See also
- Ocotillo Formation — fluvial-alluvial fan Pliocene formation
- Quaternary California
- List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in California
- Paleontology in California
| Palm Spring Formation | |
|---|---|
| Stratigraphic range: Lower Pleistocene | |
| Type | Geologic formation |
| Underlies | Vallecito Badlands |
| Overlies | Imperial Formation, Ocotillo Formation |
| Location | |
| Region | Colorado Desert, California |
| Country | United States |
The Palm Spring Formation is a Pleistocene Epoch geologic formation in the eastern Colorado Desert of Imperial County and San Diego County County, Southern California.
The Palm Spring Formation is an extensively-exposed delta-plain deposit debouched by the ancestral Colorado River across the subsiding Salton Trough. [1] It records the development of the prehistoric Colorado River delta cone into a barrier excluding marine waters from the Salton Trough. [2]
It preserves fossils from the Pleistocene Epoch, during the Quaternary Period of the Cenozoic Era. [3]
Lower Pliocene sub−period petrified wood is found in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. [4] The Lauraceae is represented by petrified Umbellularia , the Salicaceae with petrified Populus and Salix , and the Juglandaceae with petrified Juglans . [4]
The Imperial Valley of Southern California lies in Imperial and Riverside counties, with an urban area centered on the city of El Centro. The Valley is bordered by the Colorado River to the east and, in part, the Salton Sea to the west. Farther west lies the San Diego and Imperial County border. To the north is the Coachella Valley region of Riverside County, which together with Imperial Valley form the Salton Trough, or the Cahuilla Basin, also the county line of Imperial and Riverside counties, and to the south the international boundary with Mexico.
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is a California State Park located within the Colorado Desert of Southern California, United States. The park takes its name from 18th century Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and borrego, a Spanish word for sheep. With 585,930 acres (237,120 ha) that includes one-fifth of San Diego County, it is the largest state park in California and the third largest state park nationally.
The Low Desert is a common name for any desert in California that is under 2,000 feet in altitude. These areas include, but are not exclusive to, the Colorado Desert and Yuha Desert branches of the Sonoran Desert, in the far southeasternmost portion of Southern California. The Low Desert is distinguished in biogeography from the adjacent northern High Desert or Mojave Desert by latitude, elevation, animal life, climate, and native plant communities.
The Santa Rosa Mountains are a short mountain range in the Peninsular Ranges system, located east of the Los Angeles Basin and northeast of the San Diego metropolitan area of southern California, in the southwestern United States.
Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert located in California, United States and Baja California, Mexico. It encompasses approximately 7 million acres, including the heavily irrigated Coachella, Imperial and Mexicali valleys. It is home to many unique flora and fauna.
The Coyote Mountains are a small mountain range in San Diego and Imperial Counties in southern California. The Coyotes form a narrow ESE trending 2 mi (3.2 km) wide range with a length of about 12 mi (19 km). The southeast end turns and forms a 2 mi (3.2 km) north trending "hook". The highest point is Carrizo Mountain on the northeast end with an elevation of 2,408 feet (734 m). Mine Peak at the northwest end of the range has an elevation of 1,850 ft (560 m). Coyote Wash along I-8 along the southeast margin of the range is 100 to 300 feet in elevation. Plaster City lies in the Yuha Desert about 5.5 mi (8.9 km) east of the east end of the range.
Palm Spring is a spring in Mesquite Oasis, a desert oasis amidst a mesquite thicket and a few palms, close to Carrizo Creek, within the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County, California.
San Felipe Creek is a stream in Imperial and San Diego Counties of California. It arises in the Volcan Mountains of San Diego County 33°11′57″N116°37′35″W, and runs eastward, gathering the waters of most of the eastern slope of the mountains and desert of the county in the San Sebastian Marsh before it empties into the Salton Sea. It is probably the last remaining perennial natural desert stream in the Colorado Desert region. In 1974, the San Felipe Creek Area was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.
The Brawley Formation is a geologic formation in the Colorado Desert of Southern California, located in northwestern Imperial County and eastern San Diego County.
