Transverse Ranges

The Transverse Ranges (or more specifically the Los Angeles Ranges) are a mountain range in Southern California and one of the various Coast Ranges that run along the North American Pacific coast from Alaska to Mexico. You start at the southern end of the California Coast Ranges and lie between the counties of Santa Barbara and San Diego.

The name Transverse Ranges ( German " transverse mountain ranges " ) derives from their east-west orientation. The Transverse Ranges cross the usual in most mountain ranges on the California coast north-south orientation.

Geology

The Transverse Ranges represent a complex of tectonic strength, resulting from the interaction of the Pacific Plate and the North American plate along the San Andreas warping system. Their orientation along the east -west axis is in contrast to the normal southeast-northwest trend of most mountains in California, as a result of a pronounced bend in the San Andreas Fault, whose cause is still subject is an intensive, ongoing study. This height is slightly better -understood as a consequence of this curvature. The crust on the Pacific Plate south of the mountain can not rotate slightly to the west, making the whole plate moves northwestward, whereby pieces of the crust pressed and lifted.

The crust that includes the Transverse Ranges, is part of the Salinian block, originally a part of the North American plate, which broke off what is now northwestern Mexico.

The Transverse Ranges are different physiogeografische parts of the larger Pacific Border province, which in turn is part of the finished shopping Pacific Mountain System. They show extreme differences in geological age and in the composition, varying from sedimentary rocks in the western Santa Ynez and Santa Monica Mountains to mainly granite and metamorphic rocks in the eastern regions, which are abruptly terminated in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains.

Geography

The Transverse Ranges extend predominantly in the east-west direction, while the other coastal mountain range (Central Coast Ranges in the north and the Peninsular Ranges to the south) tend in north-south direction. You start at Point Conception in Santa Barbara County and include the Santa Ynez Mountains, which run parallel to the coast mountains behind Santa Barbara. In Santa Barbara County they further include the San Rafael Mountains and the Sierra Madre Mountains, both stretch approximately from the border of Ventura County. The Transverse Ranges include the Topatopa Mountains and the Santa Susana Mountains in Ventura County and Los Angeles County, the Simi Hills, which the eastern part is known Santa Monica Mountains, which run along the Pacific coast behind Malibu and as Hollywood Hills, the steep San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles, the Puente Hills and Chino Hills and San Bernardino Mountains. In the north of the Transverse Ranges, the Central Coast Ranges, the Central Valley and the Tehachapi Mountains, which separate the Central Valley from the Mojave Desert to the east and connect the Transverse Ranges to the Sierra Nevada. The Mojave Desert and the California dry desert are also part of the Transverse Ranges; San Miguel Iceland, Iceland Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and Anacapa Iceland Iceland are a western extension of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Notable mountains in the Transverse Ranges:

• Mount San Gorgonio ( 3,505 m) in the San Bernardino Mountains
• San Bernardino Peak ( 3,246 m ), also in the San Bernardino Mountains
• Mount San Antonio ( Old Baldy; 3,068 m) in the San Gabriel Mountains
• Mount Wilson ( 1,742 m) in the San Gabriel Mountains
• Mount Pinos ( 2,692 m) in the San Emigdio Mountains
• Frazier Mountain ( 2,446 m ), also in the San Emigdio Mountains
• Reyes Peak ( 2,289 m) in Pine Mountain

Traffic

There are a number of highways that cross the Transverse Ranges, such as ( from west to east ) Interstate 5 through the Tejon Pass, California State Road 14 over the Soledad Pass and Interstate 15 through the Cajon Pass. These highways connecting Southern California with locations in the north and northeast, such as San Francisco or Las Vegas. With the exception of higher passports to the little-traveled California State Routes California State Route 33, California State Route 2, California State Route 330, California State Route 18 and California State Route 38 None of these passes are high with the Cajon Pass with modest 1,277 m above sea level; this means that snow is less of a factor than on the high mountain passes in the north and the Donner Pass here. Sometimes heavy snowfall cause a traffic mess on the Tejon and Cajon passes. Interstate 5 and Interstate 15 know in common heavy traffic on the mountainous route through these mountains.

Ecology

The native plant communities of the Transverse Ranges include coastal sage scrub, chaparral (lower chaparral, upper Chaparral and Wüstenchaparral ), oak forests and savannah, pinyon pine - juniper woodland, yellow pine forest, coastal pine forest and subalpine forest at higher elevations. The Angeles and Los Padres National Forests cover parts of the Transverse Ranges. The mountain ranges are part of the Californian chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, but the eastern end of the mountain range they touch two ecoregions Desert, the Mojave Desert and the Sonoran Desert. The Carrizo Plain abuts the northern end of the Transverse Ranges.

Chaparral is a common feature of the Transverse Ranges. Common plants unite in the chaparral, especially in the transition between coastal chaparral and coastal sage scrub ( California sagebrush and Heteromeles, the latter shrub has as its southern distribution limit the Transverse Ranges).

Urban influence

A number of densely populated coastal plains and interior valleys between the mountain chains. They include the Oxnard Plain in the coastal area of Ventura County, the Santa Clarita Valley north of Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, which consists primarily of the city of Los Angeles. Includes the Los Angeles Basin, the parts of the Los Angeles County south of the Santa Monica Mountains and the greater part of Orange County and the Inland Empire basin, which includes the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, lies between the Transverse Ranges and the Peninsular Ranges to the south.