1.
San Francisco Bay Area
–
The San Francisco Bay Area is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses the cities and metropolitan areas of San Jose, San Francisco. The Bay Areas nine counties are Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma. The combined statistical area of the region is the second-largest in California, the fifth-largest in the United States, the Bay Area has the second-most Fortune 500 Companies in the United States, and is known for its natural beauty, liberal politics, entrepreneurship, and diversity. The eastern side of the bay, consisting of Alameda and Contra Costa counties, is known locally as the East Bay, the inner East Bay is more densely populated, with generally older buildings, and a more ethnically diverse population. The word Lamorinda was coined by combining the names of the cities it includes, Lafayette, Moraga, walnut Creek is situated east of Lamorinda and north of the San Ramon Valley and, together with Concord, Martinez, and Pleasant Hill comprises Central Contra Costa County. The cities of Antioch, Pittsburg, Brentwood, Oakley and the areas surrounding them comprise East Contra Costa County. The Tri-Valley consists of the Amador, the Livermore, and the San Ramon Valleys, dublin and Pleasanton comprise the Amador Valley, Livermore lies in the Livermore Valley, and the San Ramon Valley consists of Alamo, Danville, Diablo and its namesake, San Ramon. The outer East Bay is connected to the inner East Bay by BART, Interstate 580 to the south, and State Routes State Route 4 to the north, the outer East Bays infrastructure was mostly built up after World War II. This area remains largely white demographically, although the Hispanic and Filipino populations have grown significantly over the past 2–3 decades, the region north of the Golden Gate Bridge is known locally as the North Bay. This area encompasses Marin County, Sonoma County, Napa County, the city of Fairfield, being part of Solano County, is often considered the easternmost city of the North Bay. With few exceptions, this region is affluent, Marin County is ranked as the wealthiest in the state. The North Bay is relatively rural compared to the remainder of the Bay Area, with areas of undeveloped open space, farmland. Santa Rosa in Sonoma County is the North Bays largest city, with a population of 167,815 and a Metropolitan Statistical Area population of 466,891, making it the fifth-largest city in the Bay Area. The North Bay is the section of the Bay Area that is not currently served by a commuter rail service. The area from San Francisco to the Silicon Valley, geographically part of the San Francisco Peninsula, is known locally as The Peninsula, many of these families are of foreign background and have significantly contributed to the diversity of the area. Whereas the term peninsula technically refers to the entire geographical San Franciscan Peninsula, in local terms, San Francisco is surrounded by water on three sides, the north, east, and west. The city squeezes roughly 870,000 people in under 47 square miles, on any given day, there can be as many as 1 million people in the city because of the commuting population and tourism
San Francisco Bay Area
–
San Francisco
San Francisco Bay Area
–
San Jose
San Francisco Bay Area
–
Oakland
San Francisco Bay Area
–
A view of the
San Francisco skyline from the bay.
2.
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.
3.
Body of water
–
Body of Water is a musical conceived by Tony Kienitz and Tanna Herr with music by Jim Walker. It entails the life of fourteen teens left behind in a war crisis. The show was the production of A Theatre Near U. The show was adapted from music written by Jim Walker, the music for the show was nominated for Best Original Music by the San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle Excellence in Theatre Awards. The album is available on iTunes here, the overall reception of Body of Water was positive. He also praised the music by Jim Walker as wonderfully raw, cryptic, richard Conema of Talkin Broadway and member of the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle agreed with Jarrett on the music and choreography. He also said that the actors of the show are the adult performers of the future. These young people are doing work and many aspire to be professional actors. He also commended producing theatre company A Theatre Near U, saying that A Theatre Near U may have just fired the first shot in a revolution to determine the future of Youth Theatre
Body of water
–
The original poster for Body of Water, the Musical.
Body of water
4.
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.
5.
San Joaquin River
–
The San Joaquin River /ˈsæn wɑːˈkiːn/ is the longest river of Central California in the United States. An important source of water as well as a wildlife corridor. People have inhabited the San Joaquin Valley for more than 8,000 years, the newcomers quickly appropriated the rich natural and hydrologic resources of the watershed for use in farms and cities, but found themselves plagued by flood and drought. Because of the topography of the San Joaquin Valley, floods once transformed much of the lower river into a huge inland sea. In the 20th century, many levees and dams were built on the San Joaquin and these engineering works changed the fluctuating nature of the river forever, and cut off the Tulare Basin from the rest of the San Joaquin watershed. The river was called many different names, at different parts of the river were known by different names. The present name of the dates to 1805–1808, when Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga was surveying east from Mission San José in order to find possible sites for a mission. Moraga named a tributary of the river for Saint Joachim, husband of Saint Anne and father of Mary, the name Moraga chose was later applied to the entire river, it was in common use by 1810. In the Mono language, the river is called typici h huu, a member of the Pedro Fages party in 1772, Crespis vantage point was the hilltops behind modern San Francisco. Another early name was Rio San Juan Bautista, the origin of which is unknown.8 mi southeast of Mount Lyell, the Middle Fork is usually considered part of the main stem. The South Fork, which begins at Martha Lake in Kings Canyon National Park and flows through Florence Lake, from the mountainous alpine headwaters, the San Joaquin flows generally south into the foothills of the Sierra, passing through four hydroelectric dams. It eventually emerges from the foothills at what was once the town of Millerton, the location of Friant Dam since 1942, which forms Millerton Lake. Below Friant Dam, the San Joaquin flows west-southwest out into the San Joaquin Valley – the southern part of the Great Central Valley – passing north of Fresno, from Mendota, the San Joaquin swings northwest, passing through many different channels, some natural and some man-made. Northeast of Dos Palos, it is joined by the Fresno. Fifty miles downstream, the Merced River empties into an otherwise dry San Joaquin, the majority of the river flows through quiet agricultural bottomlands, and as a result its meandering course manages to avoid most of the urban areas and cities in the San Joaquin Valley. About 11 mi west of Modesto, the San Joaquin meets its largest tributary, near Vernalis, it is joined by another major tributary, the Stanislaus River. About 40 mi from the mouth, the river draws abreast to the flank of Stockton. From here to the mouth, the river is dredged as part of a navigation project, past the head of tide, amid the many islands of the delta, the San Joaquin is joined by two more tributaries, the Calaveras River and the larger Mokelumne
San Joaquin River
–
Headwaters of the San Joaquin River in the Ansel Adams wilderness
San Joaquin River
–
San Joaquin River watershed, including the Tulare Basin
San Joaquin River
–
The San Joaquin at
Mendota Pool during the high flows of April 2006
San Joaquin River
–
Mariposa Indian Encampment by
Albert Bierstadt, c. 1872
6.
