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
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
3.
Body of water
–
A body of water or waterbody is any significant accumulation of water, generally on a planets surface. The term most often refers to oceans, seas, and lakes, a body of water does not have to be still or contained, Rivers, streams, canals, and other geographical features where water moves from one place to another are also considered bodies of water. Most are naturally occurring geographical features, but some are artificial, there are types that can be either. For example, most reservoirs are created by engineering dams, similarly, most harbors are naturally occurring bays, but some harbors have been created through construction. Bodies of water that are navigable are known as waterways, some bodies of water collect and move water, such as rivers and streams, and others primarily hold water, such as lakes and oceans. The term body of water can also refer to a reservoir of water held by a plant, note that there are some geographical features involving water that are not bodies of water, for example waterfalls, geysers and rapids. Arm of the sea - also sea arm, used to describe a sea loch, arroyo - a usually dry creek bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain, or seasonally. Artificial lake or artificial pond - see reservoir or impoundment, barachois - a lagoon separated from the ocean by a sand bar. Bay - an area of water bordered by land on three sides, similar to, but smaller than a gulf, bayou - a slow-moving stream or a marshy lake. Bight - a large and often only slightly receding bay, or a bend in any geographical feature, billabong - see Oxbow lake, a pond or still body of water created when a river changes course and some water becomes trapped. Boil - see Seep Brook - a small stream, canal - an artificial waterway, usually connected to existing lakes, rivers, or oceans. Channel - the physical confine of a river, slough or ocean consisting of a bed. See also stream bed and strait, earth scientists generally use the term to describe a circular or round inlet with a narrow entrance, though colloquially the term is sometimes used to describe any sheltered bay. Basin - a region of land where water from rain or snowmelt drains downhill into another body of water, such as a river, lake, creek - an inlet of the sea, narrower than a cove. Delta - the location where a river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, distributary or distributary channel - a stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. Draw - a usually dry creek bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain, fjord - a submergent landform which has occurred due to glacial activity. Glacier - a large collection of ice or a river that moves slowly down a mountain. Glacial Pothole - see Kettle Gulf - a part of a lake or ocean that extends so that it is surrounded by land on three sides, similar to, but larger than a bay, headland - an area of water bordered by land on three sides
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
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
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
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
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
9.
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
10.
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
11.
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
12.
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
13.
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
14.
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
15.
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
16.
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
17.
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
18.
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
19.
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
20.
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
21.
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
22.
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
23.
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
24.
Dredging
–
Dredging is an excavation activity usually carried out underwater, in shallow seas or freshwater areas with the purpose of gathering up bottom sediments and disposing of them at a different location. This technique is used to keep waterways navigable. It is also used as a way to replenish sand on some public beaches, fishing dredges are used as a technique for catching certain species of edible clams and crabs. Capital, dredging carried out to create a new harbor, berth or waterway, preparatory, work and excavation for future bridges, piers or docks/wharves, often connected with foundation work. This is often carried out with a trailing suction hopper dredge, most dredging is for this purpose, and it may also be done to maintain the holding capacity of reservoirs or lakes. Land reclamation, dredging to mine sand, clay or rock from the seabed and this is typically performed by a cutter-suction dredge or trailing suction hopper dredge. The material may also be used for flood or erosion control, beach nourishment, mining sand offshore and placing on a beach to replace sand eroded by storms or wave action. This is done to enhance the recreational and protective function of the beaches and this is typically performed by a cutter-suction dredge or trailing suction hopper dredge. Harvesting materials, dredging sediment for elements like gold, diamonds or other valuable trace substances, seabed mining, a possible future use, recovering natural metal ore nodules from the seas abyssal plains. Construction materials, dredging sand and gravels from offshore licensed areas for use in construction industry, very specialist industry focused in NW Europe using specialized trailing suction hopper dredgers self discharging dry cargo ashore. Anti-eutrophication, Dredging is an option for the remediation of eutrophied water bodies. Contaminant remediation, to areas affected by chemical spills, storm water surges. Disposal becomes a large factor in these operations. Removing trash and debris, often done in combination with maintenance dredging, flood prevention, this can help to increase channel depth and therefore increase a channels capacity for carrying water. This tradition has now more or less obsolete and the tools used to do this have also changed significantly. Oyster dredging or harvesting, in Louisiana and other states with salt water estuaries that can sustain bottom oyster beds. A heavy metal rectangular scoop device is towed astern of a boat with a chain bridle attached to a cable. The device is periodically hauled aboard and the oysters in it are sorted and bagged for shipment to a processing facility
25.
Soil liquefaction
–
In soil mechanics the term liquefied was first used by Allen Hazen in reference to the 1918 failure of the Calaveras Dam in California. The phenomenon is most often observed in saturated, loose, sandy soils and this is because a loose sand has a tendency to compress when a load is applied, dense sands by contrast tend to expand in volume or dilate. If the soil is saturated by water, a condition that exists when the soil is below the ground water table or sea level. In response to the soil compressing, this increases in pressure. These contacts between grains are the means by which the weight from buildings and overlying soil layers are transferred from the surface to layers of soil or rock at greater depths. This loss of soil structure causes it to all of its strength. Although the effects of liquefaction have been understood, it was more thoroughly brought to the attention of engineers after the 1964 Niigata earthquake and 1964 Alaska earthquake. It was also a factor in the destruction in San Franciscos Marina District during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. A state of soil liquefaction occurs when the stress of soil is reduced to essentially zero. This may be initiated by either monotonic loading or cyclic loading, in both cases a soil in a saturated loose state, and one which may generate significant pore water pressure on a change in load are the most likely to liquefy. As pore water pressure rises a progressive loss of strength of the soil occurs as effective stress is reduced and it is more likely to occur in sandy or non-plastic silty soils, but may in rare cases occur in gravels and clays. A flow failure may initiate if the strength of the soil is reduced below the required to maintain equilibrium of a slope or footing of a building for instance. This can occur due to loading or cyclic loading, and can be sudden. A historical example is the Aberfan disaster, casagrande referred to this type of phenomena as flow liquefaction although a state of zero effective stress is not required for this to occur. The term cyclic refers to the occurrence of a state of soil when large shear strains have accumulated in response to cyclic loading. A typical reference strain for the occurrence of zero effective stress is 5% double amplitude shear strain. This is a soil test based definition, usually performed via cyclic triaxial, cyclic direct simple shear and these tests are performed to determine a soils resistance to liquefaction by observing the number of cycles of loading at a particular shear stress amplitude before it fails. Failure here is defined by the shear strain criteria
26.
