CSET – You’d Better Know Something About California’s Geography

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If you are studying for the CSET, it is wise to know a little about California’s geography.

The Geography of California is rich and diverse.

Between the red swath signifying the Sierra Nevada granites and the western greenish-yellow band of folded and faulted Coast Ranges lies the great sedimentary trough of the Central Valley. Elsewhere this simplicity is broken: in the north, the blue-and-red Klamath Mountains are torn from the Sierra and moved westward while the dotted pink is where young, widespread lavas of the Cascade Range bury all older rocks. In the south, the crust is fractured on all scales as the continent is being actively reassembled; deep-seated granites marked by red, rising as their cover erodes away, are surrounded by vast aprons of recent sediment in the deserts and rangelands from the Sierra to the Mexican border. Large islands off the southern coast rise from sunken crustal fragments, part of the same vigorous tectonic setting.

Volcanoes, many of them recently active, dot California from the northeast corner down the eastern side of the Sierra to its southern end. Earthquakes affect the whole state, but especially in the faulted zone along the coast, and south and east of the Sierra. Mineral resources of every kind occur in California, as well as a lifetime’s worth of geological attractions.

Important Facts Teacher Candidates Studying for the CSET Multiple Subjects Exam Should Know

California’s immense and diverse landscape is defined by patterns of mountains and valleys creating four major natural ecosystems: the coast, the Central Valley, the Sierra Nevada, and the deserts.

The Great Central Valley is a vast depression, rimmed by mountains. It was at one time an ancient shallow sea and is now very productive farmland.

The Sierra Nevada is a single mountain range – a vast, tilted granite block with steep slopes and jagged, snowcapped peaks.

Mount Whitney, at 14,494 feet, is the highest peak in the continental United States.

Desert areas are arid regions of mountain ranges, basins, and flat deserts.

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