Petaluma River
–
The Petaluma River is a river in the California counties of Sonoma and Marin that becomes a tidal slough for the majority of its length. The headwaters are in the area southwest of Cotati, the word Petaluma may derive from the Miwok words pe’ta, flat, and luma, back. The Miwok people lived in Sonoma County for more than 2500 years, Petaluma was the name of a village on a low hill east of Petaluma creek and north east of the present day town of Petaluma. The first recorded exploration of the Petaluma River was by Captain Fernando Quiros in October,1776, located in southern Sonoma County, California, and a portion of northeastern Marin, the Petaluma River Watershed drains 146 square miles. The watershed is approximately 19 miles long and 13 miles wide with the City of Petaluma near its center, the lower 12 miles of the Petaluma River flow through the Petaluma Marsh, the largest remaining salt marsh in San Pablo Bay. The marsh covers 5,000 acres and is surrounded by approximately 7,000 acres of reclaimed wetlands, in the marshes west of Lakeville, the river is joined by San Antonio Creek, at which point it becomes the boundary between Marin County and Sonoma County. The river flows under State Route 37 at Green Point and enters northwest San Pablo Bay just north of Petaluma Point, while the rivers source lies over 300 ft above sea level, it descends to 50 ft within about 0.4 mi. The river is fully tidal 11 mi from its mouth, indicating its slight gradient through the marshes below Petaluma, the United States Army Corps of Engineers dredges this section to keep it navigable by gravel barges and pleasure craft. The Petaluma River Watershed hosts several federally endangered animals including the salt marsh harvest mouse, endangered flora include soft bird’s-beak, Baker’s stickyseed, Burke’s goldfields, showy Indian clover, and Sebastopol meadowfoam. Steelhead that spawn and rear in the Petaluma River watershed are wild, not hatchery, Chinook salmon are seen in the main stem of the Petaluma River and The United Anglers of Casa Grande High School have seen chinook at the turning basin, near the Lynch Creek confluence. The high school constructed a salmonid hatchery in 1993 and in 200274 Chinook salmon returned to spawn in the Adobe Creek tributary. The marshes provide an important wildlife habitat and fish hatchery, however, since the onset of intensive immigration in the mid-1850s, the water quality has diminished, partly due to overgrazing and other agricultural uses. Pollutants present in the river include nitrates, phosphates, petroleum hydrocarbons, pesticides, urban runoff, particularly from the City of Petaluma, adds heavy metals and hydrocarbons to the river. Starting about 1990, material steps were taken to mitigate the pollution, because the Petaluma River is relatively well-protected, most of the pollution comes from nearby storm drains. It is up to the people of Petaluma to keep the river clean, because most of the length of the waterway is tidal and urban/suburban, there is a significant collection of tidally deposited debris along the banks. Despite the poor aesthetics including turbidity, the quality is not particularly poor. It has been alleged that the greatest threat to the Petaluma River is the planned Dutra asphalt plant, the reported concerns involve the loud noises it will create that will scare away the birds and throw off the entire ecosystem. The longest highway span, the 4-lane Route 37 bridge, is 2,183 ft long and was built in 1958, the oldest public bridge, built in 1925, is a 114 ft concrete triple span carrying two lanes of Petaluma Boulevard North
Petaluma River
–
The river flowing through
Petaluma. View is to the southeast.
Petaluma River
–
The mouth of the Petaluma River on San Pablo Bay. View is to the northeast.
Petaluma River
–
Petaluma River Watershed 2007 Steelhead Trout Biosurvey
Petaluma River
–
Outline
7.
Napa River
–
The Napa River, approximately 55 miles long, is a river in the U. S. state of California. It drains a famous wine-growing region, called the Napa Valley, milliken Creek and Mt. Veeder watersheds are a few of its many tributaries. The mouth is at Vallejo where the inter-tidal zone of fresh, the Napa River rises in northwestern Napa County just south of the summit of Mt. St. Helena in the Mayacamas Mountains of the California Coast Ranges. The source begins as seasonal Kimball Canyon Creek in Robert Louis Stevenson State Park at an elevation of 3,745 feet which descends the slope of Mt. St. Helena to Kimball Canyon Dam. It flows south for 4 miles, entering the head of the slender Napa Valley north of Calistoga, in the valley, it flows southeast past Calistoga, St Helena, Rutherford, Oakville and through Napa, its head of navigation. Downstream from Napa, it forms an estuary, entering Mare Island Strait. It discharges into San Pablo Bay through the Napa Sonoma Marsh, the Napa River watershed encompasses approximately 426 square miles. Larger tributaries, such as Dry, Conn, and Soda creeks, several large dams were built between 1924 and 1959 on major eastside tributaries and the northern headwaters of the Napa River. In addition, many smaller dams can be throughout the watershed. These numerous dams are barriers to salmon and steelhead seeking their historic spawning grounds. The river also supports a diversity of fishes and recovering salmonid populations, especially chinook salmon. In 2003 the Napa County Resource Conservation District began an ongoing monitoring program. The Chinook run begins in late October through January, the Napa River basin is estimated to have historically supported a spawning run of 6, 000–8,000 steelhead, and as many as 2, 000–4,000 coho salmon. By the late 1960s, coho salmon were extirpated from the watershed, flow reductions in key rearing streams have reduced food availability for juvenile steelhead, causing reduced growth and survival. Recently, a salmon was caught in the river. In addition, a fourth species, sockeye salmon, was also identified in the Napa River. Because of this diversity the Napa River has been prioritized for special protection, white sturgeon and many other native and non-native fishes currently utilize the Napa River watershed. The California golden beaver was historically extant, recently beaver have recolonized the Napa River and have been documented in Napa as well as near Rutherford and Oak Knoll
Napa River
–
The Napa River in
Napa, as viewed from
Copia
Napa River
–
Aerial view of the southern end of the Napa River in the Napa-Sonoma Marsh
Napa River
–
May 2014 photo of beaver gathering shore grasses on the Napa River. Courtesy of Cheryl Reynolds, Worth a Dam.
Napa River
–
Beaver Lodge on Tulucay Creek at Soscol Avenue in downtown Napa, courtesy of Rusty Cohn
8.
