgomery, a pioneer aviator who flew a glider from a location near Chula Vista in 1884. I-5 continues northwest from downtown as the San Diego Freeway until it reaches its junction with I-8, then slightly to the north while passing near SeaWorld. Thereafter, I-5 interchanges with the end of SR52 before passing through the UC San Diego campus in University City near La Jolla. At Nobel Drive, the San Diego LDS Temple towers over I-5, shortly afterward, I-5 interchanges with the northern terminus of I-805 before continuing north and interchanging with the western end of SR56. At this interchange, there is a recently completed local bypass that provides the access to Carmel Mountain Road from both directions and provides the only access to SR56 going northbound. North of the San Diego city limits, I-5 enters into the city limits of Solana Beach, in Oceanside, I-5 intersects with the SR78 freeway and the SR76 expressway and continues through Camp Pendleton. It then follows the Pacific Ocean coastline for the next 20 miles, I-5 enters Orange County at the Christianitos Road exit
Interstate 5 (California)
–
I-5 looking south toward downtown San Diego in January 2002
Interstate 5 (California)
–
Interstate 5
Interstate 5 (California)
–
I-5 South in San Diego toward
Mexico, September 2012
Interstate 5 (California)
–
I-5 in the
Newhall Pass Interchange, where it intersects with I-210 and SR 14 near Santa Clarita
42.
Interstate 80 (California)
–
Interstate 80 is a major east–west route of the Interstate Highway System, running between the U. S. states of California and New York. The highway has its terminus in San Francisco. From there it heads east across the Bay Bridge to Oakland, I-80 then traverses the Sierra Nevada, cresting at Donner Summit, before crossing into the state of Nevada within the Truckee River Canyon. The speed limit is at most 65 miles per hour along the route instead of the states maximum of 70 mph. I-80 has portions designated as the Eastshore Freeway and Alan S. Hart Freeway, throughout California, I-80 was built along the corridor of U. S. Route 40, eventually replacing this designation entirely. The prior US40 corridor itself was built along several historic corridors in California, notably the California Trail, the route has changed from the original plans in San Francisco due to freeway revolts canceling segments of the originally planned alignment. Similarly in Sacramento, the freeway was re-routed around the city plans to upgrade the original grandfathered route through the city to Interstate highway standards were cancelled. I-80 is recognized as the Dwight D. Eisenhower Highway in the western United States, in California, it follows the original corridor of the Lincoln Highway from Sacramento to Reno. According to the California State Highway system, I-80 begins at its intersection with U. S. Route 101 in San Francisco, the Interstate designation is interpreted by some to actually beginning on the Bay Bridge approach itself, at the location of the Fremont Street off-ramp. Thus, the first 1.20 miles of the signed Interstate may not be officially an actual Interstate, the Eastshore Freeway is a segment of Interstates 80 and 580 along the northeast shoreline of San Francisco Bay in northern California. It begins at the Carquinez Bridge and ends at the MacArthur Maze interchange just east of the end of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. Interstate 580 joins the Eastshore Freeway at an interchange known locally as the Hoffman Split in Albany. S, the Eastshore Highway began in El Cerrito at an intersection with San Pablo Avenue at Hill Street between Potrero Avenue and Cutting Blvd. Adjacent to the location today of the El Cerrito Del Norte station of BART and it was not a freeway in that access was at intersections with adjoining streets rather than by ramps. The Eastshore Highway ran from El Cerrito to the Bay Bridge along the routing as todays freeway. A causeway was constructed for this purpose by filling in part of the mudflats along the bayshore, the frontage road along the east side of todays Eastshore Freeway between Buchanan Street in Albany and Hearst Avenue in Berkeley retains the name Eastshore Highway. The terminal segment of the old Eastshore Highway in El Cerrito between Potrero and San Pablo Avenues is today named Eastshore Boulevard, originally, the name Eastshore Freeway was also applied to what is today known as the Nimitz Freeway upon its construction in 1947. This freeway was dedicated in 1958 to Admiral Nimitz, and so for a few years in the 1950s prior, until the late 1960s, the Eastshore Freeway was also designated as part of State Route 17 together with the Nimitz Freeway. The Eastshore Freeway was officially renamed the Kent D. Pursel Memorial Freeway in 1968, but this name is hardly recognized as such by the public, and most maps still show the name Eastshore Freeway
Interstate 80 (California)
–
The western terminus of Interstate 80 in San Francisco, viewed from northbound
US 101.
Interstate 80 (California)
–
Interstate 80
Interstate 80 (California)
–
Eastshore Freeway in Berkeley
Interstate 80 (California)
–
Looking NE along I-80 in the Sierra Nevada from the Yuba Gap overpass 39°19′01″N 120°36′50″W / 39.317°N 120.614°W / 39.317; -120.614
43.
Sacramento County
–
Sacramento County is a county in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,418,788 and its county seat is Sacramento, which has been the state capital of California since 1854. Sacramento County is included in the Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, the county covers about 994 square miles in the northern portion of the Central Valley, on into Gold Country. The southernmost portion of Sacramento County has direct access to San Francisco Bay, Sacramento County was one of the original counties of California, which were created in 1850 at the time of statehood. The county was named after the Sacramento River, which forms its western border, the river was named by Spanish cavalry officer Gabriel Moraga for the Santisimo Sacramento, referring to the Catholic Eucharist. Alexander Hamilton Willard, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, is buried in the old Franklin Cemetery. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 994 square miles. Most of the county is at a close to sea level. The highest point in the county is Carpenter Hill at 828 feet, Carpenter Hill is the lowest high point of any county in California. Major watercourses in the county include the American River, Sacramento River, Cosumnes River, a tributary of the Mokelumne River and Dry Creek, Hispanic or Latino of any race were 306,196 persons. As of the census of 2000, there were 1,223,499 people,453,602 households, the population density was 1,267 people per square mile. There were 474,814 housing units at a density of 492/sq mi. The racial makeup of the county was 64. 0% White,10. 6% Black or African American,1. 09% Native American,13. 5% Asian,0. 6% Pacific Islander,7. 5% from other races, and 5. 8% from two or more races. 19. 3% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,10. 2% were of German,7. 0% English,6. 7% Irish and 5. 1% American ancestry according to Census 2000. 75. 7% spoke only English at home,10. 0% spoke Spanish,1. 5% Hmong,1. 4% Chinese or Mandarin,1. 3% Vietnamese,1. 2% Tagalog and 1. 2% Russian. 26. 7% of all households were made up of individuals and 8. 0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.64 and the average family size was 3.24. In the county, the population was out with 27. 6% under the age of 18,9. 5% from 18 to 24,31. 0% from 25 to 44,20. 9% from 45 to 64. The median age was 34 years, for every 100 females there were 95.9 males
Sacramento County
Sacramento County
Sacramento County
Sacramento County
44.
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
–
The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 and the road between San Francisco and Oakland, it carries about 240,000 vehicles a day on its two decks. It has one of the longest spans in the United States, the toll bridge was conceived as early as the gold rush days, but construction did not begin until 1933. Designed by Charles H. Purcell, and built by American Bridge Company, it opened on November 12,1936, in 1986 the bridge was unofficially dedicated to James Rolph. The Willie Brown bridge is a suspension bridge with two decks, westbound traffic being carried on the upper deck while eastbound is carried on the lower one. The largest span of the eastern section was a cantilever bridge. During the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, a section of the eastern upper deck collapsed onto the lower deck. Demolition of the old east span is expected to last until 2018, the bridge consists of two crossings, east and west of Yerba Buena Island, a natural mid-bay outcropping inside San Francisco city limits. The western crossing between Yerba Buena and downtown San Francisco has two suspension spans connected at a center anchorage. Rincon Hill is the anchorage and touch-down for the San Francisco landing of the Brown bridge connected by three shorter truss spans. The eastern crossing, between Yerba Buena Island and Oakland, was a bridge with a double-tower span, five medium truss spans. Due to earthquake concerns, the crossing was replaced by a new crossing that opened on Labor Day 2013. The toll plaza on the Oakland side has eighteen toll lanes, metering signals are about 1,000 feet west of the toll plaza. The two far-left toll lanes are high-occupancy vehicle lanes during weekday commute periods, since the number of lanes on the eastbound approach from San Francisco is structurally restricted, eastbound backups are also frequent during evening commute hours. The western span of the Bay Bridge, the Willie Brown bridge, is restricted to motorized freeway traffic. Pedestrians, bicycles, and other vehicles are not allowed to cross this section. A project to add lanes to the western span has been proposed but is not finalized. A Caltrans bicycle shuttle operates between Oakland and San Francisco during peak hours for $1.00 each way
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
–
The western span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
–
Sketch of the proposed "Rush San Francisco Trans-Bay Suspension Bridge" (1913)
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
–
The Bay Bridge under construction at
Yerba Buena Island in 1935
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
–
Traveling through the westbound Yerba Buena tunnel
45.
