San Diego Geography

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San Diego is an amazing place of sunshine, consistent temperature, breathtaking places, and amazing beaches. People come from all over to visit Coronado Island, La Jolla cove, Potato Chip Rock, and much more because San Diego has a geography that is next to none in beauty. But, why is this? If we look closely to study why it is that San Diego is the place to be, we see that its physical geography sets it in the perfect place to live. The atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere all make up the physical geography that has shaped San Diego to be what it is today and what it will be in the future. To many vacationers, and some locals, it is a surprise when they learn that San Diego is actually a desert. Which means very little water. …show more content…

The landscape and tectonic structure that makes up the lithosphere dictates the way San Diego gets its uneven geography. Most of coast is made of sedimentary rocks with more igneous rocks as you travel to the more eastern areas of the region due to hundreds of millions years of volcanic activity (Walawender). Knowing that sedimentary rocks is created by the ocean meeting land, we can know that most of the land is created by millions of years of rising and falling oceans. This land has an interesting shape to it, with the Rolling Coast Hills only miles away from the beach. This specific set of hills along the I-15 Highway, has a huge impact on the rest of the environment east of the range (NGMB). When the Pacific Ocean produces clouds, all of the wanted moisture(clouds) is captured by the tall hills. Just east of the I-15 and the Coast Hills is dry desert with scattered short mountains. These ranges are made up of igneous rocks that have remained mostly untouched for millions of years. The main reason anyone visits San Diego is for the consistently beautiful Mediterranean climate that stays relatively mild. As previously talked about in the hydrosphere discussion, the high-pressure air in the atmosphere acts with the cold ocean water to create a mass series of low clouds that cool the air around it. The vast and varied terrain, which traps that moisture, creates a wide range in San Diego’s weather in its atmosphere. These variations are known as

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