iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Los Angeles Basin

Enlarge picture
Los Angeles Basin


The Los Angeles Basin is the coastal sediment-filled plain located between the peninsular and transverse ranges in southern California in the United States containing the central part of the city of Los Angeles as well as its southern and southeastern suburbs (both in Los Angeles and Orange counties). It is approximately 35 mi (56 km) long and 15 mi (24 km) wide, bounded on the north by the Santa Monica Mountains and Puente Hills, and on the east and south by the Santa Ana Mountains and San Joaquin Hills. The Palos Verdes Peninsula, formerly an island, marks the outer edge of the basin along the coast.

Geology

The sediment in the basin is up to 6 mi (11 km) deep. The basin began to form during the Neogene approximately 15 million years ago (mya), when the terrain was underwater, during a crustal upheaval caused by a clockwise shift in the surrounding mountains. The underlying crustal weakening resulted in the formation of the large bowl of the basin. Sediment from the sea and rivers accumulated in the undersea bowl, building up in thick layers.

Petroleum

The accumulation of micro-organisms during this time is believed to be the source of the large deposits of oil, including the large Wilmington Oil Field, that were once under the basin but have been largely extracted. Approximately 5 million years ago, the crustal stretching subsided and the ocean floor of the basin was forced to the surface. Additional sediment accumulated during the upswell resulting in the floor of the basin as it exists today.

Earthquakes

The sedimentary character of the basin is the principal reason why it is considered especially susceptible to excessive damage during earthquakes. The basin is often compared by geologists to a "a bowl of jelly" that can shake violently when driven by seismic activity.

Subsidence

Its loose rock structure has also led to numerous instances of subsidence as a result of petroleum extraction, the most spectacular examples being the Baldwin Hills dam collapse of 1963 and the sinking of the bed of Long Beach Harbor by several meters.

Gallery




NASA computer-generated composite

Los Angeles Basin at dawn

LA Basin at night from Griffith Observatory


See also

External links


 •  • [ e]
State of California
Sacramento (capital)
Topics Climate | Culture | Districts | Economy | Elections | Geography | Government | Early History | Modern History | Politics | Californians
Regions Antelope Valley | Big Sur | Cascade Range | Central Coast | Central Valley | Channel Islands | Coachella Valley | Conejo Valley | Cucamonga Valley | Death Valley | East Bay (SF) | Eastern California | Emerald Triangle | Gold Country | Great Basin | Greater Los Angeles | Inland Empire | Lake Tahoe | Los Angeles Basin | Mojave | North Bay (SF) | North Coast | Northern California | Owens Valley | The Peninsula | Pomona Valley | Redwood Empire | Russian River | Sacramento Valley | San Fernando Valley | San Francisco Bay Area | San Joaquin Valley | Santa Clarita Valley | Shasta Cascade | Sierra Nevada | Silicon Valley | South Bay (SF) | Southern California | Tech Coast | Tri‑Valley | Wine Country | Yosemite
Metro areas Bakersfield | Chico | El Centro | Fresno | Los Angeles–Long Beach–Glendale | Madera | Modesto | Merced | Napa | Oakland–Fremont–Hayward | Oxnard–Thousand Oaks–Ventura | Redding | Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario | Sacramento–Roseville | Salinas | San Diego–Carlsbad–San Marcos | San Francisco–San Mateo–Redwood City | San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara | Santa Ana–Anaheim–Irvine | Santa Barbara–Santa Maria | Santa Cruz–Watsonville | Santa Rosa–Petaluma | Stockton | Vallejo–Fairfield | Visalia–Porterville | Yuba City
Counties Alameda | Alpine | Amador | Butte | Calaveras | Colusa | Contra Costa | Del Norte | El Dorado | Fresno | Glenn | Humboldt | Imperial | Inyo | Kern | Kings | Lake | Lassen | Los Angeles | Madera | Marin | Mariposa | Mendocino | Merced | Modoc | Mono | Monterey | Napa | Nevada | Orange | Placer | Plumas | Riverside | Sacramento | San Benito | San Bernardino | San Diego | San Francisco | San Joaquin | San Luis Obispo | San Mateo | Santa Barbara | Santa Clara | Santa Cruz | Shasta | Sierra | Siskiyou | Solano | Sonoma | Stanislaus | Sutter | Tehama | Trinity | Tulare | Tuolumne | Ventura | Yolo | Yuba
Sediment is any particulate matter that can be transported by fluid flow and which eventually is deposited as a layer of solid particles on the bed or bottom of a body of water or other liquid. Sedimentation is the deposition by settling of a suspended material.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Peninsular Ranges are a group of mountain ranges which stretch 1500 km (900 miles) from southern California in the United States to the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California peninsula; they are part of the North American Coast Ranges that run along the Pacific coast from
..... Click the link for more information.
The Transverse ranges are a group of mountain ranges of southern California, part of the North American Coast Ranges that run along the Pacific coast from Alaska to Mexico.
..... Click the link for more information.
Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism.
If you are prevented from editing this page, and you wish to make a change, please discuss changes on the talk page, request unprotection, log in, or .
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
..... Click the link for more information.
City of Los Angeles