1989 Loma Prieta earthquake
–
The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred in Northern California on October 17 at 5,04 p. m. local time. With a moment magnitude of 6.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX, no surface faulting occurred, though a large number of other ground failures and landslides were present, especially in the Summit area of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Due to the coverage of the 1989 World Series, it became the first major earthquake in the United States that was broadcast live on national television. Andrew Lawson, a geologist from the University of California, Berkeley, had named the fault after the San Andreas Lake and later led an investigation into that event. The San Andreas Fault ruptured for a length of 290 mi during the 1906 shock, several long term forecasts for a large shock along the San Andreas Fault in that area had been made public prior to 1989 but the earthquake that transpired was not what had been anticipated. The 1989 Loma Prieta event originated on an undiscovered oblique-slip reverse fault that is located adjacent to the San Andreas Fault, since many forecasts had been presented for the region near Loma Prieta, seismologists were not taken by surprise by the October 1989 event. Two moderate shocks, referred to as the Lake Elsman earthquakes by the USGS, occurred in the Santa Cruz Mountains region in June 1988, each events aftershock sequence and effect on stress drop was closely examined, and their study indicated that the shocks affected the mainshocks rupture process. The June 27,1988, shock occurred with an intensity of VI. Its effects included broken windows in Los Gatos, and other damage in Holy City. Farther away from the Santa Cruz Mountains, pieces of concrete fell from a structure at the Sunnyvale Town Center. More moderate damage resulted from the August 8,1989, shock when chimneys were toppled in Cupertino, Los Gatos, other damage included cracked walls and foundations and broken underground pipes. At the office of the Los Gatos City Manager, a window that was cracked had also broken in the earlier shock. Also in Los Gatos, one man died when he exited a building through a window, the Loma Prieta earthquake was named for Loma Prieta Peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which lies just to the east of the mainshock epicenter. At sites with rocky terrain, the duration was shorter and the shaking was much less intense, the strong motion records also allowed for the causative fault to be determined – the rupture was related to the San Andreas Fault System. While a Mercalli Intensity of VIII covered a large swath of territory relatively close to the further to the north. At more than 44 miles distant, the San Francisco Bay Area recorded peak horizontal accelerations that were as high as 0. 26g, in a general way, the location of aftershocks of the event delineated the extent of the faulting, which extended about 24 miles in length. Because the rupture took place bilaterally, the duration of strong shaking was about half of what it would have been had it ruptured in one direction only, the duration of a typical M6.9 shock with a comparable rupture length would have been about twice as long. Gregory Beroza, a seismologist with Stanford University, made several distinctions regarding the 1906 and 1989 events, near Loma Prieta, the 1906 rupture was more shallow, had more strike-slip, and occurred on a fault that was near vertical
27.
Marina District, San Francisco
–
The Marina District is a neighborhood located in San Francisco, California. The neighborhood sits on the site of the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition, aside from the Palace of Fine Arts, all other buildings were demolished to make the current neighborhood. Much of the Marina is built on landfill, and is susceptible to soil liquefaction during strong earthquakes. This phenomenon caused extensive damage to the neighborhood during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The area in the 19th century prior to the 1906 earthquake consisted of bay shallows, tidal pools, sand dunes, human habitation and development came in the mid to late 19th century in the form of a sandwall and of a road from the nearby Presidio to Fort Mason. Most of the dunes were leveled out and a hodgepodge of wharves. However, all of this was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, during reconstruction of the city after the 1906 earthquake, the area was chosen as the site of the Panama–Pacific International Exposition. Although rubble from the earthquake was used as part of the reclamation, most of the landfill came from dredging mud. After the end of the exposition in 1915, the land was sold to private developers and this major redevelopment was completed in the 1920s. In the 1930s, with the completion of the nearby Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street was widened, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake caused severe liquefaction of the fill upon which the neighborhood is built, causing major damage including a small firestorm. Firefighters resorted to pumping water directly from the Bay, to replace water unavailable from broken water mains, physically, the neighborhood appears to have changed very little since its construction in the 1920s. The Palace is the building left standing in its original location within the 1915 Exposition fairgrounds. The grounds around the Palace are a popular attraction for tourists and locals. The neighborhood is noted for its demographics, which since the 1980s have shifted from mostly middle-class families and pensioners. These now make up more than half of the population, although a small, San Franciscos Academy of Art University has a campus housing building at the Southern edge of the neighborhood on Lombard Street. The San Francisco Police Department Northern Station serves the Marina District, a16 Strangers in the night – Bars, cheap sex, and boozy anthropology
28.
San Francisco International Airport
–
San Francisco International Airport is an international airport 13 miles south of downtown San Francisco, California, United States, near Millbrae and San Bruno in unincorporated San Mateo County. It has flights to points throughout North America and is a gateway to Europe. SFO is the largest airport in Northern California and the second busiest in California, in 2014, it was the seventh busiest in the United States and the twenty-first busiest airport in the world by passenger count. It is the fifth largest hub for United Airlines and functions as United Airliness primary transpacific gateway and it also serves as Virgin Americas principal base of operations. It is the sole hub of United Airlines, and houses the Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum. SFO is owned and policed by the City and County of San Francisco, between 1999 and 2004 the San Francisco Airport Commission operated city-owned SFO Enterprises, Inc. to oversee its business purchases and operations of ventures. San Francisco held a ceremony for Mills Field Municipal Airport on May 7,1927 on 150 acres of cow pasture. The land was leased from Ogden L. Mills who had leased it from his grandfather Darius O. Mills, San Francisco International Airport was named Mills Field Municipal Airport until 1931, when it became San Francisco Municipal Airport. Municipal was replaced by International in 1955, United Airlines served SFO and Oakland Municipal Airport beginning in the 1930s. The March 1939 Official Aviation Guide shows 18 airline departures on weekdays— seventeen United flights, the aerial view c.1940 looks west along the runway that is now 28R, the seaplane harbor at right is still recognizable north of the airport. Earlier aerial looking NW1943 vertical aerial The August 1952 chart shows runway 1L7000 feet long, 1R7750 feet, 28L6500 feet and 28R8870 feet. Competition with United led Pacific Seaboard to move all of its operations to the eastern U. S. and rename itself Chicago and it became a large domestic and international air carrier. Chicago & Southern was acquired by and merged into Delta Air Lines in 1953 thus providing Delta with its first international routes, United Airlines Douglas DC-6 propliners flying to and from Hawaii used the Pan American World Airways terminal beginning in 1947. The first nonstops to the U. S. east coast were flown by United with Douglas DC-7 propliners in 1954, also in 1954 the airports Central Passenger Terminal opened on August 27 of that year. Included in the static display of aircraft on that day was a Convair B-36 Peacemaker bomber. The Central Passenger Terminal was heavily rebuilt as the terminal in 1984. As for international flights, Pan American had 21 departures a week, Japan Airlines had five, the jet age arrived at SFO in March 1959 when TWA introduced Boeing 707-131 jetliners with nonstop service to New York Idlewild Airport. United then constructed a large facility at San Francisco for its new Douglas DC-8 jets
29.
