PowerPoint Presentation
The Santa Ynez Mountains The Santa Ynez Mountains part of the
Transverse Ranges of Southern California, portray a geographical
pattern by their formation running entirely east- west of the Santa
Barbara Coast. This mountain range runs as oppose to the majority
of mountain ranges trending in the north-south direction. Why are
these mountains formed in such manner? The process initiated
approximately five million years ago through a thrust fault. This
occurs through a breakage and uplift in the Earths crust where
slabs of crust slip and pass one another along the plane boundaries
eventually creating these mountains. The direction of the mountains
results from plate tectonic movement repeatedly occurring in this
location that caused the Pacific Plate to subduct underneath the
continental North American Plate. These movements have caused the
mountain ranges to move around and rotate into its current
position. Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Ynez_MountainsScreencast:
https://youtu.be/o4uI_ZUmVpc
The Channel IslandsParagraph caption: The visible feature in
this regional scaled map shows a chain of four islands. These
islands include: The San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and Anacapa
Island. All of these islands pertain to the Channel Islands running
parallel to the south of the Santa Ynez Mountains. The process of
these islands arises from the constant repetition of tectonic
uplift and subduction. What this means is that at some point, plate
tectonic movement repeatedly occurred causing the Pacific Plate to
interact and subduct underneath the continental North American
Plate. These movements are what also caused the islands to form
into their present position running east- west similarly and
parallel to the Santa Ynez Mountains. Sources:
http://www.nps.gov/chis/learn/nature/geologicformations.htm
Mountain direction trend in the U.S.
Paragraph caption: The global map allows us to see some of the
mountain trends in the United States predominantly running north-
south (labeled in blue dots). For example: The Appalachian
Mountains run entirely in the north-south direction. In the
contrary, there are only a few mountain ranges running in the
east-west direction (labeled with a mountain icon). This example is
visible seen in the previous maps with the Santa Ynez Mountains.
Although, there is no affirmative answer as to why most mountains
run north- south, many scientist believe that mountain ranges
usually run parallel to tectonic plate boundaries. Another thought
is that since our North American plate travels west at some point
when it collided with the Pacific Plate this created the formations
of most of our mountains running north-south. Sources:
https://www.rain.org/~mkummel/stumpers/06nov98a.html