Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

San Andreas fault

(Encyclopedia)San Andreas fault, great fracture (see fault) of the earth's crust in California. It is the principal fault of an intricate network of faults extending more than 600 mi (965 km) from NW California to ...

fault

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Types of faults fault, in geology, fracture in the earth's crust in which the rock on one side of the fracture has measurable movement in relation to the rock on the other side. Faults on othe...

Drake's Bay

(Encyclopedia)Drake's Bay, inlet of the Pacific Ocean, formed by the San Andreas fault, W Calif., NW of San Francisco. Point Reyes forms its outer arm. The bay was visited by Sir Francis Drake in 1579. ...

Wilson, J. Tuzo

(Encyclopedia)Wilson, J. Tuzo (John Tuzo Wilson), 1908–93, Canadian geologist and geophysicist, b. Ottawa, Ph.D. Princeton (1936), M.A. Cambridge (1940). He worked for the Geological Survey of Canada (1936–39) ...

San Marcos

(Encyclopedia)San Marcos săn märˈkəs [key]. 1 City (1990 pop. 38,974), San Diego co., S Calif., a northern suburb of San Diego; settled 1880s, inc. 1963. Citrus fruit, avocados, flowers, and ornamental plants a...

Parkfield

(Encyclopedia)Parkfield, uninc. town (2000 pop. 37), Monterey co., Calif., among rolling hills in the Coast Ranges. A mining center for mercury and coal in the early 1900s, when the town had 900 inhabitants, Parkfi...

San Francisco

(Encyclopedia)San Francisco săn frănsĭsˈkō [key], city (2020 pop. 873,965), coextensive with San Francisco co., W ...

Point Reyes National Seashore

(Encyclopedia)Point Reyes National Seashore rāˈĭs [key], 71,068 acres (28,772 hectares), W Calif.; est. 1962. Included in the area are steep bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, lagoons, and esteros enclosed by...

Hofer, Andreas

(Encyclopedia)Hofer, Andreas ändrāˈäs hōˈfər [key], 1767–1810, Austrian patriot; son of a Tyrolean innkeeper. After its defeat by Napoleon I in 1805 Austria was forced to cede the Tyrol to France's ally Ba...

Gryphius, Andreas

(Encyclopedia)Gryphius, Andreas ändrāˈäs grüˈfēo͝os [key], 1616–64, German poet-dramatist, originally named Andreas Greif. He wrote in Latin, new High German, and Silesian dialect. Among his many sonnets,...