Monday, August 12, 2019

Week 6 Geological Interpretation - Ridgecrest, CA




            This week, I decided to travel to a place in California that called a lot of my attention for the recent earthquakes that happened. The name of the area is Ridgecrest and at the end of my travel journal you'll see a picture that I took of one the biggest "damages" on the ground and another one showing exactly where the region is located.
Ridgecrest is a city in the Indian Wells Valley in northeastern Kern County, California. It is surrounded by four mountain ranges; the Sierra Nevada on the west, the Cosos on the north, the Argus Range on the east, and the El Paso Mountains on the south. It is approximately 82 miles from the Lancaster/Palmdale area, 110 miles from Bakersfield, and 120 miles from San Bernardino, the three nearest major urban centers.
The city has been near the epicenter of major earthquakes, including one in 1995 and a series ones on July 5th 2019, which was the largest earthquake in California in 20 years. Its epicenter was 11 miles from Ridgecrest and it was measured at 7.1 on the Richter scale. An earthquake measuring 6.4 had just hit the area the day before, July 4, 2019.
The meteorology in the Indian Wells Valley is predominantly influenced by its high desert location. The climate is characterized by hot days and cool nights, with extreme arid conditions prevailing throughout the summer months. The mean annual temperature is 60ºF. There are wide annual temperature fluctuations that occur from a maximum of 118º F to a minimum of 0º F.
                                                                                                                      

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