Runway
–
According to the International Civil Aviation Organization, a runway is a defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft. Runways may be a surface or a natural surface. Runways are named by a number between 01 and 36, which is generally the magnetic azimuth of the heading in decadegrees. This heading differs from true north by the magnetic declination. A runway numbered 09 points east, runway 18 is south, runway 27 points west, when taking off from or landing on runway 09, a plane would be heading 90°. A runway can normally be used in both directions, and is named for each separately, e. g. runway 33 in one direction is runway 15 when used in the other. The two numbers usually differ by 18, Runway Zero Three Left becomes Runway Two One Right when used in the opposite direction. In some countries, if parallel runways are too close to each other, at large airports with four or more parallel runways some runway identifiers are shifted by 10 degrees to avoid the ambiguity that would result with more than three parallel runways. For example, in Los Angeles, this results in runways 6L, 6R, 7L. At Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, there are five parallel runways, named 17L, 17C, 17R, 18L, for clarity in radio communications, each digit in the runway name is pronounced individually, runway three six, runway one four, etc. A leading zero, for example in runway zero six or runway zero one left, is included for all ICAO, however, most U. S. civil aviation airports drop the leading zero as required by FAA regulation. This also includes some military airfields such as Cairns Army Airfield and this American anomaly may lead to inconsistencies in conversations between American pilots and controllers in other countries. It is very common in a such as Canada for a controller to clear an incoming American aircraft to, for example, runway 04. In flight simulation programs those of American origin might apply U. S. usage to airports around the world, for example, runway 05 at Halifax will appear on the program as the single digit 5 rather than 05. Runway designations change over time because the magnetic poles slowly drift on the Earths surface, depending on the airport location and how much drift takes place, it may be necessary over time to change the runway designation. As runways are designated with headings rounded to the nearest 10 degrees, for example, if the magnetic heading of a runway is 233 degrees, it would be designated Runway 23. If the magnetic heading changed downwards by 5 degrees to 228, if on the other hand the original magnetic heading was 226, and the heading decreased by only 2 degrees to 224, the runway should become Runway 22. Because the drift itself is slow, runway designation changes are uncommon
30.
Alameda (island)
–
Alameda Island is an island in the San Francisco Bay in California. It is south and west of, and adjacent to Oakland, located on the island is most of the city of Alameda, a city in Alameda County. Also located on the island is the Naval Air Station Alameda, the island was originally a peninsula and a part of Oakland, and is now separated from the mainland by the Oakland Estuary. The island is connected to the mainland by four bridges, the Park Street Bridge, Fruitvale Bridge, High Street Bridge, the Posey and Webster Street tubes also connect Oakland to Alameda Island. The island was originally a peninsula connected to Oakland, much of it was low-lying and marshy, but on higher ground the peninsula and adjacent parts of what is now downtown Oakland were home to one of the largest coastal oak forests in the world. The area was therefore called Encinal, Spanish for oak grove, Alameda is Spanish for grove of poplar trees or tree-lined avenue, and was chosen in 1853 by popular vote. The inhabitants at the time of the arrival of the Spanish in the late 18th century were a band of the Ohlone tribe. The peninsula became part of the vast Rancho San Antonio granted to Luis Peralta by the viceroyalty under King Ferdinand VII of Spain, the grant was later confirmed by the new Republic of Mexico upon its independence from Spain. Over time, the became known as Bolsa de Encinal or Encinal de San Antonio
31.
Port of Oakland
–
The Port of Oakland is a major container ship facility located in Oakland, California, in the San Francisco Bay. It was the first major port on the Pacific Coast of the United States to build terminals for container ships and it is now the fifth busiest container port in the United States, behind Long Beach, Los Angeles, Newark, and Savannah. Originally, the estuary,500 feet wide, had a depth of two feet at low tide. 22 years later, in 1874, the dredged shipping channel was deepened to make Oakland a deep water port. In the late 19th century, the Southern Pacific was granted rights to the port. This act, protested by the SP and later held up in court, the courts ruled that all landfill since the date of the agreement did not belong to the SP. This ruling ended SP control and made the modern Port of Oakland possible, on May 6,1915, the Admiral Dewey became the first vessel to dock at the foot of Clay street. Captain J. Daniels, master of the vessel, was greeted by Commissioner of Public Works Harry S. Anderson, keith, the two men who had so much to do with the upbuilding of the citys waterfront, were the first aboard the boat. Captain do you realize that you are the commander of the first big vessel that has ever tied up to what will eventually be the busiest wharf on the Pacific Coast, Anderson asked that official as he shook Captain J. Daniels hand. I certainly do realize that, Mr. Anderson, returned Captain Daniels, and I assure you that I appreciate the honor. Ive been many years on the sea, but I have never docked a ship at a better wharf than this. -Source Oakland Tribune May 7,1915. However, the port was not officially named the Port of Oakland until 1927, in 1962, the Port of Oakland began to admit container ships. Container traffic greatly increased the amount of loaded and unloaded in the Port. By the late 1960s, the Port of Oakland was the second largest port in the world in container tonnage, during an expansion of the Port in the late 1960s, fill material was added to what remained of the old Southern Pacific mole. The fill came largely from the concurrent excavation of the Berkeley Hills Tunnel during the construction of the BART system. The BART trunk line also crosses over part of the port, one of the main limitations to growth was the inability to transfer containers to rail lines, all cranes historically operating between ocean vessels and trucks. The Port retained VZM, Korve Engineering and Earth Metrics to perform engineering and that brought the cumulative investment of port expansion to over 1.4 billion dollars since 1962, half of which was comprised by the intermodal facility. Also, the Port is now reaping the benefits of investment in post-panamax cranes, dredging, and the transfer of military property, deepening of the port from 42 feet to 50 feet to accommodate larger ships has been completed
32.
