Overview of Physical Geography in Southern California.

The beautiful landscape of Southern California is extremely varied, with high mountains, huge deserts, sandy and rocky beaches, brushy hills, and broad river valleys that are all relatively very close to each other. Southern California is even more intriguing than its beautiful beaches and lush mountains, and dry deserts. 

The oldest rocks in the region exceed 1.5 billion years in age, and have been affected by many cycles of metamorphism and deformation. Other places in Southern California, recent volcanic activity has produced lots and lots of fresh basalt so young that it has barely begun to weather. The sedimentary rocks of southern California are extremely varied and include materials that originally collected in deep oceans, shallow seas, riverbeds, lakes, beaches, sand dunes, and alluvial fans. 

Sedimentary Rock found in Southern California http://www.google.com/imgres?q=sedimentary+rock&um=1&hl=en&client=safari&sa

The mountains in southern California are actually very young and have formed through normal faulting under tension in the Basin and Range, folding and reverse faulting generated by compression in the Transverse Range, and through faulting related to stress in several places along the San Andreas fault zone. Also in Southern California great quantities of alluvium have been deposited across the floor of the San Joaquin Valley by rivers draining the close highlands. This alluvium, derived from the weathering of granitic rocks in the Sierra Nevada, it is responsible for the fertile soils of the valley. The natural fertility of the San Joaquin soils in parts reflects the mineral nutrients released during chemical weathering. The San Joaquin soil has been designated the official California State Soil. 

The interesting physical geography is a result of the beautiful oceans and mountains and other vast areas of Southern California. Through this course I have learned so much about many beautiful area’s why they are there what are results of things forming and moving and for how they look like the way they are. I never realized how much fun Physical Geography could be!

The next 100 years in Southern California

                  In the next 100 years the sea is bound to rise in Southern California. For at least the past 20,000 years, sea level has been rising as an ongoing episode of global warming and related glacial and icecap melting and retreat. During the last several decades, from the small set of California tide gages, the sea around Southern California are rising about 20 cm per century, very similar to the estimated for the global average sea level. The combination of predicted astronomical tides with projected weather forcing, El Nino related variability and given sea level projections from 2005-2100 are showing evidence of the sea level rising. As well as the gradual sea level rise worsens the impacts of high tides and the surge and waves associated with storms and s well as the fresh water floods from Sierra and costal mountain catchments. This rise in sea level in California can affect beach properties, many famous landmarks, homes, people and slowly a lot of built architecture. California in our time will not be breaking off but the sea level rising is real and will start to be affected during our lifetime.

http://www.water.ca.gov/floodmgmt/dsmo/sab/drmsp/docs/SeaLevel_ClimaticChange-Cayan_etal.pdf

http://cengagesites.com/academic/assets/sites/4004/DeCourten_1424067871_LowRes.pdf

Oceanside where the Grandparent's live!