Salinas River
| Salinas River | ||
 Map of the Salinas River and its catchment area |
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| Data | ||
| Water code | US : 273405 | |
| location | California , United States | |
| River system | Salinas River | |
| source |
Santa Lucia Mountains 35 ° 12 ′ 43 ″ N , 120 ° 14 ′ 23 ″ W |
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| Source height | 671 m | |
| muzzle |
Monterey Bay Coordinates: 36 ° 44 ′ 58 " N , 121 ° 48 ′ 13" W 36 ° 44 ′ 58 " N , 121 ° 48 ′ 13" W.
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| length | 288 km | |
| Catchment area | 10,983 km² | |
 The Salinas River in the upper Salinas Valley near San Ardo, with oil fields in the background |
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The Salinas River is a 288 km long river in the US state of California , which has its source in the Santa Lucia Mountains and flows into the Pacific Ocean after a northwest course near Salinas in Monterey Bay . Its catchment area covers 10,983 square kilometers in the southern California coastal mountains .
Until well into the 19th century, the mountains and the California long valley had not been explored in detail and the Salinas River was identified in a large number of maps with the legendary and actually nonexistent Buenaventura River , which flows from the Rocky Mountains over the Sierra Nevada into the Pacific should flow. This was only recognized after the explorations of Jedediah Smith in 1827-29 as unlikely and with the surveying expedition of John Charles Frémont in 1844 as impossible.
course
The river has its source at an altitude of 671 meters above sea level in San Luis Obispo County in the Los Padre National Forest , a national forest . The main tributaries are the Estrella River , the Nacamiento River , the San Antonio River , the San Lorenzo Creek, and the Arroyo Secco River . Its valley lies between the Santa Lucia Mountains in the southwest, the Diablo Range in the east and the Temblor Range in the southeast.
From Atascadero , US Highway 101 runs parallel to the river. Above King City the river opens to the Salinas Valley, it is the most important growing area for various vegetables, especially lettuce and artichokes in the United States.
geology
The upper reaches of the Salinas River lies in a zone of the California Coast Mountains, which is characterized by small faults and folds . The environment is characterized by a syncline in a north-easterly direction, which the river follows. The structure was created by plate tectonic processes, the North American plate is shifting southwards against the Pacific plate , especially in the San Andreas Fault . The part of the coastal mountain range in which the Salinas River runs lies to the west of the fault and thus on a part that can be assigned to the Pacific plate. The rock of the mountains was originally formed around 600 kilometers south and was transported to its present-day location over around 80 million years. Geologically, these are rocks of the Franciscan Complex , a tectonic mélange that is distributed from southern California to Oregon .
The Salinas Valley of the lower reaches lies in the extensive syncline and was filled with sediments by the river itself or its forerunners .
History and condition
Originally the coastal mountains in central California were inhabited by Indian tribes. Most of the Salinas Valley was the habitat of the Salinas , the Esselen lived on the southwest side near the estuary, the Ohlone (also known as Coastanoan) in the mountains north of the estuary and along the coast. They all lived mainly from fishing and collecting mussels. Acorns were used as a source of carbohydrates. In addition, the hunt for small mammals as well as pronghorn , white-tailed deer and elk was in the valley plains. To do this, they burned down the vegetation in the valley and on the lower slopes at irregular intervals in order to push back the bush and forest cover compared to the grassland vegetation preferred for ungulate herds.
The first whites were ranchers . As early as 1860 there were around 70,000 cattle in the Salinas Valley, the same number as today. After a brief drought around 1870, however, the possibilities of use collapsed and irrigation agriculture was developed and expanded in the following decades. Mining never played a major role in the Salinas Valley; in the 19th century there were small and only briefly productive gold and mercury mines. Crude oil is produced near San Ardo in the upper Salinas Valley.
Since 1874 there have been smaller reservoirs and canals on the Salinas River, today there is only one small reservoir on the river itself, the Santa Margarita Lake, created in 1914 on the upper reaches near the mouth. He supplies San Luis Obispo with drinking water. The two tributaries of the Salinas River, Nacamiente River and San Antonio River, will, however, be dammed over a large area.
The upper reaches of the Salinas River and several of its tributaries are the largest habitat for the migratory rainbow trout in southern and central California. Interventions in the river threaten their reproduction, which is why population research and protective measures have been started on the Salinas River.
Today the use of groundwater is in the foreground of agricultural irrigation. The Salinas River itself brings only a fraction of the required amount of water. The aquifer has been overexploited since the middle of the 20th century, and salt water from the Pacific has been penetrating the aquifer since the end of the century, which is why its use has to be monitored and controlled much more precisely since then. The runoff volumes of the Salinas River are therefore controlled by the irrigation systems and the priority in the control is on the formation of new groundwater , so that only excess amounts of water remain in the river. Due to the heavy use for irrigation of agricultural land, the river now carries significantly more salts and nutrients than in its natural state.
literature
- Salinas River . In: Artur C. Benke, Colbert E. Cushing: Rivers of North America . Elsevier, 2005, ISBN 0-12-088253-1 , pages 558-563
- Salinas River . In: Columbia Gazetteer of North America , Columbia University Press, 2010. (also online: Salinas River )
Web links
- Santa Lucia Group: Salinas River (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Unless otherwise stated, this article is based on: Salinas River In: Artur C. Benke, Colbert E. Cushing: Rivers of North America . Elsevier, 2005, ISBN 0-12-088253-1 , pages 558-563