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The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range that is mostly in eastern California. The range is also known as The Sierra.
1 Geography
The Sierra Nevada stretches 400 miles (650km), from Fredonyer Pass in the North to Tehachapi Pass in the South. The Sierra Nevada are bounded on the West by California's Central Valley, and on the East by the Great Basin.
In West-East cross section, the Sierra is shaped like a non-equilateral triangle: the altitude gradually increases as you travel East, until you reach the crest, whereupon the altitude rapidly decreases. Thus, the crest runs principally along the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada range. Rivers flowing West from the Sierra crest eventually drain into the Pacific Ocean, while rivers draining east flow into the Great Basin and do not reach any ocean. However, water from several streams and the Owens River is pumped to the city of Los Angeles (See Los Angeles Aqueduct). Thus, some east-flowing river water does make it to the Pacific Ocean.
There are several notable geographical features in the Sierra Nevada:
- Lake Tahoe is a large, clear freshwater lake in the northern Sierra Nevada, with an elevation of 6225 feet (1,897m) and 191 square miles (489 sq km) of area. Lake Tahoe lies between the main Sierra and the Carson Range, a spur of the Sierra.
- Hetch Hetchy Valley, Yosemite Valley, and Kings Canyon are beautiful, glacially-scoured canyons on the west side of the Sierra.
- Yosemite National Park is filled with stunning graniteGranite is a common and widely-occurring group of intrusive felsic igneous rocks that form at great depths and pressures under continents. Granite consists of orthoclase and plagioclase feldspars, quartz, hornblende, biotite, muscovite and minor accessory features, such as domes.
- Mount WhitneyMount Whitney is the highest point in the Continental United States. It is located at the boundary between Inyo County, California and Tulare County, California. Mount Whitney was named after Josiah Whitney, the chief geologist of California. It was first, at 14,505 feet (4,421m), is the highest point in the continental United StatesThe continental United States refers (except sometimes in U. federal law and regulations) to the largest part of the U. that is delimited by a continuous border. Specifically, this includes 48 states and the federal capital of the U. the District of Colum
- Groves of Giant SequoiaThe Giant Sequoia Sequoiadendron giganteum is one of a number of species of coniferous trees known as redwoods, classified in the family Cupressaceae in a part of this family formerly segregated as the Taxodiaceae. Description Giant Sequoia is the world'ss occur along a narrow band of altitude on the western side of the Sierra Nevada. Giant Sequoia are the most massive trees in the world.
The height of the mountains in the Sierra Nevada gradually increases from North to South. Thus, the crest near Lake Tahoe is roughly 9000' (2,700m) high, the crest near Yosemite National Park is roughly 13000' (4,000m) high, and the entire range attains its peak at Mount Whitney (the highest point in the conterminus United StatesThe continental United States refers (except sometimes in U. federal law and regulations) to the largest part of the U. that is delimited by a continuous border. Specifically, this includes 48 states and the federal capital of the U. the District of Colum). South of Mount Whitney, the range quickly diminishes in elevation.
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