Guadalupe River (California)
–
The Guadalupe River mainstem is an urban, northward flowing 14 miles river in California whose much longer headwater creeks originate in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The river mainstem now begins on the Santa Clara Valley floor when Los Alamitos Creek exits Lake Almaden and joins Guadalupe Creek just downstream of Coleman Road in San Jose, from here it flows north through San José, California where it receives Los Gatos Creek, a major tributary. The Guadalupe River is the southernmost major U. S. river with a Chinook salmon run, much of the river is surrounded by parks. Two of the Guadalupe Rivers major tributaries, Los Gatos Creek, specifically, Juan Bautista de Anza camped along the banks of the Guadalupe River at Expedition Camp 97 on March 30,1776 near the present–day site of Agnews State Hospital. Both had to be moved away from the river because of mosquitoes in the summertime, today Santa Clara Mission is 2 miles away from the original location. Historically the Guadalupe River was even shorter, originating several miles further north and its main tributary was known as Arroyo Seco de Guadalupe on 1860 maps and then as Arroyo Seco de Los Capitancillos on the 1876 Thompson & West maps. On July 9,2005, the bones of a juvenile Columbian mammoth were discovered in the Lower Guadalupe River near the Trimble Road overcrossing. The discovery was made by San Jose resident, founder of the Salmon and Steelhead Restoration Group, the Pleistocene mammoth was nicknamed Lupe by area residents and Lupes fossils are exhibited at Childrens Discovery Museum of San Jose. Historically, the Guadalupe River flowed into Guadalupe Slough,1.0 mile west of its current drainage into Alviso Slough. To make it easier to get sailboats up the Guadalupe River to the port of Alviso, Alviso Slough, also known as Steamboat Slough historically, was relatively straight, while Guadalupe Slough meandered extensively through the marshes. Alviso Slough was historically not fed by any upland streams, but simply carried tidewater in, the re-routing of the river to Alviso Slough in the 1870s also disconnected it from several tributaries, and had the effect of shrinking the Guadalupe River Watershed. San Tomas Aquino Creek and its Saratoga Creek tributary and Calabazas Creek and these tributaries were disconnected from the river and re-routed directly into Guadalupe Slough between 1876 and 1890 according to historic maps. Reportedly, Saratoga Creek had steelhead and coho salmon runs and they now go dry in the summer months and their lower segments have become denuded ditches requiring continuous maintenance. Mission Creek used to harbor trout and salmon but today it is buried in a culvert, the historic watershed can be viewed in the Thompson and West 1876 maps. The Guadalupe Watershed today drains an area of 171 square miles, below its origination at the confluence of Guadalupe Creek and Los Alamitos Creek, the mainstem is joined by three other tributaries, Ross, Canoas, and Los Gatos Creeks. The SCVWD manages water flows and provides flood control on the river, the construction of salt evaporation ponds in the 1930s rerouted the Guadalupe River, cutting off tidal action. The current project will open a former Cargill Salt pond as the beginning of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, when complete, the project should restore 15,100 acres of industrial salt ponds to tidal wetlands. Pond A8 will be the first one worked on, early written documents record the local presence of migrating salmon in the ‘Rio Guadalupe’ dating as far back as the 18th century
Guadalupe River (California)
–
Chinook salmon spawning on the
Los Gatos Creek tributary of Guadalupe River by
California Highway 17 in 1996
Guadalupe River (California)
–
Tributary creeks of the Guadalupe River watershed 3D Topo Map
Guadalupe River (California)
–
Opening day festivities at the Guadalupe River Park and Gardens
Guadalupe River (California)
–
Urban Guadalupe River lies in heavily armored concrete channel
9.
Pacific Ocean
–
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations
Pacific Ocean
–
Maris Pacifici by
Ortelius (1589). One of the first printed maps to show the Pacific Ocean; see also
Waldseemüller map (1507).
Pacific Ocean
–
The Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
–
USS
Lexington under air attack on 8 May 1942 during the
Battle of the Coral Sea
Pacific Ocean
–
Map of the Pacific Ocean during European Exploration, circa 1702–1707.
10.
Drainage basin
–
A drainage basin or catchment area is any area of land where precipitation collects and drains off into a common outlet, such as into a river, bay, or other body of water. Drainage basins connect into other drainage basins at elevations in a hierarchical pattern, with smaller sub-drainage basins. Other terms used to describe drainage basins are catchment, catchment basin, drainage area, river basin and water basin. In closed drainage basins the water converges to a point inside the basin, known as a sink, which may be a permanent lake. The drainage basin acts as a funnel by collecting all the water within the covered by the basin. Each drainage basin is separated topographically from adjacent basins by a perimeter, drainage basins are similar but not identical to hydrologic units, which are drainage areas delineated so as to nest into a multi-level hierarchical drainage system. Hydrologic units are defined to allow multiple inlets, outlets, or sinks, in a strict sense, all drainage basins are hydrologic units but not all hydrologic units are drainage basins. Drainage basins of the oceans and seas of the world. Grey areas are endorheic basins that do not drain to the oceans, the following is a list of the major ocean basins, About 48. 7% of the worlds land drains to the Atlantic Ocean. The two major mediterranean seas of the world also flow to the Atlantic, The Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico basin includes most of the U. S. The Mediterranean Sea basin includes much of North Africa, east-central Africa, Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe, Turkey, and the areas of Israel, Lebanon. Just over 13% of the land in the world drains to the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Oceans drainage basin also comprises about 13% of Earths land. It drains the eastern coast of Africa, the coasts of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent, Burma, antarctica comprises approximately eight percent of the Earths land. The five largest river basins, from largest to smallest, are the basins of the Amazon, the Río de la Plata, the Congo, the Nile, and the Mississippi. The three rivers that drain the most water, from most to least, are the Amazon, Ganga, endorheic drainage basins are inland basins that do not drain to an ocean. Around 18% of all land drains to endorheic lakes or seas or sinks, the largest of these consists of much of the interior of Asia, which drains into the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, and numerous smaller lakes. Some of these, such as the Great Basin, are not single drainage basins but collections of separate, in endorheic bodies of standing water where evaporation is the primary means of water loss, the water is typically more saline than the oceans. An extreme example of this is the Dead Sea, drainage basins have been historically important for determining territorial boundaries, particularly in regions where trade by water has been important
Drainage basin
–
Animation of
Latoriţa River drainage basin,
Romania
Drainage basin
–
Example of a drainage basin. The dashed line is the main water divide of the hydrographic basin.
Drainage basin
–
Endorheic basin in
Central Asia
Drainage basin
–
The
Mississippi River drains the largest area of any
U.S. river, much of it
agricultural regions. Agricultural runoff and other water pollution that flows to the outlet is the cause of the
hypoxic, or dead zone in the
Gulf of Mexico.
11.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
–
Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
–
Flag
United States
–
The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
–
The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
12.
San Francisco
–
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings. The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush
San Francisco
–
San Francisco and the
Golden Gate Bridge from
Marin Headlands
San Francisco
–
Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores)
San Francisco
–
1853
United States Coast Survey Map
San Francisco
–
Francis Samuel Marryat, Hilltop of San Francisco, California, Looking toward the Bay, 1849. M.& N. Hanhart Chromolithograph
13.
Oakland, California
–
Oakland /ˈoʊklənd/ is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. The city was incorporated in 1852, Oaklands territory covers what was once a mosaic of California coastal terrace prairie, oak woodland, and north coastal scrub. Its land served as a resource when its hillside oak and redwood timber were logged to build San Francisco. In the late 1860s, Oakland was selected as the terminal of the Transcontinental Railroad. Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, many San Francisco citizens moved to Oakland, enlarging the citys population, increasing its housing stock and it continued to grow in the 20th century with its busy port, shipyards, and a thriving automobile manufacturing industry. Oakland is known for its sustainability practices, including a top-ranking for usage of electricity from renewable resources, in addition, due to a steady influx of immigrants during the 20th century, along with thousands of African-American war-industry workers who relocated from the Deep South during the 1940s. Oakland is the most ethnically diverse city in the country. The earliest known inhabitants were the Huchiun Indians, who lived there for thousands of years, the Huchiun belonged to a linguistic grouping later called the Ohlone. In Oakland, they were concentrated around Lake Merritt and Temescal Creek, in 1772, the area that later became Oakland was claimed, with the rest of California, by Spanish settlers for the King of Spain. In the early 19th century, the Spanish crown granted the East Bay area to Luis María Peralta for his Rancho San Antonio, the grant was confirmed by the successor Mexican republic upon its independence from Spain. Upon his death in 1842, Peralta divided his land among his four sons, Most of Oakland fell within the shares given to Antonio Maria and Vicente. The portion of the parcel that is now Oakland was called encinal—Spanish for oak grove—due to the oak forest that covered the area. In 1851, three men—Horace Carpentier, Edson Adams, and Andrew Moon—began developing what is now downtown Oakland, on May 4,1852, the Town of Oakland incorporated. Two years later, on March 25,1854, Oakland re-incorporated as the City of Oakland, with Horace Carpentier elected the first mayor, the city and its environs quickly grew with the railroads, becoming a major rail terminal in the late 1860s and 1870s. In 1868, the Central Pacific constructed the Oakland Long Wharf at Oakland Point, a number of horsecar and cable car lines were constructed in Oakland during the latter half of the 19th century. The first electric streetcar set out from Oakland to Berkeley in 1891, at the time of incorporation, Oakland consisted of the territory that lay south of todays major intersection of San Pablo Avenue, Broadway, and Fourteenth Street. The city gradually annexed farmlands and settlements to the east and the north, Oaklands rise to industrial prominence, and its subsequent need for a seaport, led to the digging of a shipping and tidal channel in 1902. This resulted in the town of Alameda being made an island
Oakland, California
–
Oakland skyline, with the old eastern span of the
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in background
Oakland, California
–
1857 Map of Oakland
Oakland, California
–
One day's output of 1917
Chevrolet automobiles at their major
West Coast plant, now the location of
Eastmont Town Center
Oakland, California
–
In 1924, the
Tribune Tower was completed; in 1976, it was restored and declared an Oakland landmark.
