Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Curious about all the rumbling along the San Andreas Fault? Check out
A Land in Motion
by Michael Collier for a photographic overview of the subject, or get the bejeezus scared
out of you by Marc Reisner's part journalistic, part imaginative book,
A Dangerous Place:
California's Unsettling Fate
.
Lay of the Land
California's northern boundary lies at the same Mediterranean latitude as Rome, Italy,
while its southern edge lies at the same desert latitude as Tel Aviv, Israel. Much of the state
remains a biological and geological island cut off from the rest of North America by the
Sierra Nevada range.
Much of California's coast is fronted by rugged coastal mountains that capture life-giv-
ing moisture from summertime fog and winter's water-laden storms. Called the Coast
Ranges, these mountain chains run north and south along most of the shoreline, plunging
west into the wild Pacific Ocean and rolling east toward the sea-level Central Valley.
Over 120in of rain a year fall in the northernmost reaches of the Coast Ranges and, in
some places, persistent summer fog contributes another 12in of precipitation. Nutrient-rich
soils and abundant moisture foster forests of towering trees (where they haven't been
logged, that is), including stands of coast redwoods growing as far south as Big Sur and all
the way north into Oregon.
San Francisco divides the Coast Ranges roughly in half, with the foggy North Coast re-
maining sparsely populated. The Central and Southern California coasts have a balmier
climate and, as a result, many, many more people, especially in urban areas sprawling
from LA to San Diego. South of Santa Barbara, the Coast Ranges are linked to the mighti-
er Sierra Nevada by the Transverse Ranges, one of the USA's only east-west mountain
ranges.
Southern California has a hodgepodge of smaller mountain ranges and desert basins.
The arid Los Angeles Basin fronts the ocean and is partly surrounded by mountains. San
Diego, on the edge of another plateau around 120 miles south of LA, borders Tijuana,
Mexico. More mountains just east of San Diego continue south into Mexico and down the
spine of northern Baja California.
