Landform Provinces - Worksheet
Newer Worksheet -- referencing Geology of California and the Geomorphic Provinces / Geology (CGS-Note 36)
1. The Sierra Nevada is a ____________________ nearly 400 miles long. According to our web notes & packet, this mountain range has a massive _____________________. Note only is the National Park of Yosemite located here, but also _______________________ National Parks. Through it runs the famous __________________________. In the foothills lies many old mining towns of the ______________. The metamorphic bedrock contains _____________ veins in the northwest trending Mother Lode. (Hint: this answers is from the CGS-Note 36 readings).
The upper courses, especially in massive granites of the higher Sierra Nevada, like in Yosemite, are modified & sculpted by glaciers sculpturing, forming such deep "U" shaped valleys. The high crest culminates in Mt. Whitney with an elevation of 14,495 feet above sea level near the eastern scarp. (Mt. Whitney is the tallest mountain peak in the continental United States.)The metamorphic bedrock contains _____________ veins in the northwest trending Mother Lode.
2. The Great Valley (often called the Great Central Valley) is an ____________ plain about 50 miles wide and 400 miles long in the central part of California. Its northern part is the Sacramento Valley, drained by the ______________ River and its southern part is the San Joaquin Valley drained by the _____________ River. The Great Valley is a trough in which sediments have been deposited almost continuously since the Jurassic (about 160 million years ago). Great _____ fields have been found in southernmost San Joaquin Valley and along anticlinal uplifts on its southwestern margin. In the Sacramento Valley, the _________ Buttes, the remnants of an isolated Pliocene volcano (roughly 5 million years ago), rise above the valley floor near us in Rocklin.
3. The Coast Ranges are northwest-trending mountain ranges (2,000 to 4,000, occasionally 6,000 feet elevation above sea level), and valleys. The ranges and valleys trend northwest, subparallel to the ____________ Fault. To the west is the Pacific Ocean, where the coastline is uplifted, terraced and wave-cut. The Coast Ranges are composed of thick Mesozoic and Cenozoic _____________ strata. The northern and southern ranges are separated by a depression containing the _______________ Bay. The northern Coast Ranges are dominated by irregular, knobby, landslide-topography of the Franciscan Complex. The Coast Ranges are subparallel to the active __________ Fault, which is more than 600 miles long, extending from Pt. Arena to the Gulf of California.
4. The Basin and Range is the westernmost part of the Great Basin. (From our California Geography perspective, we often use these names of Basin and Range and
Great Basin interchangeably. They're the same. The province is characterized by____________ drainage with lakes and playas, and the typical _______ and graben structure (which are sub-parallel, fault-bounded ranges separated by down-dropped basins). Death Valley, the _________ area in the United States (280 feet below sea level at Badwater. Calif.), is one of these ____________. Another graben, Owens Valley, lies between the bold eastern fault scarp of the Sierra Nevada and the Inyo Mountains.
5. The Transverse Ranges are an ____________ trending series of steep mountain ranges and valleys. The east-west structure of the Transverse Ranges is oblique to the normal northwest trend of coastal California, hence the name "Transverse." The province extends offshore to include San Miguel, Santa Rosa, and Santa Cruz islands. Its eastern extension, the San Bernardino Mountains, has been displaced to the south along the San Andreas Fault. Intense north-south _____________ is squeezing (and folding) the Transverse Ranges. As a result, this is one of the most rapidly rising regions on earth. Great thicknesses of Cenozoic petroleum-rich sedimentary rocks have been folded and faulted, making this one of the important ____ - producing areas in the United States. As mentioned in videos, the San Andreas Fault system runs through the Coast Ranges, the Transverse Ranges and into the Gulf of _____________.
6. Peninsular Ranges - A series of ranges is separated by northwest trending valleys, subparallel to faults branching from the San Andreas Fault. The trend of topography is similar to the ______________, but the geology is more like the Sierra Nevada (like with granites). The Peninsular Ranges extend into lower (Baja, Mexico) California and are bound on the east by the Colorado Desert. The Los Angeles Basin and the island group ( ______________ Island, Santa Barbara Island, and the distinctly terraced San Clemente and San Nicolas islands), together with the surrounding continental shelf (cut by deep submarine fault troughs), are included in this province.
7. Cascade Range and Modoc Plateau - According to the web notes & packet, this geomorphic province is dominated by ______________, such as Mt Shasta. It's isolation led to the past idea of separating this region as a new state (which also popular today). This was known as the "State of _____________." Futhermore, this area has scattered population and lots of cattle ranching & farming, with some towns like Yreka and _____________________________ in the extreme north end of California.