14.
San Jose, California
–
San Jose, officially the City of San José, is the economic, cultural, and political center of Silicon Valley and the largest city in Northern California. With an estimated 2015 population of 1,026,908, it is the third most populous city in California and the tenth most populous in United States. Located in the center of the Santa Clara Valley, on the shore of San Francisco Bay. San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara County, the most affluent county in California. San Jose is the largest city in both the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area, which contain 7.7 million and 8.7 million people respectively. Before the arrival of the Spanish, the area around San Jose was inhabited by the Ohlone people, San Jose was founded on November 29,1777, as the Pueblo of San José de Guadalupe, the first civilian town founded in Spanish Alta California. When California gained statehood in 1850, San Jose became the states first capital, following World War II, San Jose experienced an economic boom, with a rapid population growth and aggressive annexation of nearby cities and communities carried out in the 1950s and 60s. The rapid growth of the high-technology and electronics industries further accelerated the transition from a center to an urbanized metropolitan area. Results of the 1990 U. S. Census indicated that San Jose had officially surpassed San Francisco as the most populous city in Northern California, by the 1990s, San Jose and the rest of Silicon Valley had become the global center for the high tech and internet industries. San Jose is considered to be a city, notable for its affluence. San Joses location within the high tech industry, as a cultural, political. San Jose is one of the wealthiest major cities in the United States and the world, and has the third highest GDP per capita in the world, according to the Brookings Institute. Major global tech companies including Cisco Systems, eBay, Adobe Systems, PayPal, Brocade, Samsung, Acer, Prior to European settlement, the area was inhabited by several groups of Ohlone Native Americans. The first lasting European presence began with a series of Franciscan missions established from 1769 by Junípero Serra, San Jose came under Mexican rule in 1821 after Mexico broke with the Spanish crown. It then became part of the United States, after it capitulated in 1846, on March 27,1850, San Jose became the second incorporated city in the state, with Josiah Belden its first mayor. San Jose was Californias first state capital, and hosted the first, today the Circle of Palms Plaza in downtown is the historical marker for the first state capital. The city was a station on the Butterfield Overland Mail route, in the period 1900 through 1910, San Jose served as a center for pioneering invention, innovation, and impact in both lighter-than-air and heavier-than-air flight. These activities were led principally by John Montgomery and his peers, the City of San Jose has established Montgomery Park, a Monument at San Felipe and Yerba Buena Roads, and John J. Montgomery Elementary School in his honor
San Jose, California
–
Images, from top down, left to right:
Downtown San Jose,
Hotel De Anza, East San Jose suburbs,
Lick Observatory,
Plaza de César Chávez
San Jose, California
–
South First Street in the 1940s
San Jose, California
–
Overhead panorama of
downtown San Jose.
San Jose, California
–
Looking west over northern San Jose (downtown is at far left) and other parts of Silicon Valley. See an up-to-the-minute view of San Jose from the Mount Hamilton web camera
15.
Golden Gate
–
The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, the strait is well known today for its depth and powerful tidal currents from the Pacific Ocean. Many small whirlpools and eddies can form in its waters, with its strong currents, rocky reefs and fog, the Golden Gate is the site of over 100 shipwrecks. The Golden Gate is often shrouded in fog, especially during the summer, heat generated in the California Central Valley causes air there to rise, creating a low pressure area that pulls in cool, moist air from over the Pacific Ocean. The Golden Gate forms the largest break in the hills of the California Coast Range, allowing a persistent, dense stream of fog to enter the bay there. Before the Europeans arrived in the 18th century, the area around the strait, descendants of both tribes remain in the area. The strait was surprisingly elusive for early European explorers, presumably due to this persistent summer fog. The strait is not recorded in the voyages of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo nor Francis Drake, the strait is also unrecorded in observations by Spanish galleons returning from the Philippines that laid up in nearby Drakes Bay to the north. These galleons rarely passed east of the Farallon Islands, fearing the possibility of rocks between the islands and the mainland, the first recorded observation of the strait occurred nearly two hundred years later than the earliest European explorations of the coast. Until the 1840s, the strait was called the Boca del Puerto de San Francisco, on 1 July 1846, before the discovery of gold in California, the entrance acquired a new name. Frémont wrote, To this Gate I gave the name of Chrysopylae, or Golden Gate, for the reasons that the harbor of Byzantium was called Chrysoceras. In the 1920s, no bridge spanned the watery expanse between San Francisco and Marin in California—so when the U. S, post Office issued a postage stamp on 1 May 1923, celebrating The Golden Gate, the issue naturally portrayed the scene without a bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge is a bridge spanning the Golden Gate. As part of both US Highway 101 and California Route 1, it connects the city of San Francisco on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula to Marin County. The Golden Gate Bridge was the longest suspension span in the world when completed in 1937. Since its completion, the length has been surpassed by eight other bridges. It still has the second longest suspension bridge span in the United States. In 2007, it was ranked fifth on the List of Americas Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects, Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of 1,017 acres of public grounds
Golden Gate
–
The Golden Gate
Golden Gate
–
Fog enters
San Francisco Bay through the Golden Gate, seen here in August 2012
Golden Gate
–
The Golden Gate photographed from
Telegraph Hill by
Carleton Watkins circa 1868
Golden Gate
–
The Golden Gate, looking south towards
San Francisco.
San Francisco Bay is on the left, and the
Pacific Ocean is on the right.
16.
