The Central Valley is a large, flat valley that dominates the central portion of the U.S. state of California. It is home to many of California's most productive agricultural efforts. The valley stretches approximately 400 miles (640 km) from north to south. Its northern half is referred to as the Sacramento Valley, and its southern half as the San Joaquin Valley. The Sacramento valley receives about 20 inches of rain annually, but the San Joaquin is very dry, often semi-arid desert in many places. The two halves meet at the shared Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, a large expanse of interconnected canals, streambeds, sloughs, marshes and peat islands. The Central Valley is around 42,000 square miles (110,000 km 2 ), making it roughly the same size as the state of Tennessee.
Boundaries and population
Bounded by the Cascade Range, Trinity Alps and Klamath Mountains to the north, the Sierra Nevada to the east, the Tehachapi Mountains to the south, and the Coast Ranges and San Francisco Bay to the west, the valley is a vast agricultural region drained by the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers.
Counties commonly associated with the valley:
- North Sacramento Valley (Shasta, Tehama, Glenn, Butte, Colusa)
- Sacramento Metro (Sacramento, El Dorado, Sutter, Yuba, Yolo, Placer)
- North San Joaquin (San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced)
- South San Joaquin (Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare, Kern)
About 6.5 million people live in the Central Valley today, and it is the fastest growing region in California. There are 10 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) in the Central Valley. Below, they are listed by (MSA) population. The largest city is Fresno, followed by the state capital Sacramento.
- Sacramento Metropolitan Area (2,042,283)
- Fresno Metropolitan Area (1,002,284)
- Bakersfield Metropolitan Area (756,825)
- Stockton Metropolitan Area (664,116)
- Modesto Metropolitan (505,505)
- Visalia Metropolitan Area (410,874)
- Merced Metropolitan Area (241,706)
- Chico Metropolitan Area (214,185)
- Redding Metropolitan Area (179,904)
- Yuba City Metropolitan Area (165,080)
Geology
The flatness of the valley floor contrasts with the rugged hills or gentle mountains that are typical of most of California's terrain. The valley is thought to have originated below sea level as an offshore area depressed by subduction of the Farallon Plate into a trench further offshore. The San Joaquin Fault is a notable seismic feature of the Central Valley.
The valley was later enclosed by the uplift of the Coast Ranges, with its original outlet into Monterey Bay. Faulting moved the Coast Ranges, and a new outlet developed near what is now San Francisco Bay. Over the millennia, the valley was filled by the sediments of these same ranges, as well as the rising Sierra Nevada to the east; that filling eventually created an extraordinary flatness just barely above sea level; before California's massive flood control and aqueduct system was built, the annual snow melt turned much of the valley into an inland lake.
The one notable exception to the flat valley floor is Sutter Buttes, the remnants of an extinct volcano just to the northwest of Yuba City which is 44 miles north of Sacramento.
Another significant geologic feature of the Central Valley lies hidden beneath the delta. The Stockton Arch is an upwarping of the crust beneath the valley sediments which extends southwest to northeast across the valley.
Physiographically, the Central Valley lies within the California Trough physiographic section, which is part of the larger Pacific Border province, which in turn is part of the Pacific Mountain System.
Climate
The northern Central Valley has a hot Mediterranean climate (Koppen climate classification Csa ); the more southerly parts in rainshadow zones are dry enough to be Mediterranean steppe ( BShs , as around Fresno) or even low-latitude desert ( BWh , as in Bakersfield). It is hot and dry during the summer and cool and damp in winter, when frequent ground fog known regionally as "tule fog" can obscure vision. Summer daytime temperatures reach 90 °F (32 °C), and occasional heat waves might bring temperatures exceeding 115 °F (46 °C). Mid Autumn to mid spring comprises the rainy season — although during the late summer, southeasterly winds aloft can bring thunderstorms of tropical origin, mainly in the southern half of the San Joaquin Valley but occasionally to the Sacramento Valley. The northern half of the Central Valley receives greater precipitation than the semidesert southern half. Frost occurs at times in the winter months.
Rivers and delta
The 375-mile (604 km) Sacramento River drains the northern third of the Central Valley, an area referred to as the Sacramento Valley. While the Sacramento portion of the valley is smaller than the San Joaquin Valley, it carries twice as much water due to its greater rainfall. After exiting Shasta Lake, a large reservoir at the northern extreme of the valley formed by Shasta Dam, the Sacramento River flows south, receiving water from the Feather and American rivers. Tributaries above Shasta Lake include the Pit and McCloud rivers. (If the Sacramento were combined with the Pit, the resulting length would be 690 miles (1,110 km), the longest river in California.) The Yuba River is a major tributary of the Feather. Oroville Dam, on the Feather River, forms Lake Oroville, and Folsom Dam, on the American River, forms Folsom Lake. The Sacramento eventually feeds the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta forms the outflow for all the runoff from the Central Valley, eventually spilling into San Francisco Bay. The Sacramento flows in from the north, the Mokelumne and its tributary, the Cosumnes from the east, and the San Joaquin River from the south. The delta is an inverted river delta, meaning that it is formed by many branches that converge into a single outflow. The delta's many islands, separated by sloughs and marshes, are vastly fertile, and were originally a tidal freshwater marsh; now the region is predominantly agricultural. The waters of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers that come together in the delta are the water source of about 25 million California citizens, over two-thirds of the state's population.
See also: Suisun BayIn the southern two-thirds of the Valley, the San Joaquin River flows 330 miles (530 km) north from valleys in the Sierra Nevada, near the Ansel Adams Wilderness. After leaving the Sierra Nevada, it is dammed by the Friant Dam, forming Millerton Lake, and is dry for the downstream 60 miles (97 km) due to diversions into the Friant-Kern Canal. It is joined by the Fresno and Chowchilla rivers, which both flow off the Sierra Nevada. As it continues north, it is joined by the Merced and Tuolumne rivers, which are dammed to form Lake McClure (Merced River) and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and New Don Pedro Reservoir on the Tuolumne. Both rivers begin in Yosemite National Park. Like the Sacramento and Mokelumne, the San Joaquin empties into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
At the southern extreme of the Valley, the Kings, Tule, Kaweah and Kern rivers flow into a dry endorheic basin separated from the San Joaquin's watershed by a low, imperceptible divide, and from the Los Angeles Basin by the Tehachapi Mountains on the south. The basin historically contained Tulare, Buena Vista, and Kern lakes, which have been pumped dry for agriculture. All four rivers begin inside Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park. The Kings flows northwest then west to form Pine Flat Reservoir (formed by Pine Flat Dam), and the Tule flows west to form Lake Success. The Kaweah flows 30 miles (48 km) west-southwest to form Lake Kaweah (formed by Terminus Dam) and the Kern runs south and turns west into Lake Isabella (formed by Isabella Dam).
Dams and reservoirs
Nearly every major river flowing into the Central Valley from the Sierra Nevada has at least one dam, while less and lower-volume tributaries flow from the Coast Range. The Sacramento River has two dams, Shasta (forming Shasta Lake) and Keswick, forming Keswick Reservoir. Both are near the city of Redding. The Feather River, the first major tributary, has Oroville Dam which forms Lake Oroville and the Thermalito Afterbay. The American Rive
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