Interstate 505 (California)
–
Interstate 505 is an Interstate Highway in California between Interstate 80 in Vacaville and Interstate 5 near Dunnigan. I-505 is primarily a rural interstate, but travels through Vacaville, the interstate is the primary route connecting the San Francisco Bay Area and the northern Sacramento Valley, bypassing Sacramento and its attendant city traffic. Thus, it is a route for travelers heading directly from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Pacific Northwest. This route is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System, power lines connecting Path 15 to Path 66 follow the highway for a while, until one heads northeast and the other northwest. The southern terminus of I-505 is at I-80 next to the Nut Tree Airport in the Nut Tree area in Vacaville, from there, it travels north about ten miles through rural areas near the western edge of the Sacramento Valley before reaching Winters. I-505 then skirts the city limits of Winters, intersecting with State Route 128 – the only exit in Winters. After leaving that city, the interstate then proceeds north through rural areas again for about 20 miles until it reaches its terminus with I-5 near Dunnigan. For most of its length, I-505 is a four-lane freeway, what is now I-505 was originally conceived as part of a loop Interstate with a directional suffix, I-5W. However, I-5W and most of the other Interstates around the country with directional suffixes were eventually renumbered or eliminated, sans I-35E and I-35W in Texas and Minnesota. The former route of I-5W now corresponds to I-580 from I-5 south of Tracy to Oakland, I-80 from Oakland to Vacaville, California Roads portal California @ AARoads. com - I-505 Caltrans, Route 505 highway conditions California Highways, I-505
Interstate 505 (California)
–
Interstate 505
46.
California State Route 113
–
State Route 113 is a north–south state highway in the U. S. state of California that runs from around 10 miles west of Rio Vista at State Route 12 to State Route 99 south of Yuba City. It is an important connecting route between Interstate 80 and Interstate 5, past the southern terminus are Collinsville and Birds Landing around the Suisun Bay marshes. Cities along the route include Dixon, Davis, and Woodland and it also shares a stretch of Interstate 80 between just outside UC Davis and Dixon. The section running from Dixon to Woodland is a controlled-access freeway and this route is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System. State Route 113 begins at the intersection with State Route 12 between Fairfield and Rio Vista and it heads north on a rural two-lane highway towards the city of Dixon. After heading through the center of the city, it expands to four lanes before reaching Interstate 80, from there, SR113 is co-routed along I-80, heading northeast towards the city of Davis. SR113 then splits from I-80 onto its own freeway alignment and it is the four-lane freeway connecting Interstate 80 in Davis to Interstate 5 in Woodland. After leaving Davis, SR113 continues north through rural areas for a short while, upon reaching I-5, it is co-routed for a short while and splits from I-5 a mile later. From there, SR113 leaves Woodland and again heads north on a rural highway, turning east. It then heads northeast through the community of Robbins, then turns east to end at State Route 99 towards Yuba City. 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, California Roads portal Caltrans, Route 113 road conditions California Highways, Route 113 California @ AARoads. com - State Route 94
California State Route 113
47.
California State Route 99
–
State Route 99, commonly known as Highway 99 or, simply, as 99, is a north–south state highway in the U. S. state of California, stretching almost the entire length of the Central Valley. From its southern end at Interstate 5 near Wheeler Ridge to its end at SR36 near Red Bluff. Cities served include Bakersfield, Delano, Tulare, Visalia, Kingsburg, Selma, Fresno, Madera, Merced, Modesto, Stockton, Sacramento, Turlock, Yuba City, and Chico. The highway is a remnant of the former Mexico to Canada U. S. Route 99, north of Sacramento, the road ranges from a rural two-lane road to a four-lane freeway. SR99 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System, the entirety of this segment is now built to freeway standards with complete access control, although some older portions are not yet in compliance with Interstate Highway standards. The freeway sections connect and serve the agriculture and industry of the California Central Valley, most of the freeway also parallels the Union Pacifics Fresno Subdivision. In Sacramento, SR99 first joins with I-80 Business as part of the Capital City Freeway and these SR99 concurrences are not officially designated by the California Department of Transportation, but mapmakers often show it as such. SR99 signage had existed along that route for motorists convenience, but was removed in 2000, and replaced by TO SR99 signs instead. SR99 then splits from I-5 in northern Sacramento, and then heads along the segment of the Sacramento Valley through Yuba City. A majority of SR99 from Sacramento to Red Bluff is a highway, while segments in Yuba City. SR99 remains a freeway as the route leaves Sacramento County. As SR99 crosses SR20 as an intersection, the highway becomes a four-lane freeway for 3 miles before reverting to a two-lane road, passing the smaller towns of Live Oak, Fagan. SR99 briefly is a local road through Gridley before continuing as a two-lane highway. SR99 passes by the side of the Thermalito Afterbay. SR162 joins SR99 for 2 miles before splitting off east towards the end of the Thermalito Afterbay. SR99 then transitions from a road to a four-lane divided expressway just before the interchange at SR149 turning northwest. As SR99 leaves Chico, the highway reverts to a 2-lane road before crossing into Tehama County and passing rural areas. The route then curves to the west and terminates at the junction with SR36, approximately 1.5 miles from I-5 in Red Bluff
California State Route 99
–
Facing north from Skyway on State Route 99 in
Chico.
