Landscapes of Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands National Park, California

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Abstract

Santa Rosa Island (SRI) is the second-largest of the California Channel Islands. It is one of 4 east–west aligned islands forming the northern Channel Islands chain, and one of the 5 islands in Channel Islands National Park. The landforms, and collections of landforms called landscapes, of Santa Rosa Island have been created by tectonic uplift and faulting, rising and falling sea level, landslides, erosion and deposition, floods, and droughts. Landscape features, and areas delineating groups of related features on Santa Rosa Island, are mapped, classified, and described in this paper. Notable landscapes on the island include beaches, coastal plains formed on marine terraces, sand dunes, and sand sheets. In this study, the inland physiography has been classified into 4 areas based on relief and degree of fluvial dissection. Most of the larger streams on the island occupy broad valleys that have been filled with alluvium and later incised to form steep- to vertical-walled arroyos, or barrancas, leaving a relict floodplain above the present channel. A better understanding of the processes and mechanisms that created these landscapes enhances visitors’ enjoyment of their surroundings and contributes to improving land and resource management strategies in order to optimize and balance the multiple goals of conservation, preservation, restoration, and visitor experience.

Study Area

Publication type Book chapter
Publication Subtype Book Chapter
Title Landscapes of Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands National Park, California
Volume 7
Issue 1
Year Published 2014
Language English
Publisher Brigham Young University Press
Contributing office(s) Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center
Description 20 p.
Larger Work Type Book
Larger Work Title Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist
First page 48
Last page 67
Country United States
State California
Other Geospatial Santa Rosa island
Online Only (Y/N) N
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
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