Angel Island (California)
–
Angel Island is an island in San Francisco Bay offering expansive 360° views of the San Francisco skyline, the Marin County Headlands and Mount Tamalpais. The entire island is included within Angel Island State Park and is administered by California State Parks, Angel Island is the second largest island in area of the San Francisco Bay. The island is so large that on a day, Sonoma and Napa can be seen from the north side of the island. The highest point on the island, almost exactly at its center, is Mount Caroline Livermore at a height of 788 feet, the island is separated from the mainland of Marin County by Raccoon Strait, the depth of the water approximately 90 feet. The United States Census Bureau reported an area of 3.107 km². Until about ten years ago, Angel Island was connected to the mainland. From about two years ago the island was a fishing and hunting site for Coast Miwok Native Americans. Similar evidence of Native American settlement is found on the mainland of the Tiburon Peninsula upon Ring Mountain. In 1775, the Spanish naval vessel San Carlos made the first European entry to the San Francisco Bay under the command of Juan de Ayala, Ayala anchored off Angel Island, and gave it its modern name, the bay where he anchored is now known as Ayala Cove. In his book Two Years Before the Mast, published in 1840, Richard Henry Dana, like much of the California coast, Angel Island was subsequently used for cattle ranching. In 1863, during the American Civil War, the U. S. Army was concerned about Confederate naval raiders attacking San Francisco and it decided to construct artillery batteries on Angel Island, first at Stuart Point and then Point Knox. Col. René Edward De Russy was the Chief Engineer, James Terry Gardiner was the engineer tasked with designing and supervising the work. The Army established a camp on the island, and it became an infantry garrison during the US campaigns against Native American peoples in the West. In the later 19th century, the designated the entire island as Fort McDowell and developed further facilities there. A quarantine station was opened in Ayala Cove in 1891, during the Spanish–American War the island served as a discharge depot for returning troops. It continued to serve as a transit station throughout the first half of the 20th century, at the end of World War I the disembarkation center was commanded by William P. Burnham, who had commanded the 82nd Division in France during the war. In 1938, hearings concerning charges of membership in a political party against labor leader Harry Bridges were held on Angel Island before Dean James Landis of Harvard Law School. After eleven weeks of testimony that filled nearly 8,500 pages, the decision was accepted by the United States Department of Labor and Bridges was freed
33.
Ellis Island
–
Ellis Island, in Upper New York Bay, was the gateway for over 12 million immigrants to the United States as the nations busiest immigrant inspection station for over sixty years from 1892 until 1954. The island was expanded with land reclamation between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the smaller original island was the site of Fort Gibson. The island was part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965. Long considered part of New York state, a 1998 United States Supreme Court decision found that most of the island is in New Jersey. The south side of the island, home to the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, is closed to the general public and the object of restoration efforts spearheaded by Save Ellis Island. Ellis Island is located in Upper New York Bay, east of Liberty State Park and north of Liberty Island, in Jersey City, New Jersey, with a small section that is part of New York City. Largely created through land reclamation, the island has an area of 27.5 acres. The 2. 74-acre natural island and contiguous areas comprise the 3.3 acres that are part of New York, the entire island has been owned and administered by the U. S. federal government since 1808 and has been operated by the National Park Service since 1965. Since September 11,2001, the island is guarded by patrols of the United States Park Police Marine Patrol Unit, public access is by ferry from either Communipaw Terminal in Liberty State Park or from Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan. The ferry operator, Hornblower Cruises and Events, also service to the nearby Statue of Liberty. A bridge built for transporting materials and personnel during restoration projects connects Ellis Island with Liberty State Park, proposals made in 1995 to use it or replace it with a new bridge for pedestrians were opposed by the city of New York and the private ferry operator at that time. Much of the island, including the south side, has been closed to the general public since 1954. The renovated area on the side was again closed to the public after Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. The island was re-opened to the public and the museum partially re-opened on October 28,2013, there were several islands which were not completely submerged at high tide. Three of them were given the name Oyster Islands by the settlers of New Netherland, the oyster beds would remain a major source of food for nearly three centuries. During the colonial period Little Oyster Island was known as Dyres, in the 1760s, after some pirates were hanged from one of the islands scrubby trees, it became known as Gibbet Island. It was acquired by Samuel Ellis, a colonial New Yorker and merchant possibly from Wales, in 1785 he unsuccessfully attempted to sell the island, TO BE SOLD By Samuel Ellis, no
34.
Yerba Buena Island
–
Yerba Buena Island sits in the San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and Oakland, California. The Yerba Buena Tunnel runs through its center and connects the western and eastern spans of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge and it has had several other names over the decades, Sea Bird Island, Wood Island, and Goat Island. The island is named after the town of Yerba Buena, which was named for the plant of the name that was abundant in the area. The plants English and Spanish common name, Yerba buena, is a form of the Spanish hierba buena. The island is part of District 6 of the City and County of San Francisco. According to the United States Census Bureau, Yerba Buena Island, today the military reservation southeast of the Yerba Buena Tunnel belongs to the United States Coast Guard District Eleven. The US Coast Guard Sector San Francisco – Vessel Traffic Service tower is located on Signal Road Bldg,278 atop the peak of the island. The US Coast Guard Sector San Francisco Headquarters is co-located with US Coast Guard Station San Francisco on Healy Avenue @ Fresnel Way at water-level on the southeast coast of the island, the USCG Station has a navigational buoy repair facility on Fresnel Way. The USCG Senior Officers residences are in Quarters A, B, C,8 and 9 off of Hillcrest Road on the hill atop the USCG base, the IOC houses the VTS, WatchKeeper and the US Coast Guard Sector San Francisco Command Center together in one building. Officially, the island was Yerba Buena Island until 1895, when on a decision by the United States Board on Geographic Names, during the gold rush, a large number of goats were pastured on the island, and the name Goat Island came into popular use. It was changed back to Yerba Buena Island on June 3,1931, in 1891, the United States Army Engineers built a Torpedo Station / Shed / Storehouse / Assembly building at the end of Army Road by North Gate Road. The torpedoes were actually floating mines that could be placed in the bay via cable for defense against intruding enemy vessels, the Torpedo Station was abandoned in the 1930s but still stands today listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Just before the turn of the 20th century, the first U. S. Naval Training Station on the Pacific Coast was established on the north east side of the island by 1st Street and North Gate Road. Quarters One, also known as the Admiral Nimitz House near the intersection of Whiting Way and its Classic Revival style, fashionable for private residences in the Bay Area at the time, was unusual for naval base housing. The training station closed after World War I, although the training station closed the Navy maintained presence with the stationary receiving ship USS Boston, later renamed USS Despatch, anchored in harbor through World War II. During World War II, Yerba Buena Island fell under the jurisdiction of Treasure Island Naval Station, built on the shoals of Yerba Buena Island, the 403-acre Treasure Island was a Works Progress Administration project in the 1930s. Quarters One became the residence of the Commander in Chief, US Pacific Fleet. Several other buildings used by the Naval Station during World War II also remain on the island, buildings 83,205 and 230 were support facilities to the senior officers quarters
35.
