The History of San Francisco Bay Area

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The Bay Area is an interesting place with a unique geology and formation. The San Francisco Bay, also known as San Francisco Estuarine, consists of three bays, San Francisco Proper, San Pablo Bay, Carquinez Strait, and has a vast inland river delta. The river delta provides fresh water to the bays. The estuarine system provides food, safety, and shelter to many organisms and animals, including humans. (San Francisco Estuarine Wetlands) Along the bays lie major cities such as San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose. San Francisco is located on the boundary between two tectonic plates, the North American and Pacific plates. These two plates form a transform fault called the San Andreas Fault and is responsible for producing large earthquakes that shook California (Elder). Mountains on the California Coastal Ranges, Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo Range, were formed as a result of the San Andreas Fault(Elder). Thanks to the tectonic plate boundary, San Francisco Bay Area has the most active and complex geology (San Francisco Bay Area National Parks Science and Learning (NPS)). Today, the Bay Area supports millions of people, plants, and wildlife, but in the past, the Bay Area was completely different than the present. Traveling back a hundred million years, one million years, a hundred thousand years, a thousand years, and a hundred years back in time will reveal how the Bay Area has changed through time. In addition to geography, the atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere have also changed through time.
Traveling back a hundred million years ago to the mid Cretaceous period, Bay Area did not exist yet. The Bay Area was still in the process of drifting a hundred million years ago. The continents drifted toward their pr...

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