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Little Pine Mountain
Little Pine Mountain is a mountain in Santa Barbara County, California, in the Los Padres National Forest at the southern edge of the San Rafael Mountains. It separates the drainages of Oso Creek, which flows into the upper Santa Ynez River, from the drainage of Santa Cruz Creek, which flows into the middle section of the river via Lake Cachuma. The mountain is named for a thin grove of Coulter pines located on the summit. The mountain is reached by the Santa Cruz National Recreation Trail, and is a popular day hike and mountain biking route for residents of Santa Barbara during the winter months. There is a camp at Happy Hollow Spring near the summit. The rocks of the lower slopes of the mountain comes from the Franciscan Assemblage, which creates serpentine soils that support a unique chaparral ecosystem. Large deposits of dark-red cinnabar are exposed above ground. The middle slopes of the mountain are dominated by the Espada Formation. The summit largely consists of Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Rafael Mountains
The San Rafael Mountains are a mountain range in central Santa Barbara County, California, U.S., separating the drainages of the Santa Ynez River and the Santa Maria River. They are part of the Transverse Ranges system of Southern California which in turn are part of the Pacific Coast Ranges system of western North America. Geography Most of the mountain range is within the Los Padres National Forest, and the northern slopes are included in the remote San Rafael Wilderness area. The highest peaks include Big Pine Mountain (6,820 ft, 2,079 m), San Rafael Mountain (6,593 ft, 2,010 m) and McKinley Mountain (6,220 ft, 1,896 m), none of which are easily accessible except by foot or horse. The highest peak at the southern edge of the range is Little Pine Mountain. Hurricane Deck is a spectacular block of sandstone that can be found deep in the San Rafael Wilderness. The Sisquoc River headwaters are on the north slopes of Big Pine Mountain. It is a designated Wil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Santa Barbara's climate is often described as Mediterranean climate, Mediterranean, and the city has been dubbed "The American Riviera". According to the 2020 United States census, U.S. Census, the city's population was 88,665. In addition to being a popular tourist and resort destination, the city has a diverse economy that includes a large service sector, education, technology, health care, finance, agriculture, manufacturing, and local government. In 2004, the service sector accounted for 35% of local employment. Education in particular is well represented, with four institutions of higher learning nearby: the University of Calif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serpentinite
Serpentinite is a rock composed predominantly of one or more serpentine group minerals, the name originating from the similarity of the texture of the rock to that of the skin of a snake. Serpentinite has been called ''serpentine'' or ''serpentine rock'', particularly in older geological texts and in wider cultural settings.California Government Code § 425.2; ''see'' Formation and mineralogy Serpentinite is formed by near to complete serpentinization of mafic to ultramafic rocks. Serpentinite can be formed wherever ultramafic rock is infiltrated by water poor in carbon dioxide. This occurs at mid-ocean ridges and in the forearc mantle of subduction zones. The final mineral composition of serpentinite is usually dominated by lizardite, chrysotile, and magnetite. Brucite and antigorite are less commonly present. Lizardite, chrysotile, and antigorite all have approximately the formula or , but differ in minor components and in form. Accessory minerals, present in smal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Valley Sequence
The Great Valley Sequence of California is a -thick group of related geologic formations that are Late Jurassic through Cretaceous in age (150–65 Ma) on the geologic time scale. These sedimentary rocks were deposited during the late Mesozoic Era in an ancient seaway that corresponds roughly to the outline of the modern Great Valley (Central Valley) of California. Description Image:Franciscan subduction model.gif, Diagram showing depositional setting of the Great Valley Sequence and coeval Franciscan Assemblage Although the total thickness of the Great Valley Sequence in places is upwards of , most of these rocks today are buried beneath the thick Cenozoic sedimentary fill of the Great Valley of California. A number of gas and oil wells do penetrate these rocks in the subsurface of the valley, and these same rocks also crop out extensively along the west margin of the valley and to a lesser extent along the northern and eastern margins. The sequence overlies the Franciscan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Matilija Formation
The Matilija Sandstone () is a sedimentary geologic unit of Eocene epoch in the Paleogene Period, found in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties in Southern California. It consists of thick layers of sandstone, made up of grains of feldspar and quartz from a granitic source rock, interbedded with thin layers of siltstone and shale. Hard, massive, and exceptionally resistant to weathering, it forms the high rocky summits of the Santa Ynez Mountain range north of Santa Barbara, eastward into Ventura County. Type locality, description, and distribution The type locality of the unit is at Matilija Hot Springs, along the Ventura River about northwest of Ojai, near to California State Route 33. At its type locality it is around thick, and consists of both marine and non-marine sandstones with occasional thin beds of micaceous shale separating massive sandstone layers.Donald R. Prothero and Justin R. Britt. "Magnetic stratigraphy and tectonic rotation of the Middle Eocene Matilija Sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Espada Formation
The Espada Formation is a sedimentary rock, sedimentary rock formation widespread in Santa Barbara County, California. Of late Jurassic to Cretaceous age, the unit consists primarily of shale with some interbedded thin layers of sandstone, conglomerate (geology), conglomerate, and limestone. Type locality and description The type locality (geology), type locality of the Espada Formation is in Hondo Canyon, near Point Arguello, as first described by Thomas Dibblee in his 1950 book on the geology of southwestern Santa Barbara County. While the unit is thick at the type locality, it is much thicker elsewhere; along the southern slope of the San Rafael Mountains it is exposed from its base to its top, where it is probably in conformable contact with the Jalama Formation, and the total thickness is around – 5 kilometers (three miles) of uninterrupted sedimentary deposition that took place over 50 million years. The formation throughout its geographic range consists of layer upon la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cinnabar