Treasure Island, San Francisco
–
Treasure Island is an artificial island in San Francisco Bay and a neighborhood of the City of San Francisco. Built 1936–37 for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, the islands World’s Fair site is a California Historical Landmark, the San Francisco neighborhood that includes Treasure Island extends far into San Francisco Bay and includes a tip of Alameda Island. Yerba Buena and Treasure islands together have an area of 576.7 acres with a 2010 total population of 2,500. Treasure Island is connected by a 900 ft causeway to Yerba Buena Island, the island has a marina and a bikeway connecting to the newly completed Eastern span replacement of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. Raised walkways circumscribe nearly the entire island along five streets, prior to the islands construction by the United States government, Yerba Buena Shoals of rock north of the transbay island had less than 27 ft clearance and were a shipping hazard. The 400-acre island was constructed by emplacing 287,000 short tons of quarried rock in the shoals for the island/causeway perimeter rock walls, Facility construction had begun by March 4,1937 when two hangars were being built. The island had a lagoon, and structures included the 400-foot Tower of the Sun, the International Building, in addition to Building 2 and Building 3, remaining exposition buildings include Building 1 intended after the expo as the Pan American World Airways terminal. The expos Magic Carpet Great Lawn also remains, the U. S. Navy seized Treasure Island on April 17,1942 and instead of an island airport, the city built an airport at Mills Field that became the San Francisco International Airport. The station had a Naval Auxiliary Air Facility to support helicopters, fixed wing planes, seaplanes, blimps, dirigibles, in the 70s, 80s, and 90s the U. S. Navy Conducted Naval Technical Training NTTC. The U. S. Navy Rate consisted of the old Shipfitter Rate, the U. S. Navy Technical Training also included NBC Warfare Decon. The New U. S. Navy Rate was classified as HT Hull Maintenance Technicians, multiple Maintenance Skills were included into The Naval Technical Training Command NTTC. During World War II over 12,000 men a day were processed here for Pacific area assignments, and thousands more were processed for separation in the aftermath of the war. Medal of Honor and Navy Cross recipient USMC Gunnery Sgt John Basilone movie theatre Building 401 @680 Avenue I was established in recognition as being one of the earliest World War II heroes. The station was identified by the 1991 Base Realignment and Closure Commission,600 @750 Avenue M, Bldg. 157 @849 Avenue D, and the 20,000 sq ft Bldg,180 by US Naval Station Way & California Ave. The Treasure Island Radar Bomb Scoring Site was a Strategic Air Command automatic tracking radar facility established on the island. Major Posey was the c. 1948 commander of Detachment B which evaluated simulated bombing missions on targets in the San Francisco metropolitan area for maintaining Cold War bomber crews proficiency. From the late 1980s, Treasure Islands old aircraft Hangar 2 and Hangar 3 served as sound stages for film-making and TV, the Matrix, Rent, and The Pursuit of Happyness
36.
Golden Gate International Exposition
–
The Golden Gate International Exposition, held at San Franciscos Treasure Island, was a Worlds Fair celebrating, among other things, the citys two newly built bridges. The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opened in 1936 and the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937, the exposition opened from February 18,1939, through October 29,1939, and from May 25,1940, through September 29,1940. Built by the government, Treasure Island was to be an airport for Pan Americans transpacific flying boats. Due to wartime needs, it was turned into a base used by the US Navy from 1941 to 1997. During the Expo in 1939, Master carver John Wallace demonstrated the art of carving totem poles for visitors, the theme of the exposition was Pageant of the Pacific, as it showcased the goods of nations bordering the Pacific Ocean. The theme was symbolized by The Tower of the Sun. As the boundaries of human intercourse are widened by giant strides of trade and travel, unity of the Pacific nations is Americas concern and responsibility, their onward progress deserves now a recognition that will be a stimulus as well. Washington is remote from the Pacific, San Francisco stands at the doorway to the sea that roars upon the shores of all these nations, and so to the Golden Gate International Exposition I gladly entrust a solemn duty. May this, Americas Worlds Fair on the Pacific in 1939, truly serve all nations in symbolizing their destinies, one every other. —President Franklin D. Roosevelt, via radio, during the opening ceremonies, the San Francisco Downtown Association created the 49-Mile Scenic Drive to promote the exposition and the city. The drive started at San Francisco City Hall and ended on Treasure Island after winding around the picturesque City by the Bay, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway started a passenger train, the Valley Flyer, to carry passengers between Bakersfield and Oakland during the exposition. In October 2010, the National Building Museum in Washington, D. C. opened an exhibition titled Designing Tomorrow and this exhibition, which was available for view until September 2011, prominently featured the Golden Gate International Exposition. The Fauna and Flora of the Pacific mural by Miguel Covarrubias is now on display at the de Young museum in San Francisco. The colorful and oversized map depicts the four Pacific Rim continents with examples of their flora and fauna suspended in a swirling Pacific Ocean populated with sea creatures
37.
