Salinas River (California)
Map of the Salinas River and its catchment area
The Salinas River in the upper Salinas Valley in San Ardo, in the background oil fields
Template: Infobox River / Obsolete
The Salinas River is a 288 km long river in the U.S. state of California, which rises in the Santa Lucia Mountains and empties into the Pacific Ocean after a northwest track near Salinas in Monterey Bay. Its catchment area covers 10,983 square kilometers in the southern California coastal mountains.
Until well into the 19th century, the mountains and also the California Central Valley were explored unspecified and the Salinas River has been identified in a variety of maps with the legendary and real non-existent Buenaventura River, which the from the Rocky Mountains of the Sierra Nevada in Pacific should flow. This was recognized only after the exploration Jedediah Smith 1827-29 than not, and with the surveying expedition John Charles Frémont in 1844 as impossible.
Course
The river rises at an altitude of 671 meters above sea level in the San Luis Obispo County in Los Padre National Forest, a national forest. The main tributaries are the Estrella River, which Nacamiento River, the San Antonio River, the San Lorenzo Creek and Arroyo Secco River. Its valley is located between the Santa Lucia Mountains in the southwest, the Diablo Range to the east and the Temblor Range to the southeast.
From Atascadero U.S. Highway 101 runs parallel to the river. Above King City, the river opens for the Salinas Valley, it is the most important growing area for different types of vegetables, especially lettuces and artichokes in the United States.
Geology
The headwaters of the Salinas River is located in a zone of the California Coast Range, which is characterized by small-scale faults and folds. The environment is characterized by a syncline in the northeastern direction that follows the river. The structure is formed by plate tectonic processes, the North American Plate moves southward against the Pacific plate, particularly in the San Andreas Fault. The part of the coastal mountain range, where the Salinas River runs lies west of the fault, and thus on a part that is attributable to the Pacific Plate. Originally, the rock of the mountain is created around 600 kilometers to the south and was transported over about 80 million years into the present situation. Geologically it is rocks of the Franciscan Complex, a Mélange tectonics, which is spread from Southern California to Oregon.
The Salinas Valley is located in the lower reaches of this large area extending syncline and was filled from the river itself or its precursors with sediments.
History and status
Originally the coastal mountains of central California were inhabited by Indian peoples. The majority of the Salinas Valley was the habitat Salinas, the Esselen lived on the southwest side near the mouth, the Ohlone (also known as Coastanoan ) in the mountains north of the mouth and along the coast. They all lived mainly from fishing and collecting shells. Acorns were used as carbohydrate suppliers. In addition, the hunt was on small mammals as well as pronghorn, white-tailed deer and elk in the valleys. For this purpose they burned the vegetation from the Talniederung and on the lower slopes at irregular intervals to push back the encroachment and forest cover compared to the herds of hoofed animals for the preferred grassland vegetation.
The first whites were ranchers. Already in 1860 there were in the Salinas Valley with about 70,000 cattle, the same number as today. However, after a short-term drought in the 1870s that uses collapsed, and the irrigated agriculture was developed and expanded in the following decades. Mining played in the valley of Salinas never been a more important role in the 19th century there were small and only briefly rich gold and mercury mines. Crude oil is at San Ardo in the upper Salinas Valley.
Since 1874, there were smaller reservoirs and canals on Salinas River, the river itself, there are today only a small artificial lake, which in 1914 created Santa Margarita Lake on the upper reaches near the mouth. It supplies drinking water to San Luis Obispo. The two tributaries of the Salinas River, Nacamiente River and San Antonio River are, however, accumulated a large area.
The headwaters of the Salinas River and several of its tributaries are the largest habitat for migrant form of rainbow trout in southern and central California. By interfering with the flow of their reproduction is threatened, which is why Stock assessment and protective measures were initiated at Salinas River.
The use of groundwater is now at the forefront of agricultural irrigation. The Salinas River itself provides only a fraction of the required amounts of water. Here, the aquifer has been overexploited since the mid-20th century, since the end of the century penetrates salt water from the Pacific Ocean in the aquifer one, therefore, the use must be significantly more accurate controlled and managed ever since. The runoff of the Salinas River are therefore controlled by the irrigation systems and in controlling the priority is on the groundwater recharge so that only excess amounts of water remain in the river. Due to the heavy usage for irrigation of agricultural land of the river is now much more salts and nutrients than in the natural state.