Physical Geography-Tectonic Plates

     San Diego is located in Southern California; north of Mexico and south of Los Angeles. This growing city is in the middle of hills and mesas that start from the Pacific shore all the way east to the Vallecito Mountains. The temperatures of the Pacific Ocean keep the city cool in the summer and warm in the winter time.

This shows the San Diego County limits and all the little cities inside of it.

     Unlike most of the United States, San Diego lies on the Pacific Plate rather then on the North American Plate. Having San Diego and other Southern cities of California lie on the Pacific plate, while other parts of California lie on the North American plate, creates a sliding boundary between the two plates. This sliding boundary is because of the San Andreas fault; this fault is a transform plate boundary, that has made California split into two from the Northern part all the way down to down south of California.

Earthquakes because of  The San Andreas Fault, affects places all through out California. 

     The Pacific Plate is slowly moving in a Northwest direction while sliding against the North Ameican Plate which is moving in a Southeast direction. These tectonic plates are sliding against each other and slowly moving past each other a couple of inches a year. Although this is an average motion rate, there will be years where the plates will not move and instead just push against each other. These Plates, constantly grinding with no room for movement, builds up tensions and the earth's rocks break causing earth quakes.

This shows the two different directions that the Tectonic Plates are going in.

     These tectonic plates colliding have not only caused earthquakes, but have also caused confining forces on both sides of the plates, creating The Transverse Ranges. Unlike most mountain ranges in California that cross north-south, The Transverse Ranges, pivot east-west. The Transverse Ranges are in between San Diego counties and Santa Barbara. These ranges are very steep and make it hard to travel through them.

This photos show The Transverse Ranges in Southern California

References

"Geology of California." Geology of California. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.