The Ocotillo Formation is a Pliocene fluvial-alluvial fan geologic formation in the Colorado Desert of Southern California.
The Imperial Formation is the name of two distinct and unrelated geologic formations in North America, of different geologic Eras.
Lake Cahuilla was a prehistoric lake in California and northern Mexico. Located in the Coachella and Imperial valleys, it covered surface areas of 5,700 km2 (2,200 sq mi) to a height of 12 m (39 ft) above sea level during the Holocene. During earlier stages of the Pleistocene, the lake reached even higher elevations, up to 31–52 m (102–171 ft) above sea level. During the Holocene most of the water came from the Colorado River with little contribution from local runoff; in the Pleistocene local runoff was higher and it is possible that Lake Cahuilla was supported solely from local water sources during the Wisconsin glaciation. The lake overflowed close to Cerro Prieto into the Rio Hardy, eventually draining into the Gulf of California.
Borrego Valley Groundwater Basin, located in the very southern region of California, is one of the driest basins in the state. With climate change predicted to have strong effects into foreseeable future, the region is viewed with a skepticism in the sustainable use of water at current rates of consumption. Both natural and man-made geographic divisions within this basin allow for a closer inspection of the various management techniques implemented throughout the years, and provide a basis for what may be pursued for an uncertain future.
Goat Canyon is a valley in San Diego County, California, United States, located within the Carrizo Gorge in the Jacumba Mountains. The rock forming the canyon is crystalline basement. One feature of the canyon is a dry waterfall. The canyon is bridged by a wooden railroad trestle, the Goat Canyon Trestle, which is the world's largest curved all-wood trestle. The canyon is accessible by trail by traveling west from Mortero Palms.
The Salton Buttes are a group of volcanoes in Southern California, on the Salton Sea. They consist of a 7-kilometer (4.3 mi)-long row of five lava domes, named Mullet Island, North Red Hill, Obsidian Butte, Rock Hill and South Red Hill. They are closely associated with a fumarolic field and a geothermal field, and there is evidence of buried volcanoes underground. In pre-modern times Obsidian Butte was an important regional source of obsidian.
The 1968 Borrego Mountain earthquake occurred on April 8, at 18:28 PST in the geologically active Salton Trough of Southern California. The Salton Trough represents a pull-apart basin formed by movements along major faults. This region is dominated by major strike-slip faults one of them being the San Jacinto Fault which produced the 1968 earthquake. The mainshock's epicenter was near the unincorporated community of Ocotillo Wells in San Diego County. The moment magnitude (Mw ) 6.6 strike-slip earthquake struck with a focal depth of 11.1 km (6.9 mi). The zone of surface rupture was assigned a maximum Modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) of VII.
The San Felipe Fault Zone is an active Quaternary fault zone made up of continuous right-lateral fault strands]. It is a part of the San Andreas Fault system and it is located in the western Salton Trough spanning three counties: Imperial, Riverside, and San Diego county, California. It is hypothesized to have originated during the early Pleistocene period.
Yaqui Well is a historic spring located in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in southeastern San Diego County, California in the United States about 21.4 mi (34.4 km) east of Warner Springs. The watering hole can be reached by a popular 1.64 mi (2.64 km) one-hour hiking trail starting at Tamarisk Grove Campground. The trail was described in the New York Times as a "flat, gentle hike—the kind that wraps around small, sloping hills, abuts a shallow canyon, and rewards its guests with an otherworldly view of the desert at the finale."
San Gregorio campsite at the Borrego Sink in the Borrego Valley, Borrego Springs, California, in San Diego County, is a California Historical Landmark No. 673 listed on February 16, 1959. The San Gregorio campsite was a desert camp for the Spanish Commander Juan Bautista de Anza's expedition of 1775 and 1776. The expedition passed through the Imperial Valley then through the Colorado Desert, now the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The expedition's goal was to start Spanish missions in California and presidio forts through Las Californias to the San Francisco Bay. The expedition route is now the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail.
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