Marin Headlands
–
The entire area is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The Headlands are famous for their views of the Bay Area, the Headlands sometimes create their own clouds when moist, warm Pacific Ocean breezes are pushed into higher, colder air, causing condensation, fog, fog drip and perhaps rain. The hills also get more precipitation than at sea level, for the same reason, however, despite being relatively wet, strong gusty Pacific winds prevent dense forests from forming. The many gaps, ridges, and valleys in the increase the wind speed and periodically, during powerful winter storms. In summer, breezes can still be very gusty, when the oceanic air and these cloudy, gray, and rainy days often are interspersed with cool but extremely clear ones. As winter turns to spring, the April-to-June weather tends to be dominated by powerful winds, less rain, summer days alternate between clear and warm intervals, giving way to foggy and cool periods. September and October bring the highest average temperatures of the year, the centerpoint of the Marin Headlands skyline is the 920-foot Hawk Hill, the lookout point for the largest known flight of diurnal raptors in the Pacific states. Each autumn, from August into December, tens of thousands of hawks, kites, falcons, eagles, vultures, osprey, hawks avoid flight over water since warm thermals that provide lift are rare. Volunteers with the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory count and track this fall migration using bird-banding and radio-tracking techniques, all in cooperation with the National Park Service. The Marin Headlands are also home to black tail deer, mountain lions, bobcats, two types of fox, coyotes, wild turkeys, hares, rabbits, raccoons, river otters inhabit the freshwater lagoons and streams. Large numbers of birds also migrate through the Headlands, including brown pelicans from May through October, and grebes, egrets, and great blue herons in the spring, summer. The Headlands status as a park protects the habitat and populations of animals within just a few miles of San Francisco. The Marin Headlands are a geological formation created by the accretion of oceanic sediments onto the North American Plate from the Pacific Plate. The primary components of Headlands geology include graywacke sandstone, radiolarian chert, serpentinite, pillow basalts and these rocks began their migration over one hundred million years ago from as far south as present-day Los Angeles. The Marin Headlands were home to the Native American Coastal Miwok tribe, from the 1890s, the first military installations were built to prevent hostile ships from entering San Francisco Bay. The batteries at Kirby Cove, above Black Sands Beach, south of Rodeo Beach, the emplacements at the top of Hawk Hill were used for a radio station. During the Cold War, the gun batteries were decommissioned, radar sites were placed atop Hawk Hill and Hill 88. At several locations, shelters were built into the hillsides to protect the military personnel from the use of nuclear, biological, observation posts known as base end stations can also be found in the Headlands
Marin Headlands
–
The Marin Headlands, as seen from the
Golden Gate Bridge.
Marin Headlands
–
Well-preserved pillow lava in Marin Headlands
Marin Headlands
–
Battery Spencer, the closest defense site at the Marin Headlands to the Golden Gate Bridge
Marin Headlands
–
A 360° panorama of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge as viewed from the Marin Headlands.
17.
Doc Searls
–
A longtime advocate for open-source software, Searls has been involved with Linux Journal since it began publishing in 1994. He became a Contributing Editor in 1996 and has been Senior Editor since 1999 and his column Linux for Suits ran until 2007, and was followed by EOF inside each issues back cover. His work with Linux Journal, and as an advocate of free software and open source, earned him a Google-OReilly Open Source Award for Best Communicator in 2005. His byline has appeared in many other publications, including OMNI, Wired, PC Magazine, The Standard, The Sun Magazine, Upside, Release 1.0. The book became a bestseller and was published in nine languages. A 10th Anniversary edition came out in June 2009, among Searls contributions to the Manifesto was its first thesis, Markets are conversations – which is also the title of the Cluetrain chapter he co-wrote with David Weinberger. Weinberger and Searls co-wrote World of Ends, What the Internet Is, Searls has also been a well-known blogger since October 1999, when he started blogging with help from his friend Dave Winer. In an Online Journalism Review article, J. D. Lasica calls Searls one of the thinkers in the blog movement. In The World is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman calls Searls one of the most respected writers in America. Searls two academic fellowships both began in 2006, at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society he leads ProjectVRM, which guides independent software development communities working on Vendor Relationship Management. The purpose of VRM is to individuals with tools that provide both independence from vendor lock-in and better means for engaging with vendors. VRM tools and methods also help individuals engage with government and other non-commercial organizations, in April 2012, his book The Intention Economy, When Customers Take Charge was published. Searls coined the term in an article for Linux Journal and he wrote, The Intention Economy grows around buyers, not sellers. It leverages the simple fact that buyers are the first source of money, and you dont need advertising to make them. The nickname Doc is what Searls calls a fossil remnant of Doctor Dave, his humorous persona at WDBS radio at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, in the late 1970s. Following his work in radio, Searls co-founded Hodskins Simone & Searls, which grew to one of the top high-tech advertising agencies in North Carolina. Searls consultancy, The Searls Group, was out of HS&S in the early 1990s. He is a frequent speaker at business and industry events, under the auspices of The Searls Group, Searls is a 1969 graduate of Guilford College
Doc Searls
–
Doc Searls
Doc Searls
–
Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park, California, Photo by Doc Searls
18.
Estuary
–
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a zone between river environments and maritime environments. They are subject both to marine influences—such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water—and to riverine influences—such as flows of fresh water and sediment. The inflows of sea water and fresh water provide high levels of nutrients both in the water column and in sediment, making estuaries among the most productive natural habitats in the world. Most existing estuaries formed during the Holocene epoch with the flooding of river-eroded or glacially scoured valleys when the sea began to rise about 10. Estuaries are typically classified according to their geomorphological features or to water-circulation patterns, the banks of many estuaries are amongst the most heavily populated areas of the world, with about 60% of the worlds population living along estuaries and the coast. The word estuary is derived from the Latin word aestuarium meaning tidal inlet of the sea, there have been many definitions proposed to describe an estuary. However, this definition excludes a number of water bodies such as coastal lagoons. This broad definition also includes fjords, lagoons, river mouths, an estuary is a dynamic ecosystem having a connection to the open sea through which the sea water enters with the rhythm of the tides. The sea water entering the estuary is diluted by the water flowing from rivers. The pattern of dilution varies between different estuaries and depends on the volume of water, the tidal range. Drowned river valleys are known as coastal plain estuaries. In places where the sea level is rising relative to the land, sea water progressively penetrates into river valleys and this is the most common type of estuary in temperate climates. Well-studied estuaries include the Severn Estuary in the United Kingdom and the Ems Dollard along the Dutch-German border, the width-to-depth ratio of these estuaries is typically large, appearing wedge-shaped in the inner part and broadening and deepening seaward. Water depths rarely exceed 30 m, examples of this type of estuary in the U. S. are the Hudson River, Chesapeake Bay, and Delaware Bay along the Mid-Atlantic coast, and Galveston Bay and Tampa Bay along the Gulf Coast. They are relatively common in tropical and subtropical locations and these estuaries are semi-isolated from ocean waters by barrier beaches. Formation of barrier beaches partially encloses the estuary, with only narrow inlets allowing contact with the ocean waters, bar-built estuaries typically develop on gently sloping plains located along tectonically stable edges of continents and marginal sea coasts. They are extensive along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U. S. in areas with active coastal deposition of sediments, barrier beaches form in shallow water and are generally parallel to the shoreline, resulting in long, narrow estuaries
Estuary
–
Estuary of the
Klamath River in
Northern California
Estuary
–
River Exe estuary
Estuary
–
River Nith estuary
Estuary
–
Estuary mouth located in
Darwin,
Northern Territory,
Australia
19.
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
20.
River
–
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water, small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the term river as applied to geographic features. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location, examples are run in parts of the United States, burn in Scotland and northeast England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always, Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Potamology is the study of rivers while limnology is the study of inland waters in general. Extraterrestrial rivers of liquid hydrocarbons have recently found on Titan. Channels may indicate past rivers on other planets, specifically outflow channels on Mars and rivers are theorised to exist on planets, a river begins at a source, follows a path called a course, and ends at a mouth or mouths. The water in a river is confined to a channel. In larger rivers there is also a wider floodplain shaped by flood-waters over-topping the channel. Floodplains may be wide in relation to the size of the river channel. This distinction between river channel and floodplain can be blurred, especially in areas where the floodplain of a river channel can become greatly developed by housing. Rivers can flow down mountains, through valleys or along plains, the term upriver refers to the direction towards the source of the river, i. e. against the direction of flow. Likewise, the term describes the direction towards the mouth of the river. The term left bank refers to the bank in the direction of flow. The river channel typically contains a stream of water, but some rivers flow as several interconnecting streams of water. Extensive braided rivers are now found in only a few regions worldwide and they also occur on peneplains and some of the larger river deltas. Anastamosing rivers are similar to braided rivers and are quite rare
River
–
Melting toe of Athabasca Glacier,
Jasper National Park,
Alberta, Canada
River
–
The River Cam from the Green Dragon Bridge, Cambridge (United Kingdom)
River
–
Nile River delta, as seen from Earth orbit. The Nile is an example of a wave-dominated delta that has the classic Greek letter delta (Δ) shape after which river deltas were named.
River
–
A radar image of a 400-kilometre (250 mi) river of methane and ethane near the north pole of Saturn's moon
Titan
21.
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
22.
Mountain
–
A mountain is a large landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area, usually in the form of a peak. A mountain is steeper than a hill. Mountains are formed through tectonic forces or volcanism and these forces can locally raise the surface of the earth. Mountains erode slowly through the action of rivers, weather conditions, a few mountains are isolated summits, but most occur in huge mountain ranges. High elevations on mountains produce colder climates than at sea level and these colder climates strongly affect the ecosystems of mountains, different elevations have different plants and animals. Because of the less hospitable terrain and climate, mountains tend to be used less for agriculture and more for resource extraction and recreation, the highest mountain on Earth is Mount Everest in the Himalayas of Asia, whose summit is 8,850 m above mean sea level. The highest known mountain on any planet in the Solar System is Olympus Mons on Mars at 21,171 m, there is no universally accepted definition of a mountain. Elevation, volume, relief, steepness, spacing and continuity have been used as criteria for defining a mountain, whether a landform is called a mountain may depend on local usage. The highest point in San Francisco, California, is called Mount Davidson, notwithstanding its height of 300 m, similarly, Mount Scott outside Lawton, Oklahoma is only 251 m from its base to its highest point. Whittows Dictionary of Physical Geography states Some authorities regard eminences above 600 metres as mountains, in addition, some definitions also include a topographical prominence requirement, typically 100 or 500 feet. For a while, the US defined a mountain as being 1,000 feet or taller, any similar landform lower than this height was considered a hill. However, today, the United States Geological Survey concludes that these terms do not have technical definitions in the US, using these definitions, mountains cover 33% of Eurasia, 19% of South America, 24% of North America, and 14% of Africa. As a whole, 24% of the Earths land mass is mountainous, there are three main types of mountains, volcanic, fold, and block. All three types are formed from plate tectonics, when portions of the Earths crust move, crumple, compressional forces, isostatic uplift and intrusion of igneous matter forces surface rock upward, creating a landform higher than the surrounding features. The height of the feature makes it either a hill or, if higher and steeper, major mountains tend to occur in long linear arcs, indicating tectonic plate boundaries and activity. Volcanoes are formed when a plate is pushed below another plate, at a depth of around 100 km, melting occurs in rock above the slab, and forms magma that reaches the surface. When the magma reaches the surface, it builds a volcanic mountain. Examples of volcanoes include Mount Fuji in Japan and Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, the magma does not have to reach the surface in order to create a mountain, magma that solidifies below ground can still form dome mountains, such as Navajo Mountain in the US
Mountain
–
Mount Everest, the highest peak on Earth
Mountain
–
Chimborazo,
Ecuador. The point on Earth's surface farthest from its center.
Mountain
–
Aiguille du Dru in the
French Alps
Mountain
–
The
Matterhorn,
Swiss Alps
23.
Suisun Bay
–
Suisun Bay is a shallow tidal estuary in northern California. It lies at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, forming the entrance to the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, Suisun Marsh, the tidal marsh land to the north, is the largest marsh in California. Grizzly Bay forms an extension of Suisun Bay. The bay is directly north of Contra Costa County, the bay was named in 1811, after the Suisunes, a Native American tribe of the area. The word originates with the Patwin, on the west, Suisun Bay is drained by the Carquinez Strait, which connects to San Pablo Bay, a northern extension of San Francisco Bay. In addition to the bridges at the Carquinez Strait, it is spanned in its center by the Benicia-Martinez Bridge. It is the anchorage of the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet, a collection of U. S. Navy and merchant reserve ships, the Glomar Explorer was anchored here after recovering a sunken Soviet submarine in the mid-1970s. Many ships were removed and sold for scrap in the 1990s, in 2010, plans were announced to remove the mothball fleet in stages, with final removal by 2017. The Central Pacific Railroad built a ferry that operated between Benicia and Port Costa, California from 1879 to 1930. The ferry boats Solano and Contra Costa were removed from service when the nearby Martinez railroad bridge was completed in 1930, from 1913 until 1954 the Sacramento Northern Railway, an electrified interurban line, crossed Suisun Bay with the Ramon, a distillate-powered train ferry. Kinder Morgan pleaded guilty to operating a corroded pipeline and paid three dollars in penalties and restitution. Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet Kinder Morgan Information Regarding Pipeline Release Suisun Bays ghost fleet may finally R. I. P
Suisun Bay
–
San Pablo Bay with Suisun Bay at upper right
Suisun Bay
–
Aerial photo of the Suisun Bay.
Benicia to the left,
Martinez to the right, and
Fairfield /
Suisun City to the north
Suisun Bay
–
USS Iowa and "Ghost Fleet" in Suisun Bay
Suisun Bay
–
Another view of the "Ghost Fleet".
24.
Carquinez Strait
–
The Carquinez Strait is a narrow tidal strait in northern California. It is part of the estuary of the Sacramento and the San Joaquin rivers as they drain into the San Francisco Bay. The strait connects Suisun Bay, which receives the waters of the rivers, with San Pablo Bay. The strait forms part of the border between Solano and Contra Costa counties, and is approximately 15 mi north of Oakland, the cities of Benicia and Vallejo lie on the north side of the strait, while Martinez, Port Costa, and Crockett sit on the southern coast. The Napa River joins the strait, via the short Mare Island Strait, the strait is named after the Karkin, a linguistic division of the Ohlone Native Americans who resided on both sides of the strait. The California Maritime Academy is at the end of the strait on the northern waterfront. The C&H Sugar refinery is located on the shore in the small town of Crockett. The strait is crossed by two bridges, the Carquinez Bridge on Interstate 80 and the Benicia-Martinez Bridge on Interstate 680. Each highway bridge consists of two spans, Interstate 780 connects the two highways on the northern slope of the strait. State Route 4 connects these highways south of and inland from the strait, a rail bridge just east of the Benicia-Martinez bridge is used by the Capitol Corridor, California Zephyr, and Coast Starlight trains. A rail ferry, with the ferries Contra Costa and Solano provided service across the strait near the location of the current rail bridge until the bridge was built in 1930. Tall pylons carrying power lines cross the strait as well, the Carquinez Strait Powerline Crossing was the worlds first powerline crossing of a large river. The channel is navigable and is used for commercial and military shipping, deep water ship traffic bound for both the Port of Sacramento and the Port of Stockton traverse the strait. The narrow gap in the Coast Range that forms the strait has led to the formation of the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta, a river delta, upstream of it. The strait is too small to allow the passage of huge amounts of floodwaters created during years with heavy rainfall/snowmelt events. Because the Delta area is the first to fill and last to drain in an event, silt and soil have more time to drop out of suspension
Carquinez Strait
–
Aerial view of the Carquinez Strait looking east, with the
Carquinez Bridge in the foreground and the
Benicia-Martinez Bridge in the background.
Carquinez Strait
–
Carquinez Strait
Carquinez Strait
–
Bodies of water
25.
San Pablo Bay
–
San Pablo Bay is a tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of San Francisco Bay in the East Bay and North Bay regions of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California. San Pablo Bay was named after Rancho San Pablo, a Spanish land grant given to colonial Alta California settlers in 1815, the bay is approximately 10 mi across and has an area of approximately 90 sq mi. The bay is heavily silted from the contributions of the two rivers, which drain most of the Central Valley of California. All tributaries except for Sonoma Creek are commercially navigable and maintained by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, two peninsulas separate San Pablo Bay from San Francisco Bay. The eastern is in the City of Richmond and the western in the City of San Rafael, the bay is shared between Contra Costa county on the southern and eastern shore, and Solano, Sonoma and Marin counties on the northern and western shores. The county boundaries meet near the center of the bay, communities on the shores of San Pablo Bay include, Richmond, San Pablo, Pinole, Hercules, Rodeo in Contra Costa County, Vallejo in Solano County, along with Novato and San Rafael in Marin County. Because the Bay is close to major and local airports. Because of its size but shallow waters, San Pablo Bay frequently has difficult boating conditions. There are many undeveloped shore lands with salt marshes and mudflats, the Bay is a primary wintering stop for the canvasback duck population on the Pacific Flyway, as well as a migratory staging ground for numerous species of waterfowl. Much of the shore of the bay is protected as part of the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Endangered species that are found in the bay include the California brown pelican, California clapper rail and this is a popular destination for recreation fishing, with Saltwater species including, striped bass, surfperch, sturgeon, starry flounder, leopard shark, topsmelt, and anchovy. In the 1880s there was a village, where some 500 Chinese people lived. The location is now part of China Camp State Park, San Pablo Bay is the setting of alternative rock band Primuss four-part song series Fishermans Chronicles, and is also referenced in The Toys Go Winding Down and Harold of the Rocks. It is also mentioned in The Minus 5 song John Barleycorn Must Live, provides a brief history of the marshes of San Pablo Bay
San Pablo Bay
–
San Pablo Bay, shown with San Francisco Bay
San Pablo Bay
–
San Pablo Bay and the Carquinez Strait
San Pablo Bay
–
Outline
26.
Ramsar Convention
–
The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands and it is named after the city of Ramsar in Iran, where the Convention was signed in 1971. The most recent COP12 was held in Punta del Este, Uruguay, cOP13 will take place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 2018. The List of Wetlands of International Importance included 2,231 Ramsar Sites in March 2016 covering over 2.1 million square kilometres. The country with the highest number of Sites is the United Kingdom with 170, the Ramsar Sites Information Service is a searchable database which provides information on each Ramsar Site. As of 2016 there are 18 Transboundary Ramsar Sites, as of 2016 there are 15 Ramsar Regional Initiatives covering regions of the Mediterranean, Asia, Africa and South America. The Ramsar Convention works closely with six other known as International Organization Partners. The IOPs also participate regularly as observers in all meetings of the Conference of the Parties and as members of the Scientific. Conference of the Parties Conference of the Parties is the Conventions governing body consisting of all governments that have ratified the treaty and this ultimate authority reviews progress under the Convention, identifies new priorities, and sets work plans for members. The COP can also make amendments to the Convention, create expert advisory bodies, review progress reports by member nations, and collaborate with other international organizations and agreements. The Standing Committee The Standing Committee is the executive body which represents the COP between its triennial meetings, within the framework of the decisions made by the COP. The Contracting Parties that are members of the Standing Committee are elected by each meeting of the COP to serve for the three years until the next one, the Secretariat The Secretariat carries out the day-to-day coordination of the Convention’s activities. It is based at the headquarters of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in Gland, Switzerland, the 2nd of February each year is World Wetlands Day, marking the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971. Established to raise awareness about the value of wetlands for humanity, in 2015 World Wetlands Day was celebrated in 59 countries
Ramsar Convention
–
Wetland
Ramsar Convention
–
Ramsar logo
Ramsar Convention
–
General
Ramsar Convention
–
Marine
27.
Wetland
–
A wetland is a land area that is saturated with water, either permanently or seasonally, such that it takes on the characteristics of a distinct ecosystem. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other forms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants. Wetlands play a number of roles in the environment, principally water purification, flood control, carbon sink, Wetlands are also considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal life. Wetlands occur naturally on every continent except Antarctica, the largest including the Amazon River basin, the West Siberian Plain, the water found in wetlands can be freshwater, brackish, or saltwater. The main wetland types include swamps, marshes, bogs, and fens, and sub-types include mangrove, carr, pocosin, the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment determined that environmental degradation is more prominent within wetland systems than any other ecosystem on Earth. International conservation efforts are being used in conjunction with the development of rapid assessment tools to people about wetland issues. Constructed wetlands can be used to treat municipal and industrial wastewater as well as stormwater runoff and they may also play a role in water-sensitive urban design. A patch of land that develops pools of water after a storm would not be considered a wetland. Wetlands have unique characteristics, they are distinguished from other water bodies or landforms based on their water level. Specifically, wetlands are characterized as having a table that stands at or near the land surface for a long enough period each year to support aquatic plants. A more concise definition is a community composed of hydric soil, Wetlands have also been described as ecotones, providing a transition between dry land and water bodies. In environmental decision-making, there are subsets of definitions that are agreed upon to make regulatory and policy decisions. A wetland is an ecosystem that arises when inundation by water produces soils dominated by anaerobic processes, There are four main kinds of wetlands – marsh, swamp, bog and fen. Some experts also recognize wet meadows and aquatic ecosystems as additional wetland types, the largest wetlands in the world include the swamp forests of the Amazon and the peatlands of Siberia. Under the Ramsar international wetland conservation treaty, wetlands are defined as follows, Article 2.1, may incorporate riparian and coastal zones adjacent to the wetlands, and islands or bodies of marine water deeper than six metres at low tide lying within the wetlands. Although the general definition given above applies around the world, each county, Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas. This definition has been used in the enforcement of the Clean Water Act, some US states, such as Massachusetts and New York, have separate definitions that may differ from the federal governments. It is not uncommon for a wetland to be dry for long portions of the growing season, the most important factor producing wetlands is flooding
Wetland
–
Laguna de Rocha, the largest wetland in the urban area in
Esteban Echeverría Partido,
Argentina
Wetland
–
Mangrove
swamps are coastal wetlands. This swamp is in the
Florida Everglades.
