Home | Session 5 | California Geography Pg 1, 2

California Geography and Geology

Presented by Richard Sedlock
San Jose State University and BAESI

  1. Key geographic features in California

    Locate these features on the figure at right (click to zoom in).

      1. Basin and Range province
      2. Great Valley/Central Valley
      3. Sierra Nevada
      4. Coast Ranges
      5. Mojave Desert
      6. Transverse Ranges
      7. Peninsular Ranges

       

  2. MODERN PLATE-TECTONIC SETTING

    Locate these features on the figure at right (click to zoom in).

    1. North American plate
    2. Pacific plate, which includes Baja California
    3. Subducting plates: Rivera Gorda Juan de Fuca

    This transform boundary between Pacific and North American plates, usually referred to as PAC-NA, is responsible for most of the major geographic provinces:

Basin and Range province
Coast Ranges
Transverse Ranges
Mojave Desert

However, other geographic provinces aren't easily related to the transform boundary, and thus are holdovers from an earlier, different tectonic setting:

Sierra Nevada
Peninsular Ranges
Central Valley

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updated March 4, 2002

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