Flag
Seal
Nickname: The City of Angels, L.A.
Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California
Coordinates:
State
..... Click the link for more information.
Los Angeles County is a county in California and is by far the most populous county in the United States. Figures from the U.S. Census Bureau give an estimated 2006 population of 9,948,081 residents, [1] while the California State government's population bureau
..... Click the link for more information.
Orange County is a county in Southern California, United States. Its county seat is Santa Ana. According to the 2000 Census, its population was 2,846,289, making it the second most populous county in the state of California, and the fifth most populous in the United States.
..... Click the link for more information.
Santa Monica Mountains



Country | United States
State | California
Counties | Los Angeles,Ventura

Highest point |
..... Click the link for more information.
Puente Hills is a chain of hills in an unincorporated area in eastern Los Angeles County, California. It lies to the south of the San Gabriel Valley and the Pomona Freeway (California State Route 60), to the east of the San Gabriel River Freeway (Interstate 605), to the north of
..... Click the link for more information.
Santa Ana Mountains are a short peninsular mountain range along the coast of Southern California in the United States. They extend for approximately 35 mi (56 km) southeast of the Los Angeles Basin largely along the border between Orange and Riverside counties.
..... Click the link for more information.
The San Joaquin Hills are a set of low hills in coastal Orange County, California. The hills extend in a northwest-southeast direction, starting in the northwest in Newport Beach at the southern edge of the Los Angeles Basin, and extending southeast to San Juan Capistrano.
..... Click the link for more information.
Palos Verdes is often used to refer to a group of coastal cities on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in the Los Angeles/South Bay area of California. This affluent bedroom community is known for its dramatic views, good schools [1] extensive horse trails [2]
..... Click the link for more information.
For the hawkmoth genus, see Neogene (moth).


Neogene Period is a unit of geologic time starting 23.03 ± 0.05 million years ago. The Neogene Period follows the Paleogene Period of the Cenozoic Era.
..... Click the link for more information.
mya or "m.y.a." is an abbreviation for million years ago. This abbreviation is commonly used as a unit of time to denote length of time before the present or "B.P." (before AD 1950). Specifically, one mya is equal to 106 years ago.
..... Click the link for more information.
microorganism (also spelled as microrganism) or microbe is an organism that is microscopic (too small to be seen by the human eye). The study of microorganisms is called microbiology.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Wilmington Oil Field is a large petroleum field in Los Angeles County in southern California in the United States. Discovered in 1932, it is the third largest oil field ever found in the United States.
..... Click the link for more information.
Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism.
If you are prevented from editing this page, and you wish to make a change, please discuss changes on the talk page, request unprotection, log in, or .
..... Click the link for more information.
A geologist is a contributor to the science of geology, studying the physical structure and processes of the Earth and planets of the solar system (see planetary geology).
..... Click the link for more information.
Seismology (from the Greek seismos = earthquake and λόγος,logos = knowledge ) is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth.
..... Click the link for more information.
Baldwin Hills is a district in southwestern Los Angeles, California, in South Los Angeles. It is located on the central hills overlooking the Los Angeles Basin, and in the flats immediately to their north.
..... Click the link for more information.
Long Beach, California

Seal
Nickname: The International City (on flag), Friendly City (in Latin on city's seal), the LBC, or The City By The Sea
..... Click the link for more information.
Griffith Observatory is located in Los Angeles, California, United States. Sitting on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood in L.A.'s Griffith Park, it commands a view of the Los Angeles Basin, including downtown Los Angeles to the southeast, Hollywood to the south, and the
..... Click the link for more information.
The Oxnard Plain is a large coastal plain in southwest Ventura County, California bounded by the Santa Monica Mountains, the Santa Susana Mountains, and Oak Ridge (beyond which lies the Conejo Valley) to the east, the Topatopa Mountains to the north, the Santa Clara River Valley
..... Click the link for more information.
San Joaquin Valley (English pronunciation in IPA: ['sæn wɑˈkin]) refers to the area of the Central Valley of California that lies south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in Stockton.
..... Click the link for more information.
Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism.
If you are prevented from editing this page, and you wish to make a change, please discuss changes on the talk page, request unprotection, log in, or .
..... Click the link for more information.
City of Sacramento, California

Flag
Seal
Location of Sacramento in Sacramento County, California
Coordinates:
Country United States
State California
..... Click the link for more information.
list of current and former national and subnational capital cities in the United States, which includes the legislature or seat of government of all states, territories, colonies, or kingdoms that are or were located in the United States, organized by current U.S. state location.
..... Click the link for more information.
California's climate changes varies widely, from arid to subarctic, depending on latitude, elevation, and proximity to the coast. Some of the state has a Mediterranean climate, with rainy winters and dry summers.
..... Click the link for more information.
The culture of California is a Western culture and most clearly has its roots in the culture of the United States. As a border and coastal state, however, Californian culture has been greatly influenced by several large immigrant populations, especially those from Latin America and
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter