PowerPoint Presentation

The Santa Ynez Mountains The Santa Ynez Mountains part of the Transverse Ranges of Southern California, portray a geographical pattern by their formation running entirely east- west of the Santa Barbara Coast. This mountain range runs as oppose to the majority of mountain ranges trending in the north-south direction. Why are these mountains formed in such manner? The process initiated approximately five million years ago through a thrust fault. This occurs through a breakage and uplift in the Earths crust where slabs of crust slip and pass one another along the plane boundaries eventually creating these mountains. The direction of the mountains results from plate tectonic movement repeatedly occurring in this location that caused the Pacific Plate to subduct underneath the continental North American Plate. These movements have caused the mountain ranges to move around and rotate into its current position. Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Ynez_MountainsScreencast: https://youtu.be/o4uI_ZUmVpc

The Channel IslandsParagraph caption: The visible feature in this regional scaled map shows a chain of four islands. These islands include: The San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and Anacapa Island. All of these islands pertain to the Channel Islands running parallel to the south of the Santa Ynez Mountains. The process of these islands arises from the constant repetition of tectonic uplift and subduction. What this means is that at some point, plate tectonic movement repeatedly occurred causing the Pacific Plate to interact and subduct underneath the continental North American Plate. These movements are what also caused the islands to form into their present position running east- west similarly and parallel to the Santa Ynez Mountains. Sources: http://www.nps.gov/chis/learn/nature/geologicformations.htm

Mountain direction trend in the U.S.

Paragraph caption: The global map allows us to see some of the mountain trends in the United States predominantly running north- south (labeled in blue dots). For example: The Appalachian Mountains run entirely in the north-south direction. In the contrary, there are only a few mountain ranges running in the east-west direction (labeled with a mountain icon). This example is visible seen in the previous maps with the Santa Ynez Mountains. Although, there is no affirmative answer as to why most mountains run north- south, many scientist believe that mountain ranges usually run parallel to tectonic plate boundaries. Another thought is that since our North American plate travels west at some point when it collided with the Pacific Plate this created the formations of most of our mountains running north-south. Sources: https://www.rain.org/~mkummel/stumpers/06nov98a.html