Butte College is visible on the right.
California State Route 99
–
State Route 99
48.
California State Route 20
–
State Route 20 is a state highway in the northern central region of the U. S. state of California, running east–west across the state north of Sacramento. Portions of SR20 are built near the routing of what was first a wagon road, there have been subsequent improvements to the road, such as the conversion of the Grass Valley portion of the route to freeway standards. State Route 20 east of US101 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System, State Route 20 begins at SR1 in southern Fort Bragg, under 1 mile from the Pacific Ocean. It heads east, quickly climbing into the Mendocino Range along a ridge, the highway continues to rise alongside the North Fork Big River and tributaries, crossing another summit and then descending to Willits in the Little Lake Valley via Broaddus Creek. An overlap with US101 begins in Willits and heads southeasterly to Calpella, there SR20 turns east again, crossing the Russian River, passing the north shore of Lake Mendocino, and rising to a summit via the East Fork Russian River and Cold Creek. The roadway again descends alongside the Blue Lakes and Scotts Creek to the junction with SR29, SR20 closely follows the northeast shore of Clear Lake, staying right above the water line to avoid the adjacent hills. Where the lake ends, SR20 continues east, intersecting SR53 and then following the North Fork Cache Creek, during its final descent into the Sacramento Valley, SR20 intersects SR16 and curves north and back east, entering the valley via Salt Creek. The route crosses SR99 west of central Yuba City, and runs east through northern Yuba City to the Feather River, which it crosses on the 10th Street Bridge into Marysville. Within the central part of city, SR20 makes several turns, first turning south from 10th Street onto E Street, then east on 9th Street, north on B Street. The highway leaves Marysville to the northeast, paralleling the Yuba River on its side as it enters the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. SR20 rises into the Sierra along the side of the Yuba River, crossing to the south side near Smartsville. The current alignment, built in the mid-1980s as a mostly two-lane freeway, continues east across rugged terrain to the city of Grass Valley, the two routes travel northeast to Nevada City, where SR49 turns northwest and SR20 resumes its eastward course as a two-lane highway. The Pioneer Trail, a National Recreation Trail, parallels SR20 from a point on Harmony Ridge to the Bear Valley, and includes parts of a branch of the California Trail first used in 1850. The east end of SR20, from Bear Valley to Nevada City, closely follows a branch of the Truckee Route of the California Trail, later a turnpike was built here by the same company that opened the Pacific Turnpike in 1864. By the end of the 1910s, a dirt and gravel road connected Ukiah and Nevada City via the south side of Clear Lake. This route generally followed the present SR20, except around Clear Lake, beyond Nevada City to Emigrant Gap, the old turnpike was not passable, instead the present SR174 was available for eastward drivers. With the completion of this segment in mid-1932, the highway was ready for heavy travel, in 1953, the legislature added an extension of Route 15 from US101 at Willits west to SR1 near Fort Bragg. This was constructed and became part of Sign Route 20 prior to 1964, 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
California State Route 20
–
SR 20 in the
Sacramento Valley
California State Route 20
–
State Route 20
California State Route 20
–
Marker along California State Route 20.
California State Route 20
–
Donner Pass near the eastern terminus of SR 20
49.
