California
Environment and Natural Resources
- Landscape
● Map
● Sacramento
● San Francisco
● Los Angeles
● Death Valley (86 meters below sea level ; lowest point in U.S.)
● Silicon Valley
● Mount Whitney (4417 meters)
- Earthquakes
● California is an area where are many earthquakes. Every day there are up to 14 little earthquakes, but most of them are so slight that they aren't even noticed. Since the beginning of this century there have been 3600 quakes which have registed over 4.0 on the Richter scale. (Only Earthquakes with the magnitude over ~4 are noticeably) In 1906, there was an earthquake measuring 8.3 near San Francisco. Because of the terrible destruction this earthquake caused, new laws were passed for building construction. This was useful in 1989, when a quake measuring 7.1 arose in San Francisco.
● It is estimated that within the next 30 years there will be another quake of the 8.3 magnitude. This will be called the "Big Bang". So the Californians live under the constant threat of earthquakes. Residents are told to avoid putting heavy objects on shelves, to fasten cupboards to walls and in the case of a quake to get under a bed or table.
GREAT EARTHQUAKES DURING THE LAST CENTURY
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1 1906 SAN FRANCISCO, 8.3 Richter Scale |
2 1983 COALINGA, 6.7 Richter Scale |
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3 1971 SAN FERNANDO, 6.6 Richter Scale |
4 1984 MORGAN HILL, 6.2 Richter Scale |
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5 1989 LOMA PRIETA, 7.1 Richter Scale |
6 1994 NORTHRIDGE, 6.7 Richter Scale |
-Climate
● The climate in California is subtropical (It lies between the 32. and the 42. degree of latitude) [-30 tropical]. Favoured by maritime influences (durch Seeeinflüsse) the Pacific coast has mild winters and comparatively cool summers. To the Sierra Nevada it gets dryer and dryer. The third-highest temperature on earth was measured with 56.7°C in the year 1913 in the Death Valley. North the Lake Tahoe was measured with 42.8°C (1937) the lowest temperature in California.
Breitengrad und dem 114. und 124. Grad westlicher Länge.
► Population
California is the most populous state in the U.S with 35.4 million inhabitants, though it is only the 3. biggest state in the U.S. In the past ten years, California grew by 17 percent; in the last 50 years, it more than tripled.
Because of California gets more and more inhabitants, it really get problems with schools (for example there are classes that often exceed 35 students per teacher) and traffic.
- Nationality
● The population consists of 74% white 13% black 10% Hispanics and 3% other ethnical groups, for example Indians.
● About 30,000,000 inhabitants: On a square kilometre live approximately 70 inhabitants.
● Very much inhabitants are of Spanish origin.
