Temblor Range: Difference between revisions

{{Infobox mountain range

| map_caption = location of Temblor Range in [[California]] <ref name="gnis">{{cite gnis|id=254329|name=Temblor Range|accessdate=2009-05-04}}</ref>

Peaks within the Temblor Range average about {{convert|3500&nbsp;|ft (1,100 |m)|abbr=on}} above sea level.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9099958/Temblor-Range "Temblor Range", Britannica.com]</ref> The highest point is [[McKittrick Summit]] at {{convert|4,331&nbsp;|ft (1,320 |m)|abbr=on}}, located in the center of the range about {{convert|35&nbsp;|mi (56&nbsp;|km)|abbr=on}} west of [[Bakersfield]].<ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/69/86/T02386.html ''The Columbia Gazetteer of North America''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060427192558/http://www.bartleby.com/69/86/T02386.html|date=2006-04-27}}</ref> The summit on [[California State Route 58|State Route 58]], which crosses the range, is at {{convert|3750|ft|m}} above sea level. The lowest crossing of the range is at [[Polonio Pass]] at {{convert|1407|ft|m}} by [[California State Route 46|State Route 46]] at its northern end and is separated by the [[Diablo Range]] to the north near Cholame.

The Temblor Range and surrounding region contains extensive outcrops of the [[Monterey Formation]] ([[Miocene]] age, about 20 to 9 million years). Rocks from the Monterey formation consist mostly of [[silicate]] [[shale]]s and [[porcellanite]] (silica derived from [[fossil]] [[plankton]] in an intermediate to deep-water marine setting). Fossils and sediments from the Monterey Formation show that the Carrizo Plain region was a marine basin with shallow to intermediate depths (marine waters covered the southern [[San Joaquin Valley]] region). Marine sediments younger than about 9 million years are not preserved in the [[Carrizo Plain National Monument]] area, but they occur throughout the [[Kettleman Hills]] region (about {{convert|60|mi|km}} north of the park). The [[Pliocene]]-age [[Etchegoin Formation]] contains marine fossils to about 4 million years old. Fossils of the Etchegoin Formation are supporting evidence that the [[Coast Ranges]] and the Temblor Range are young, having been uplifted mostly during the [[Pleistocene]] Epoch (or [[Quaternary Period]]) in the past several million years. Much of that ongoing uplift is due to [[tectonics]] associated with the San Andreas Fault and other fault systems in the region.<ref>[http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/carrizo/html/a093.htm United States Geological Survey]</ref>

During the Pleistocene, sometime more recently than 1.8 million years ago, an enormous block of the Temblor Range – a swath of Monterey shale more than six miles (10&nbsp;{{convert|6|mi|km)|spell=in}} long, a mile across, and over {{convert|2000|ft|m}} thick, about three cubic miles of rock in all – slid down the northeastern side of the range, covering a distance of approximately three miles and descending {{convert|2000|ft|m}}. This mass movement completely covered the [[McKittrick Oil Field]], giving it a highly unusual geology for an oil field, as the petroleum deposits in most oil fields are in structural or stratigraphic traps; this field is capped by an enormous mass of rock that moved off of the adjacent mountain range.<ref>J.A. Taff: "Geology of the McKittrick Oil Field and Vicinity, Kern County, California." American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin, 1933 [http://search.datapages.com/data/doi/10.1306/3D932B12-16B1-11D7-8645000102C1865D (abstract available here)]</ref>

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[[Category:Temblor Range| 01]]