Alcatraz Island
–
Alcatraz Island is located in San Francisco Bay,1.25 miles offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The small island was developed with facilities for a lighthouse, a fortification, a military prison. In 1972, Alcatraz became part of a recreation area. Today, the facilities are managed by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Visitors can reach the island by ferry ride from Pier 33, near Fishermans Wharf, hornblower Cruises and Events, operating under the name Alcatraz Cruises, is the official ferry provider to and from the island. According to a 1971 documentary on the history of Alcatraz, the island measures 1,675 feet by 590 feet and is 135 feet at highest point during mean tide, however, the total area of the island is reported to be 22 acres. Over the years, the Spanish version Alcatraz became popular and is now widely used, in August 1827, French Captain Auguste Bernard Duhaut-Cilly wrote. Covered with a number of these birds. A gun fired over the feathered legions caused them to fly up in a great cloud, the California brown pelican is not known to nest on the island today. The Spanish built several buildings on the island and other minor structures. Julian Workman is the name of William Workman, co-owner of Rancho La Puente. Later in 1846, acting in his capacity as Military Governor of California, frémont, champion of Manifest Destiny and leader of the Bear Flag Republic, bought the island for $5,000 in the name of the United States government from Francis Temple. Frémont and his heirs sued for compensation during protracted but unsuccessful legal battles that extended into the 1890s. S, Army began studying the suitability of Alcatraz Island for the positioning of coastal batteries to protect the approaches to San Francisco Bay. In 1853, under the direction of Zealous B, tower, the United States Army Corps of Engineers began fortifying the island, work which continued until 1858, eventuating in Fortress Alcatraz. The islands first garrison at Camp Alcatraz, numbering about 200 soldiers and 11 cannons, at this time it also served as the San Francisco Arsenal for storage of firearms to prevent them falling into the hands of Confederate sympathizers. Alcatraz, built as a fortified military site on the West Coast, formed a triangle of defense along with Fort Point and Lime Point. The island was also the site of the first operational lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States, Alcatraz never fired its guns offensively, though during the war it was used to imprison Confederate sympathizers and privateers on the west coast. Because of its isolation from the outside by the cold, strong, hazardous currents of the waters of San Francisco Bay, following the war in 1866, the army determined that the fortifications and guns were being rapidly rendered obsolete by advances in military technology
38.
Mare Island
–
Mare Island is a peninsula in the United States in the city of Vallejo, California, about 23 miles northeast of San Francisco. The Napa River forms its eastern side as it enters the Carquinez Strait juncture with the east side of San Pablo Bay, Mare Island is considered a peninsula because no full body of water separates this or several other named islands from the mainland. Instead, a series of small sloughs cause seasonal water-flows among the so-called islands, Mare Island is the largest of these at about 3.5 miles long and a mile wide. In 1775, Spanish explorer Perez Ayala was the first European to land on what would become Mare Island - he named it Isla de la Plana and this area was part of Rancho Suscol, deeded to General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo in 1844. It became a waypoint for early settlers, in 1835, whilst traversing the Carquinez Strait, a crude ferry transporting men and livestock capsized in a squall. Among the livestock feared lost in the wreckage was the white mare of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. Several days later, General Vallejos mare was found on the island, grateful for the fortunate turn of events, he renamed the island to Isla de la Yegua, Spanish for Mare Island, in her honor. In 1892, development of the Mare Island Golf Club began, on November 6,1850, two months after California was admitted to statehood, President Fillmore reserved Mare Island for government use. On January 15,1852, Secretary of the Navy William Alexander Graham ordered a Naval Commission to select a site for a Naval Yard on the Pacific Coast, Commodore D. Sloat along with Commodore C. Sanger (former overseer of construction of Drydock Number One, Norfolk Naval Shipyard were appointed to the commission, on July 13,1852, Sloat recommended the island across the Napa River from the settlement of Vallejo, as it was free from ocean gales and from floods and freshets. The Navy Department acted favorably on Commodore Sloats recommendations and Mare Island was purchased for use as a shipyard in July 1853 at a cost of $83,410. On September 16,1854, Mare Island became the first permanent U. S. naval installation on the west coast, with Commodore David Farragut, for over a century, Mare Island was the Navys Mare Island Naval Shipyard. The growing size and number of the naval fleet was making older facilities obsolete. Public Works Department commenced construction of a 508-foot drydock on the island, the work was completed in 1891. A second drydock was begun in 1899, a concrete structure 740 feet long set on wooden piles, by 1941 a third drydock had been completed and drydock number four was under construction. The ammunition depot and submarine repair base were modern, fireproof buildings, a million dollar, three-way vehicle causeway to Vallejo replaced a ferry service. Before World War II, Mare Island had been in a state of up-building. The yard was expected to be able to repair and paint six to eight large vessels at a time
39.
Golden Gate National Recreation Area
–
The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is a U. S. National Recreation Area protecting 80,002 acres of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land used by the United States Army. GGNRA is managed by the National Park Service and is one of the most visited units of the National Park system in the United States, with more than 15 million visitors a year. It is also one of the largest urban parks in the world, the park is not one continuous locale, but rather a collection of areas that stretch from southern San Mateo County to northern Marin County, and includes several areas of San Francisco. The park is as diverse as it is expansive, it contains famous tourist attractions such as Muir Woods National Monument, Alcatraz, the park was created thanks to the cooperative legislative efforts of cosponsors Congressman William S. Mailliard and Congressman Phillip Burton. In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed into law An Act to Establish the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the bill allocated $120 million for land acquisition and development. The National Park Service first purchased Alcatraz and Fort Mason from the U. S. Army, the Nature Conservancy then transferred the land to the GGNRA. These properties formed the basis for the park. Throughout the next 30 years, the National Park service acquired land and historic sites from the U. S. Army, private landowners and corporations, incorporating them into the GGNRA. Many decommissioned Army bases and fortifications were incorporated into the park, including Fort Funston, four Nike missile sites, The Presidio, the latest acquisition by the National Park Service is Mori Point, a small parcel of land on the Pacifica coast. In 1988, UNESCO designated the GGNRA and 12 adjacent protected areas the Golden Gate Biosphere Reserve, the property, located south of Pacifica and surrounding the communities of Moss Beach and Montara, is home to many diverse plant and animal species. The bill passed in the Senate, but did not pass the House of Representatives, Fort Baker - former Army post located on the northern side of the Golden Gate Headlands Center for the Arts - an artist residency program set in renovated military buildings in the Marin Headlands. Nike Missile Site SF-88 - a decommissioned Army surface-to-air missile site located near Fort Barry, located at the southwestern corner of the Presidio Battery Chamberlin - one of the last remaining coastal defense disappearing guns on the U. S. Trails lead across the ridge and to Sharp Park beach, the site includes recently restored wetlands and a pond, protecting endangered San Francisco garter snake and red-legged frog habitat. Rancho Corral de Tierra - the GGNRAs newest park, Golden Gate National Recreation Area Scenery Video, a video showing the scenery observed from the GGNRA, including footage from Lands End
40.
