Overview of California

Question 1

How many states are larger than California? Which ones are they?

Answer 1

Two. Texas and Alaska

Question 2

What does endemic mean?

Answer 2

Found no where else

Question 3

How many plants are endemic to California?

Answer 3

5500

Question 4

How high are the Sierra Nevada mountain ranges?

Answer 4

14,000 feet

Question 5

How long (in miles) are the Sierra Nevada mountain ranges?

Answer 5

400 miles

Question 6

What are the physical characteristics of Mono Lake?

Answer 6

Salty water, tufa towers

Question 7

What are the biological characteristics of Mono Lake?

Answer 7

algae bloom, brine shrimp, alkali flies, birds.

Question 8

How were the Tufa Towers in Mono Lake formed?

Answer 8

When calcium from submerged freshwater spring is combined with carbonates in the lake water.

Question 9

What are California’s three deserts?

Answer 9

Mojave, Colorado and Great Basin

Question 10

What is the lowest point in California?

Answer 10

Badwater Basin in Death Valley

Question 11

How many feet below sea level is Badwater Basin?

Answer 11

282 feet

Question 12

What is the highest point in California?

Answer 12

Sierra Nevada

Question 13

How tall is Mt.Whitney?

Answer 13

14,494 feet

Question 14

What got flooded by the Colorado River and for almost two years poured through an irrigation ditch into an ancient seabed?

Answer 14

The Salton Sea

Question 15

What is the water like in The Salton Sea?

Answer 15

Salty

Question 16

What is the largest estuary in the US?

Answer 16

San Francisco Bay

Question 17

What was formed by the movement of plates along the San Andreas Fault and flooded when sea levels rose at the end of the last glacial period.

Answer 17

San Francisco Bay

Question 18

What river flows into the San Francisco Bay?

Answer 18

The Sacramento River

Question 19

What is the dominant ocean current that flows along the coast of California?

Answer 19

California Current

Question 20

Which direction does the California Current flow?

Answer 20

Southward

Question 21

What is the temperature like of the California Current?

Answer 21

Cool

Question 22

What affect does the California Current have on the weather of northern California?

Answer 22

Cool & wet

Question 23

Describe the Rainshadow effect?

Answer 23

Moist air from the ocean is forced to rise from the mountains making it cool and create clouds. Clouds bring rain and snow. By the time the air reaches the inland side of the mountain the air is drier.

Question 24

How does the rainshadow affect the climate on the ocean-facing side of a mountain?

Answer 24

Makes it cooler and wetter

Question 25

How does the rainshadow affect have on the inland-facing side?

Answer 25

Makes it drier.

Question 26

Which side of Sierra Nevada mountain is wetter?

Answer 26

The western side

Question 27

Which side of the Sierra nevada is dryer?

Answer 27

The eastern side

Question 28

What are the four major regions of California?

Answer 28

Coastal, valleys, mountains and deserts

Question 29

What is California average annual precipitation?

Answer 29

21 inches

Question 30

What is climate?

Answer 30

long term temperature and precipitation

Question 31

what is weather?

Answer 31

what's happening on a particular day

Question 32

define habitat

Answer 32

division of the landscape defined by their plant community

Question 33

What are native species?

Answer 33

Naturally belong in California. Coastal prickly pear

Question 34

What are endemic species?

Answer 34

Found nowhere else but California. Giant sequoia

Question 35

Which lake is the highest in the continent?

Answer 35

Tulainyo Lake

Question 36

Which province contain 500 peaks?

Answer 36

The Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada

Question 37

Answer 37

ca map