California Geography

Lowest Point The lowest point in California is in Death Valley. Death Valley lies 282 feet below sea level and is the lowest point in the United States.
 
Highest Point The highest point in California is Mt. Whitney at 14,494 feet. Mt. Whitney is the highest mountain in the contiguous (or connected) 48 states. Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in Alaska, rises 20,320 feet above sea level and is the highest point in the United States.
 
Largest City Los Angeles is the largest city in the state of California. The name "Los Angeles" is Spanish for  "The Angels."
 
Longest River The longest river in California is the Sacramento River. Some other major rivers in California are the San Joaquin River, Colorado River
 
Size of state California is 770 miles long and 250 miles wide at its most distant points. California covers 163,707 square miles, making it the third largest of the 50 states.
 
Earthquakes and Fault Lines The San Andreas Fault—made infamous by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake—is a strike-slip fault. This means two fault blocks are moving past each other horizontally.  After a quake along a strike-slip fault, railroad tracks and fences can show bends and shifts. And, of course, the motion can cause bridges and buildings to collapse. The San Andreas Fault is the main fault line in the state of California.
 
Lakes Lake Tahoe, Salton Sea, Owens Lake, and Searles Lake are large lakes in the state of California. The Salton Sea is the largest lake in the state.
 
Geographical Center The geographic center of California is the city of Fresno.
Longitude: 120° 4.9'W
Latitude: 36° 57.9'N
 
Farming California farmers produce more than 250 different crops, including cotton, almonds, grapes, strawberries, avocadoes, tomatoes, almonds, garlic, oranges, and nectarines.
Fresno and the surrounding area produce about 60 percent of the world’s raisins and about 90 percent of the raisins sold in the United States of America.
 
Climate
Highest Temperature The highest temperature recorded in California is 134°, Fahrenheit. This record high was recorded on July 10, 1993 at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley. This makes for a real hot day!
Lowest Temperature The lowest temperature was recorded on Jan 20, 1937 at Boca. -45° below zero does not make for good beach weather!
Average Temperature Monthly average temperatures range from a high of 92.2 degrees to a low of 14.3 degrees.
Climate As would be expected in such a large and diverse land area as California, the climate is varied. The climate along the coast is mild; cooler along the central and northern coast. Southeastern California is hot and dry. Most of California is marked by only two distinct seasons; a rainy season and a dry season. The rainy season runs from October to April in northern California and from November to March or April in southern California.

Links

Glossary of terms: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Geography/glossary.html

General information about California: http://www.netstate.com/states/intro/ca_intro.htm

Our Famous California State Tree:  http://www.50states.com/tree/California. tm

Map of the United States: http://www.mapsofworld.com/usa/usa-maps/world-map-usa-political.gif

 

 

Sources

Netstate.com. Netstate Web paged past updated September 3, 2006. http://www.netstate.com/states/geography/ca_geography.htm Accessed September 15, 2006.

Salton Sea: http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/salton/Salton%20Sea%20Description.html Accessed September 15, 2006.

Fault lines - Faultline: Seismic Science at the epicenter. Exploratorium © The Exploratorium, www.exploratorium.edu.  http://www.exploratorium.com/faultline/basics/faults.html Accessed September 15, 2006.

Fresno. Pauline Dury 1995. http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~hummingbird/Fresno-County/fresno_county.htm Accessed September 15, 2006.

Created by the Serra Catholic School Technology Team, September 15, 2006.