San Andreas Fault
–
The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly 800 miles through California. It forms the boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, and its motion is right-lateral strike-slip. The fault was first identified in 1895 by Professor Andrew Lawson of UC Berkeley and it is often described as having been named after San Andreas Lake, a small body of water that was formed in a valley between the two plates. However, according to some of his reports from 1895 and 1908, following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Lawson concluded that the fault extended all the way into southern California. In 1953, geologist Thomas Dibblee astounded the scientific establishment with his conclusion that hundreds of miles of lateral movement could occur along the fault. A project called the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth near Parkfield, Monterey County, is drilling into the fault to improve prediction and this is the approximate location of the epicenter of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The fault returns onshore at Bolinas Lagoon just north of Stinson Beach in Marin County, from Fort Ross the northern segment continues overland, forming in part a linear valley through which the Gualala River flows. It goes back offshore at Point Arena, after that, it runs underwater along the coast until it nears Cape Mendocino, where it begins to bend to the west, terminating at the Mendocino Triple Junction. The central segment of the San Andreas fault runs in a direction from Parkfield to Hollister. The southern segment begins near Bombay Beach, California, box Canyon, near the Salton Sea, contains upturned strata associated with that section of the fault. The fault then runs along the base of the San Bernardino Mountains, crosses through the Cajon Pass. These mountains are a result of movement along the San Andreas Fault and are called the Transverse Range. In Palmdale, a portion of the fault is easily examined at a roadcut for the Antelope Valley Freeway, the fault continues northwest alongside the Elizabeth Lake Road to the town of Elizabeth Lake. As it passes the towns of Gorman, Tejon Pass and Frazier Park and this restraining bend is thought to be where the fault locks up in Southern California, with an earthquake-recurrence interval of roughly 140–160 years. Northwest of Frazier Park, the runs through the Carrizo Plain. The Elkhorn Scarp defines the fault trace along much of its length within the plain, the southern segment, which stretches from Parkfield in Monterey County all the way to the Salton Sea, is capable of an 8. 1-magnitude earthquake. At its closest, this fault passes about 35 miles to the northeast of Los Angeles. Such a large earthquake on this segment would kill thousands of people in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, and surrounding areas
41.
Hayward Fault Zone
–
The Hayward Fault Zone is a geologic fault zone capable of generating significantly destructive earthquakes. This fault is about 74 mi long, situated mainly along the base of the hills on the east side of San Francisco Bay. It runs through densely populated areas, including the cities of Richmond, El Cerrito, Berkeley, Oakland, San Leandro, Hayward, Union City, Fremont, and San Jose, in order from north-to-south. The Hayward Fault is parallel to its more famous westerly neighbor, the San Andreas Fault, to the south of the Hayward lies the Calaveras Fault. In 2007 the Hayward Fault was discovered to merge with the Calaveras Fault east of San Jose at a depth of 4 miles, some geologists have suggested that the Southern Calaveras should be renamed as the Southern Hayward. Further discussion may be found below in the subsection on Rodgers Creek Fault, another fault further north, the Maacama Fault, is also considered to be part of the Hayward Fault subsystem. The Pacific Plate is a section of the Earths crust. It is also being subducted far to the northwest into the Aleutian Trench, in California, the plate is sliding northwestward along a transform boundary, the San Andreas Fault, toward the subduction zone. At the same time, the North American Plate is moving southwestward, the Hayward Fault shares the same relative motions of the San Andreas. As with portions of other faults, an extent of the Hayward Fault trace is formed from a narrow complex zone of deformation which can span hundreds of feet in width. The Hayward Fault is one of the faults in this diffuse zone, along with the Calaveras Fault to the east. The complete fault zone, including the Rodgers Creek fault, is divided by seismologists into three segments – Rodgers Creek, Northern Hayward, and Southern Hayward and it is expected that these segments may fail singly or in adjacent pairs, creating earthquakes of varying magnitude. The various ABAG maps shown below represent some of the likely possible combinations. An alternate prior hypothesis suggested that the Hayward Fault and Rodgers Creek Fault were probably connected by a series of en echelon fault strands beneath San Pablo Bay, the new finding means that the Rodgers-Hayward system together could produce a quake with a magnitude as high as 7.2. It is also considered possible that a seismic event on either fault may involve movement on the other, either concurrently or within an interval of up to several months. The Association of Bay Area Governments has prepared ground shaking maps that include a possible concurrent scenario and it has been suggested that the name Rodgers Creek Fault be retired and that the entire 118 mi fault be known as the Hayward Fault. The Calaveras Fault is considered to be continuous from the Sunol area south to Hollister and it was long believed that there was no connection between the Hayward Fault and the Calaveras. Recent geological studies suggest that the two faults may be connected, the largest quake on the Hayward Fault in recorded history occurred in 1868, with an estimated magnitude of 7.0
42.
Central Valley (California)
–
Californias Central Valley is a large, flat valley that dominates the geographical center of the U. S. state of California. It is 40 to 60 miles wide and stretches approximately 450 miles from north-northwest to south-southeast, inland from and it covers approximately 18,000 square miles, about 11% of Californias total land area. More than 7 million acres of the valley are irrigated via a system of reservoirs. The valley also has many cities, including the state capital Sacramento, as well as Redding, Stockton, Modesto, Fresno. The Central Valley watershed comprises 60,000 square miles, or over a third of California, the delta empties into the San Francisco Bay, and then ultimately flows into the Pacific. The Central Valley is commonly known to simply as the Valley. Older names include the Great Valley, a name often seen in scientific references, and Golden Empire. The Central Valley is outlined by the Cascade, Sierra Nevada, and Tehachapi mountain ranges on the east, the broad valley floor is carpeted by vast agricultural regions, and dotted with numerous population centers. While there are many large and small between these cities, these four cities act as hubs for regional commerce and transportation. About 6.5 million people live in the Central Valley today, there are 12 Metropolitan Statistical Areas and 1 Micropolitan Statistical Area in the Central Valley. Below, they are listed by MSA and μSA population, the largest city is Fresno, followed by the state capital, Sacramento. The valley is thought to have originated below sea level as an offshore area depressed by subduction of the Farallon Plate into a trench further offshore, the San Joaquin Fault is a notable seismic feature of the Central Valley. The valley was later enclosed by the uplift of the Coast Ranges, faulting moved the Coast Ranges, and a new outlet developed near what is now San Francisco Bay. The one notable exception to the valley floor is Sutter Buttes. Another significant geologic feature of the Central Valley lies hidden beneath the delta, the Stockton Arch is an upwarping of the crust beneath the valley sediments which extends southwest to northeast across the valley. However, much of the Central Valley environment has been removed or altered by human activity including the introduction of exotic plants, the oak woodlands and chaparral that fringe the valley have been categorized as the California interior chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. The wetlands have been the target of operations to restore areas nearly destroyed by agriculture. The dominant grass of the valley was Nassella pulchra mixed with other species, grassland flowers include California poppy, lupins, and purple owls clover which can still be seen, especially in Antelope Valley in the Tehachapi hills
43.