Cinnabar (), or cinnabarite (), from the grc, κιννάβαρι (), is the bright scarlet to brick-red form of Mercury sulfide, mercury(II) sulfide (HgS). It is the most common source ore for refining mercury (element), elemental mercury and is the historic source for the brilliant red or scarlet pigment termed vermilion and associated red mercury pigments. Cinnabar generally occurs as a vein-filling mineral associated with recent volcanic activity and alkaline hot springs. The mineral resembles quartz in symmetry and in its exhibiting birefringence. Cinnabar has a mean refractive index near 3.2, a mohs scale of mineral hardness, hardness between 2.0 and 2.5, and a specific gravity of approximately 8.1. The color and properties derive from a structure that is a hexagonal crystalline bravais lattice, lattice belonging to the trigonal crystal system, crystals that sometimes exhibit Crystal twinning, twinning. Cinnabar has been used for its color since antiquity in the Near East ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franciscan Assemblage
The Franciscan Complex or Franciscan Assemblage is a geologic term for a late Mesozoic terrane of heterogeneous rocks found throughout the California Coast Ranges, and particularly on the San Francisco Peninsula. It was named by geologist Andrew Lawson, who also named the San Andreas fault that defines the western extent of the assemblage. The Franciscan Complex is dominated by greywacke sandstones, shales and conglomerates which have experienced low-grade metamorphism. Other important lithologies include chert, basalt, limestone, serpentinite, and high-pressure, low-temperature metabasites (blueschists and eclogites) and meta-limestones. Fossils like radiolaria are found in chert beds of the Franciscan Complex. These fossils have been used to provide age constraints on the different terranes that constitute the Franciscan. The mining opportunities within the Franciscan are restricted to deposits of cinnabar and limestone. The outcrops of the formation have a very large range ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santa Cruz National Recreation Trail
The Santa Cruz Trail is a trail in the Los Padres National Forest, in Santa Barbara County, California. It is the primary footpath from the Santa Ynez Recreation Area into the San Rafael and Dick Smith Wilderness areas. The section from the southern trailhead up to Santa Cruz Camp is designated as the Santa Cruz - Aliso National Recreation Trail. Description The trail begins at the Buckhorn-Camuesa Road near the Upper Oso Campground and heads north through the San Rafael Mountains, climbing to near the summit of Little Pine Mountain at Alexander Saddle, before dropping down into the Santa Cruz Creek drainage, which includes a number of campsites. One of these campsites, Santa Cruz Camp, contains a Forest Service guard station. The Santa Cruz Trail, no longer a National Recreation Trail The National Trails System is a series of trails in the United States designated "to promote the preservation of, public access to, travel within, and enjoyment and appreciation of the o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santa Barbara County, California
Santa Barbara County, California, officially the County of Santa Barbara, is located in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa Maria. Santa Barbara County comprises the Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Most of the county is part of the California Central Coast. Mainstays of the county's economy include engineering, resource extraction (particularly petroleum extraction and diatomaceous earth mining), winemaking, agriculture, and education. The software development and tourism industries are important employers in the southern part of the county. Southern Santa Barbara County is sometimes considered the northern cultural boundary of Southern California. History The Santa Barbara County area, including the Northern Channel Islands, was first settled by Native Americans at least 13,000 years ago. Evidence for a Paleoindian presence has been found in the fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coulter Pine
The Coulter pine or big-cone pine, ''Pinus coulteri'', is a native of the coastal mountains of Southern California in the United States and northern Baja California in Mexico. Isolated groves are found as far north as Clearlake, California on the flanks of Mt. Konocti and Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve. It is named after Thomas Coulter, an Irish botanist and physician. The Coulter pine produces the heaviest cone of any pine tree, up to . Although it has a limited range in the wild, the Coulter pine is a popular ornamental tree and is grown in many countries. Description ''Pinus coulteri'' is a substantial coniferous evergreen tree in the genus ''Pinus''. The size ranges from tall, and a trunk diameter up to . The trunk is vertical and branches horizontal to upcurved. The leaves are needle-like, in bundles of three, glaucous gray-green, long and stout, thick. The outstanding characteristic of this tree is the large, spiny cones which are long, 23 centimeters (nine inc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Cachuma
Cachuma Lake is a reservoir in the Santa Ynez Valley of central Santa Barbara County, California on the Santa Ynez River adjoining the north side of California State Route 154. The artificial lake was created by the construction of Bradbury Dam, a earth-fill structure built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 1953. Its surface area covers , with a maximum design capacity of , but it is currently limited to due to sediment accumulation. As of May 23, 2019, it is at 80.8% of capacity. History Built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 1953, the name "Cachuma" comes from a Chumash village that the Spanish spelled "Aquitsumu", from the Barbareño Chumash word ''aqitsu'm'', meaning "sign". Body contact activities such as swimming, wading, or water skiing in Cachuma Lake have been restricted since the park opened in the 1950s, reasoning that the lake was a reservoir people depend upon for drinking water. In May 2011, the no body contact regulation was revised to allow human-pow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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