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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] |
Santa Ynez Mountains
The Santa Ynez Mountains are a portion of the Transverse Ranges, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges of the west coast of North America. It is the westernmost range in the Transverse Ranges. The range is a large fault block of Cenozoic age created by the movements of the Santa Ynez Fault. A very narrow range, the Santa Ynez Mountains rise quickly on its north side and drops off equally dramatically along the range's south face along the Gaviota Coast. The Santa Ynez Mountains begin as a series of volcanic hills near Point Arguello, and gradually transitions eastward into a single, well-defined ridge extending from Gaviota Peak to Matilija Creek. The range is approximately contiguous with the Topatopa Mountains beyond to the east, which terminates abruptly at Sespe Creek. The climate of the range is Mediterranean with most of the precipitation falling between November and March. Most of the range lies in the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. At the crest and on the nort ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ventura River
The Ventura River, in western Ventura County in southern California, United States, flows from its headwaters to the Pacific Ocean. The smallest of the three major rivers in Ventura County, it flows through the steeply sloped, narrow Ventura Valley, with its final through the broader Ventura River estuary, which extends from where it crosses under a U.S. Route 101 in California, 101 Freeway bridge through to the Pacific Ocean. Physical geography Watershed The Ventura River watershed encompasses consisting of steep mountains and foothills, with altitudes ranging from to sea level. Valley floors are home to communities and farms. Conditions in much of the watershed remain natural and undeveloped, with 57% of its land area in protected status. Most of the watershed's primary streams and drainages are unchannelized, though the natural hydrologic patterns have been modified by two dams (the Casitas and Matilija) and three levees (the Ventura River, Casitas Springs, and Live Oak). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pacific Plate
The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At , it is the largest tectonic plate. The plate first came into existence 190 million years ago, at the triple junction between the Farallon, Phoenix, and Izanagi Plates. The Pacific Plate subsequently grew to where it underlies most of the Pacific Ocean basin. This reduced the Farallon Plate to a few remnants along the west coast of North America and the Phoenix Plate to a small remnant near the Drake Passage, and destroyed the Izanagi Plate by subduction under Asia. The Pacific Plate contains an interior hot spot forming the Hawaiian Islands. Boundaries The north-eastern side is a divergent boundary with the Explorer Plate, the Juan de Fuca Plate and the Gorda Plate forming respectively the Explorer Ridge, the Juan de Fuca Ridge and the Gorda Ridge. In the middle of the eastern side is a transform boundary with the North American Plate along the San Andreas Fault, and a boundary with the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58See the 2014 version of the ICS geologic time scale million years ago. It is the second and most recent epoch of the Neogene Period in the . The Pliocene follows the Epoch and is followed by the Epoch. Prior to the 2009 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quaternary
The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ago to the present. The Quaternary Period is divided into two epochs: the Pleistocene (2.58 million years ago to 11.7 thousand years ago) and the Holocene (11.7 thousand years ago to today, although a third epoch, the Anthropocene, has been proposed but is not yet officially recognised by the ICS). The Quaternary Period is typically defined by the cyclic growth and decay of continental ice sheets related to the Milankovitch cycles and the associated climate and environmental changes that they caused. Research history In 1759 Giovanni Arduino proposed that the geological strata of northern Italy could be divided into four successive formations or "orders" ( it, quattro ordini). The term "quaternary" was introduced by Jules Desnoye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaviota, California
Gaviota (Spanish for "Seagull") is an unincorporated community in Santa Barbara County, California on the Gaviota Coast about west of Santa Barbara and south of Buellton. Approximately 70 people live in Gaviota. The town is south and east of Gaviota State Park. The road to Hollister Ranch, the large private land holding along the coast between Gaviota and Point Conception, connects with U.S. 101 just west of Gaviota, at the turnoff to Gaviota State Park. Industries include organic farming, ranching, and woodworking. Free range cattle can be seen roaming and grazing throughout the area. Gaviota is also home to a marine mammal rehabilitation center named The Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute (CIMWI.org) which opened in 2006 at the historic Vista Del Mar School grounds. Gaviota was once the location of the Gaviota Marine Terminal, which is currently being decommissioned and abandoned, with intent to become public open space. On the mountain side of the freeway ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chaparral
Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet winters and hot dry summers) and infrequent, high-intensity crown fires. Chaparral features summer-drought-tolerant plants with hard sclerophyllous evergreen leaves, as contrasted with the associated soft-leaved, drought-deciduous, scrub community of coastal sage scrub, found often on drier, southern facing slopes within the chaparral biome. Three other closely related chaparral shrubland systems occur in central Arizona, western Texas, and along the eastern side of central Mexico's mountain chains (mexical), all having summer rains in contrast to the Mediterranean climate of other chaparral formations. Chaparral comprises 9% of California's wildland vegetation and contains 20% of its plant species. The name comes from th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2018 Southern California Mudflows
A series of mudflows occurred in Southern California in early January 2018, particularly affecting areas northwest of Montecito in Santa Barbara County. The incident was responsible for 23 deaths, although the body of one of the victims has never been found. Approximately 163 people were hospitalized with various injuries, including four in critical condition. The disaster occurred one month after a series of major wildfires. The conflagrations devastated steep slopes, which caused loss of vegetation and destabilization of the soil and greatly facilitated subsequent mudflows. The mudflows caused at least $177 million (2018 USD) in property damage, and cost at least $7 million in emergency responses and another $43 million (2018 USD) to clean up. Background The 2017 California wildfire season was at the time the most destructive in California's history, with approximately 9,133 wildfires that burned over and killed 46 people. At the beginning of December, the Santa Ana winds f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sespe Formation
The Sespe Formation is a widespread fossiliferous sedimentary geologic unit in southern and south central California in the United States. It is of nonmarine origin, consisting predominantly of sandstones and conglomerates laid down in a riverine, shoreline, and floodplain environment between the upper Eocene Epoch (around 40 million years ago) through the lower Miocene. It is often distinctive in appearance, with its sandstones weathering to reddish-brown, maroon, pinkish-gray, tan, and green. Since many of its sandstones are more resistant to erosion than many other regional sedimentary units it often forms dramatic outcrops and ridgelines in many local mountain ranges. Type locality The type locality of the Sespe is along Sespe Creek in the Topatopa Mountains, about four miles (6 km) north of Fillmore, where it was first named in 1897 and redefined in 1924. Subdivision The Sespe Formation has been divided into three clearly differentiable subunits, designed Lower, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coldwater Sandstone
The Coldwater Sandstone (or Coldwater Formation) is a sedimentary geologic unit of Eocene age found in Southern California, primarily in and south of the Santa Ynez Mountains of Santa Barbara County, and east into Ventura County. It consists primarily of massive arkosic sandstone with some siltstone and shale. Being exceptionally resistant to erosion, outcrops of the Coldwater form some of the most dramatic terrain on the south slope of the Santa Ynez Mountains, with immense white sculpted slabs forming peaks, hogback ridges, and sheer cliff faces.Minor, S.A., Kellogg, K.S., Stanley, R.G., Gurrola, L.D., Keller, E.A., and Brandt, T.R., 2009, Geologic Map of the Santa Barbara Coastal Plain Area, Santa Barbara County, California: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3001, scale 1:25,000, 1 sheet, pamphlet, 38 p. Type locality, description, and occurrence The type locality for the Coldwater Sandstone is in Coldwater Canyon, a western branch of the Sespe River ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sespe Creek
Sespe Creek (Chumash: S'eqp'e', "Kneecap") is a stream, some long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 16, 2011 in Ventura County, southern California, in the Western United States. The creek starts at Potrero Seco in the eastern Sierra Madre Mountains, and is formed by more than thirty tributary streams of the Sierra Madre and Topatopa Mountains, before it empties into the Santa Clara River in Fillmore. Thirty-one miles (50 km) of Sespe Creek is designated as a National Wild and Scenic River and National Scenic Waterway, and is untouched by dams or concrete channels. It is one of the last wild rivers in Southern California. It is primarily within the southern Los Padres National Forest. The name Sespe can be traced to a Chumash Indian village, called Cepsey, Sek-pe or S'eqpe' ("Kneecap") in the Chumash language in 1791. The village appeared in a Mexican Alta California land grant called Ran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piru Creek
Piru Creek is a major stream, about long, in northern Los Angeles County and eastern Ventura County, California. It is a tributary of the Santa Clara River, the largest stream system in Southern California that is still relatively natural. The creek drains an area of about , making it the Santa Clara River's biggest tributary in terms of watershed size.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map Retrieved 2011-03-16. Most of the creek above Lake Piru is located in the Los Padres National Forest. There are two major reservoirs on Piru Creek, Lake Piru and Pyramid Lake, which respectively store water for local irrigation and the California State Water Project. Course Piru Creek originates as several small springs on the north side of Pine Mountain Ridge in the Santa Ynez Mountains, in the Los Padres National Forest. It flows eastwards through a gentle valley, where it is joined by Cedar Creek from the right. After the Cedar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