Quaternary glaciation
–
During this period, ice sheets expanded, notably from out of Antarctica and Greenland, and fluctuating ice sheets occurred elsewhere. It affected oceans, flooding, and biological communities, the ice sheets themselves, by raising the albedo, affect a major feedback on climate cooling. The Quaternary glaciation was the first ice age to be demonstrated in geology and this was done over the 1700s and 1800s CE. Over the last century, extensive field observations have provided evidence that continental glaciers covered large parts of Europe, North America, even before the theory of worldwide glaciation was generally accepted, many observers recognized that more than a single advance and retreat of the ice had occurred. Since then other, earlier ice ages have been identified, the Quaternary glaciation is the last of five known glaciations during Earths history. The other four are the Huronian glaciation, Cryogenian, Andean-Saharan glaciation, over the past 740,000 years there have been eight glacial cycles. The entire Quaternary Period, starting 2.58 Ma, is referred to as an ice age because at least one permanent large ice sheet—the Antarctic ice sheet—has existed continuously, there is uncertainty over how much of Greenland was covered by ice during the previous and earlier interglacials. During the colder episodes—referred to as glacial ice sheets at least 4 km thick at their maximum also existed in Europe, North America. The shorter and warmer intervals between glacials are referred to as interglacials, currently, Earth is in an interglacial period, which marked the beginning of the Holocene epoch. The current interglacial began between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago, which caused the ice sheets from the last glacial period to begin to disappear. Remnants of these last glaciers, now occupying about 10% of the land surface, still exist in Greenland, Antarctica. During the glacial periods, the present hydrologic system was completely interrupted throughout large areas of the world and was modified in others. Due to the volume of ice on land, sea level was approximately 120 meters lower than present, extensive evidence now shows that a number of periods of growth and retreat of continental glaciers occurred during the ice age, called glacials and interglacials. The interglacial periods of climate are represented by buried soil profiles, peat beds. No completely satisfactory theory has been proposed to account for Earths history of glaciation, the cause of glaciation may be related to several simultaneous factors, such as astronomical cycles, atmospheric composition, plate tectonics, and ocean currents. The role of Earths orbital changes in controlling climate was first advanced by James Croll in the late 19th century, later, Milutin Milanković, a Serbian geophysicist, elaborated on the theory and calculated these irregularities in Earths orbit could cause the climatic cycles known as Milankovitch cycles. They are the result of the behavior of several types of cyclical changes in Earths orbital properties. Changes in the eccentricity of Earth occur on a cycle of about 100,000 years
44.
Pacific Coast Ranges
–
The Pacific Coast Ranges, are the series of mountain ranges that stretch along the West Coast of North America from Alaska south to Northern and Central Mexico. The same term is used informally in Canada to refer to the Coast Mountains and adjoining inland ranges such as the Hazelton Mountains, the coastline is often dropping steeply into the sea with photogenic views. Along the British Columbia and Alaska coast, the mountains intermix with the sea in a maze of fjords. Off the Southern California coast the Channel Islands archipelago of the Santa Monica Mountains extends for 160 miles, on the West coast of North America, the coast ranges and the coastal plain form the margin. Most of the land is made of terranes that have accreted onto the margin. In the north, the belt is an accreted terrane. This belt extends from the Wrangellia Terrane in Alaska to the Chilliwack group of Canada, a rupture in Rodinia 750 million years ago formed a passive margin in the eastern Pacific Northwest. The breakup of Pangea 200 million years ago began the movement of the North American plate. As the continent drifted West, terranes were accreted onto the west coast, the timing of the accretion of the insular belt is uncertain, although the closure did not occur until at least 115 million years ago. Other Mesozoic terranes that accreted onto the continent include the Klamath Mountains, the Sierra Nevada,80 to 90 million years ago the subducting Farallon plate split and formed the Kula Plate to the North. This formed an area in what is now Northern California, where the plates converged forming a Mélange, North of this was the Columbia Embayment, where the continental margin was east of the surrounding areas. Many of the major batholiths date from the late Cretaceous, as the Laramide Orogeny ended around 48 million years ago, the accretion of the Siletzia terrane began in the Pacific Northwest. This began the activity in the Cascadia subduction zone, forming the modern Cascade Range. Events here may relate to the ignimbrite flare-up of the southern Basin, as extension in the Basin and Range Province slowed by a change in North American Plate movement circa 7 to 8 Million years ago, rifting began on the Gulf of California. Although many of the ranges do share a common history, the Pacific Coast Ranges province is not defined by geology. However, both are considered part of the Pacific Coast Ranges due to their proximity and similar economic, the Pacific Coast Ranges are home to the largest temperate-latitude icefields in the world. Formally unnamed icefields are not listed List of Pacific Coast Ranges topics Coast Range California Coast Ranges Coast Ranges United States physiographic regions
45.
San Francisco Bay Discovery Site
–
The San Francisco Bay Discovery Site is a marker commemorating the first recorded European sighting of San Francisco Bay. In 1769, the Portola expedition traveled north by land from San Diego, when they reached Monterey, however, they were not sure it was the right place and decided to continue north. The scouts returned on November 3, and led the party up to the ridge on November 4. Franciscan missionary Juan Crespi noted in his diary, from the summit of a peak we beheld the great estuary or arm of the sea, Sweeney Ridge is located in northern San Mateo County and is now a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The site is both a California Historical Landmark and a National Historic Landmark, the spot chosen for the marker is somewhat arbitrary, as the precise location where Portolas party reached the summit of the ridge is not known. Media related to Sweeney Ridge at Wikimedia Commons Visiting information