Wetland
–
Peat bogs are freshwater wetlands that develop in areas with
standing water and low
soil fertility.
Wetland
–
Marshes develop along the edges of rivers and lakes.
28.
Americas
–
The Americas, also collectively called America, encompass the totality of the continents of North America and South America. Together they make up most of the land in Earths western hemisphere, along with their associated islands, they cover 8% of Earths total surface area and 28. 4% of its land area. The topography is dominated by the American Cordillera, a chain of mountains that runs the length of the west coast. The flatter eastern side of the Americas is dominated by river basins, such as the Amazon, St. Lawrence River / Great Lakes basin, Mississippi. Humans first settled the Americas from Asia between 42,000 and 17,000 years ago, a second migration of Na-Dene speakers followed later from Asia. The subsequent migration of the Inuit into the neoarctic around 3500 BCE completed what is regarded as the settlement by the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The first known European settlement in the Americas was by the Norse explorer Leif Ericson, however, the colonization never became permanent and was later abandoned. The voyages of Christopher Columbus from 1492 to 1502 resulted in permanent contact with European powers, diseases introduced from Europe and Africa devastated the indigenous peoples, and the European powers colonized the Americas. Mass emigration from Europe, including numbers of indentured servants. Decolonization of the Americas began with the American Revolution in 1776, the population is over 1 billion, with over 65% of them living in one of the three most populous countries. As of the beginning of the 2010s, the most populous urban agglomerations are Mexico City, New York, Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, all of them megacities. The name America was first recorded in 1507 in the Cosmographiae Introductio, apparently written by Matthias Ringmann and it first applied to both North and South America by Gerardus Mercator in 1538. Amerigen means land of Amerigo and derives from Amerigo and gen, America accorded with the feminine names of Asia, Africa, and Europa. When conceived as a continent, the form is generally the continent of America in the singular. However, without a context, singular America in English commonly refers to the United States of America. In some countries of the world, America is considered a continent encompassing the North America and South America subcontinents, the first inhabitants migrated into the Americas from Asia. Habitation sites are known in Alaska and the Yukon from at least 20,000 years ago, beyond that, the specifics of the Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled, are subject to ongoing research and discussion. Widespread habitation of the Americas occurred during the glacial maximum
Americas
–
CIA political map of the Americas in
Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection
Americas
–
The Americas
Americas
–
Parkin Site, a Mississippian site in Arkansas, circa 1539.
Americas
–
World map of
Waldseemüller (Germany, 1507), which first used the name America (in the lower-left section, over South America)
29.
Hydraulic mining
–
Hydraulic mining, or hydraulicking, is a form of mining that uses high-pressure jets of water to dislodge rock material or move sediment. In the placer mining of gold or tin, the resulting water-sediment slurry is directed through sluice boxes to remove the gold and it is also used in mining kaolin and coal. Hydraulic mining originated out of ancient Roman techniques that used water to excavate soft underground deposits and its modern form, using pressurized water jets produced by a nozzle called a monitor, came about in the 1850s during the California Gold Rush in the United States. These problems led to its legal regulation, Hydraulic mining has since been used in various forms around the world. The method was used in Elizabethan England & Wales for developing lead, tin. Water was used on a large scale by Roman engineers in the first centuries BC, using a process later known as hushing, the Romans stored a large volume of water in a reservoir immediately above the area to be mined, the water was then quickly released. The resulting wave of water removed overburden and exposed bedrock, Gold veins in the bedrock were then worked using a number of techniques, and water power was used again to remove debris. The remains at Las Medulas and in surrounding areas show badland scenery on a gigantic scale owing to hydraulicking of the alluvial gold deposits. Las Medulas is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, the site shows the remains of at least seven large aqueducts of up to 30 miles in length feeding large supplies of water into the site. The gold-mining operations were described in vivid terms by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia published in the first century AD, Pliny was a procurator in Hispania Terraconensis in the 70s and must have witnessed for himself the operations. The use of hushing has been confirmed by field survey and archaeology at Dolaucothi in South Wales, matteson used canvas hose which was later replaced with crinoline hose by the 1860s. In California, hydraulic mining often brought water from higher locations for long distances to holding several hundred feet above the area to be mined. California hydraulic mining exploited gravel deposits, making it a form of placer mining, early placer miners in California discovered that the more gravel they could process, the more gold they were likely to find. Instead of working with pans, sluice boxes, long toms, Hydraulic mining became the largest-scale, and most devastating, form of placer mining. Water was redirected into a channel, through a large canvas hose. The extremely high pressure stream was used to wash entire hillsides through enormous sluices, by the mid-1880s, it is estimated that 11 million ounces of gold had been recovered by hydraulic mining in the California Gold Rush. Millions of tons of earth and water were delivered to mountain streams that fed rivers flowing into the Sacramento Valley, cities and towns in the Sacramento Valley experienced an increasing number of devastating floods, while the rising riverbeds made navigation on the rivers increasingly difficult. Perhaps no other city experienced the boon and the bane of gold mining as much as Marysville, situated at the confluence of the Yuba and Feather rivers, Marysville was the final jumping off point for miners heading to the northern foothills to seek their fortune
Hydraulic mining
–
A miner using a hydraulic jet to mine for gold in California, from
The Century Magazine January 1883
Hydraulic mining
–
Panoramic view of
Las Médulas
Hydraulic mining
–
Gold miners excavate an eroded bluff with jets of water at a placer mine in
Dutch Flat, California sometime between 1857 and 1870.
Hydraulic mining
–
A man leans over a wooden sluice. Rocks line the outside of the wood boards that create the sluice.
30.
Harbor
–
A harbor or harbour, or haven, is a body of water where ships, boats and barges seek shelter from stormy weather, or are stored for future use. Ports are often located in harbors, harbors can be natural or artificial. An artificial harbor can have deliberately constructed breakwaters, sea walls, or jettys, or they can be constructed by dredging, in contrast, a natural harbor is surrounded on several sides by prominences of land. Examples of natural harbors include Sydney Harbour, Australia and Trincomalee Harbour in Sri Lanka, artificial harbors are frequently built for use as ports. The oldest artificial harbor known is the Ancient Egyptian site at Wadi al-Jarf, on the Red Sea coast, the largest artificially created harbor is Jebel Ali in Dubai. The Ancient Carthaginians constructed fortified, artificial harbors called cothons, a natural harbor is a landform where a part of a body of water is protected and deep enough to furnish anchorage. Natural harbors have long been of great strategic naval and economic importance, having a protected harbor reduces or eliminates the need for breakwaters as it will result in calmer waves inside the harbor. For harbors near the North and South Poles, being ice-free is an important advantage, the worlds southmost harbor, located at Antarcticas Winter Quarters Bay, is potentially ice-free, depending on the summertime pack ice conditions. Although the worlds busiest port is a hotly contested title, in 2006 the worlds busiest harbor by cargo tonnage was the Port of Shanghai
Harbor
–
Capri harbor,
Italy seen from
Anacapri
Harbor
–
A natural harbor in
Vizhinjam,
India
Harbor
–
The tiny harbor at the village of
Clovelly,
Devon,
England
Harbor
–
Old Harbor in
Lüneburg,
Germany.
