The climate in California ranges from Mediterranean along its coasts to alpine in its mountains and deserts in its eastern regions. Gold Country, located north of Sacramento in the Sierra Nevada foothills it is known for its gold mining heritage and outdoor activities.Shasta Cascade Region, located in northern California near the Oregon state line, has several national parks, such as Lassen Volcanic and Shasta Lake National Parks.San Diego County/Imperial County in Southern California's border region with Mexico.The Pacific Coast Region, which encompasses the coastline from Mendocino County to San Diego County.The High Desert, which is home to desert landscapes such as Death Valley National Park.

The Inland Empire, which is located east of Los Angeles and includes Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Northern California, which includes the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento Valley, and Sierra Nevada mountain range.

The Central Valley, which is known for its extensive agricultural production.

Greater Los Angeles, which includes the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area and other nearby cities such as Santa Barbara and Ventura.

The Basin, part of Death Valley, is remarkably the lowest point in North America as well.Ĭalifornia can be divided into nine geographical regions. The highest point in California is Mount Whitney at 14,494 feet above sea level, while the lowest point is Badwater Basin at 282 feet below sea level. Most of California's terrain is mountainous, much of which is part of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. It covers an area of 163,696 square miles, making it the third largest state in terms of size behind Alaska and Texas. state located on the west coast of North America, bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and Mexico to the south. The Colorado delta is bisected by the Untied States-Mexico border the gulf north of the 'midriff islands,' which congest it near lat 29°N, is politically part of the internal waters of Mexico, and the remainder is within the exclusive economic zone of Mexico.California is a U.S. At the northern 'head of the gulf,' the delta of the Colorado River has extended across the structural depression and isolated the Salton Trough, part of the gulf province now exposed as dry land (except for the artificial Salton Sea), though much of it is below sea level. Marine geologic and geophysical data across the East Pacific Rise in this 'mouth of the gulf' region are reviewed because they prove to be critical for determining the initiation and tectonic evolution of the entire province. In the south, the continental margin conjugate to the rifted tip of Baja California is in the vicinity of the Tres Marias Islands, well outside the gulf proper.

The gulf structural province, defined as the complex trough left in the wake of the northwest-drifting peninsula, extends beyond the hydrographic limits of the gulf. The gulf waters flood part of a structural depression that was formed by detachment and oblique separation of the peninsula from the continent, and is occupied by the Pacific-North America plate boundary. The Gulf of California, or Sea of Cortez, is an arm of the Pacific 100 to 150 km wide between the Mexican mainland and the 1,200-km-long peninsula of Baja California. Three separate oversize plates illustrate the bathymetry of the northeast Pacific two more on the same base show distribution of sediment samples and types and magnetic anomaly data and tectonic interpretations and others include a synthesis of the geology and bathymetry of the Hawaiian Islands, details of bathymetry along parts of the East Pacific Rise, and a major seismic profile across the Pacific margin of Guatemala. It also includes: six chapters on various aspects of tectonics, petrologic characteristics, and hydrothermal processes of active ridges from the Galapagos Rift to the Juan de Fuca Ridge a section on mid-plate volcanism, including the Hawaii-Emperor chain five chapters on various aspects of northeastern Pacific sedimentary regimes and nine chapters on the geology of the Pacific continental margin from the Aleutians to Guatemala, seen from the perspective of marine geology.

This new synthesis includes a section on plate kinematics, documenting the basis for a new interpretation of the magnetic anomaly patterns.

Gulf of california map