California State Route 1
–
State Route 1 is a major north-south state highway that runs along most of the Pacific coastline of the U. S. state of California. At a total of just over 655.8 miles, it is the longest state route in California, Highway 1 has several portions designated as either Pacific Coast Highway, Cabrillo Highway, Shoreline Highway, or Coast Highway. Its southern terminus is at Interstate 5 near Dana Point in Orange County, Highway 1 also at times runs concurrently with US101, most notably through a 54-mile stretch in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, and across the Golden Gate Bridge. The highway is designated as an All-American Road, SR1 was built piecemeal in various stages, with the first section opening in the Big Sur region in the 1930s. However, portions of the route had several names and numbers over the years as more segments opened and it was not until the 1964 state highway renumbering that the entire route was officially designated as Highway 1. Highway 1 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System and is eligible for the State Scenic Highway System, however, only a few stretches between Los Angeles and San Francisco have officially been designated as a scenic highway. The Big Sur section from San Luis Obispo to Carmel is an official National Scenic Byway, the entire route is designated as a Blue Star Memorial Highway to recognize those in the United States armed forces. In Southern California, the California Legislature has designated the segment between Interstate 5 in Dana Point and US101 near Oxnard as the Pacific Coast Highway, the legislature has also designated the route as the Shoreline Highway between the Manzanita Junction near Marin City and Leggett. Smaller segments of the highway have been assigned other names by the state. The legislature has relinquished state control of segments within Dana Point, Newport Beach, Santa Monica, and Oxnard. The route annually helps bring several billion dollars to the tourism industry. Segments of Highway 1 range from a rural road to an urban freeway. Because of the former, long distance thru traffic traveling between the metropolitan areas are instead advised to use faster routes such as US101 or I-5. At its southernmost end in Orange County, Highway 1 terminates at I-5 in Capistrano Beach in Dana Point and it then travels west into the city center. After leaving Dana Point, Highway 1 continues northwest along the coast through Laguna Beach, Highway 1 then enters Newport Beach, where it is known as simply Coast Highway. Upon entering Huntington Beach, Highway 1 regains the Pacific Coast Highway designation and it passes Huntington State Beach and the southern terminus of California State Route 39 before reaching Bolsa Chica State Beach and the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. PCH then continues along the coast into Seal Beach, the city on its journey in Orange County. PCH enters Los Angeles County and the city of Long Beach after crossing the San Gabriel River, Highway 1 then continues northwest through the city to its junction with Lakewood Boulevard and Los Coyotes Diagonal at the Los Alamitos Circle, more than 2 miles from the coast
California State Route 1
–
Southbound PCH in
Crystal Cove State Park near
Laguna Beach
California State Route 1
California State Route 1
–
Southbound SR 1 between
Santa Monica and
LAX.
California State Route 1
–
PCH passes Mugu Rock at
Point Mugu.
50.
Mendocino County, California
–
Mendocino County is a county located on the north coast of the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 87,841, Mendocino County comprises the Ukiah, CA Micropolitan Statistical Area. It is located north of the San Francisco Bay Area and west of the Central Valley, the county is noted for its distinctive Pacific Ocean coastline, Redwood forests, wine production, microbrews, and liberal views about the use of cannabis and support for its legalization. It is estimated that roughly one-third of the economy is based on the cultivation of marijuana, the notable historic and recreational attraction of the Skunk Train connects Fort Bragg with Willits in Mendocino County via a steam-locomotive engine, along with other vehicles. Mendocino County was one of the counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. Due to an initially minor white American population, it did not have a government until 1859 and was under the administration of Sonoma County prior to that. Some of the land was given to Sonoma County between 1850 and 1860. Mendocino is the form of the family name of Mendoza. Establishment of the Round Valley Indian Reservation in March 30,1870, many of these tribes thrown together were not friends with the other tribes they were forced to live with on the reservation, resulting in tensions still evident today. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 3,878 square miles. The 2010 United States Census reported that Mendocino County had a population of 87,841. The racial makeup of Mendocino County was 67,218 White,622 African American,4,277 Native American,1,450 Asian,119 Pacific Islander,10,185 from other races, Hispanic or Latino of any race were 19,505 persons. As of the census of 2000, there were 86,265 people,33,266 households, the population density was 25 people per square mile. There were 36,937 housing units at a density of 10 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 80. 8% White,0. 6% Black or African American,4. 8% Native American,1. 2% Asian,0. 2% Pacific Islander,8. 6% from other races, and 3. 9% from two or more races. 16. 5% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race,12. 2% were of German,10. 8% English,8. 6% Irish,6. 1% Italian and 5. 6% American ancestry according to Census 2000. 84. 4% spoke English and 13. 2% Spanish as their first language,27. 0% of all households were made up of individuals and 10. 4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.53 and the family size was 3.04
Mendocino County, California
Mendocino County, California
Mendocino County, California
Mendocino County, California
