Chapter 15: California

  In chapter 14 we learn about the state of California. Many view this state as the desirable ideal of a modern American lifestyle. The physical environment is lined by a series of long, linear mountain ranges that trend in a northwesterly direction; directly called the Coast Ranges. Pressures from the tectonic plate contact, summits are heavily folded and faulted. According to the book, the most famous fault is the San Andreas Fault and it extends from the Gulf of California through the Imperial Valley to Point Arena north of San Francisco, where it extends into the Pacific Ocean. In Nevada, the Sierra Nevada Mountains are near the western edge of the North American Plate