The continents are the visible parts of Earth's crustal plates that, like great floating puzzle pieces, get pushed around, torn, wrinkled, and recombined. In the composite satellite image of North America and the eastern Pacific Ocean, the northwestward drift of the Pacific Plate is tearing the Baja California peninsula from the Mexican mainland. This body of rock, comprising Baja California and Southern California, is riding on the Pacific Plate on its northwesterly journey. On this isolated peninsula, almost an island, the landscapes are then reshaped by erosion and subsequent plate movement.
Species adapt, giving rise to new species over thousands and millions of years.
These great blocks were then thrust into the sky, forming the mountain backbone that runs through Southern California and most of the Baja California peninsula. The older stone on top of the uplifted mountains has eroded away, revealing the rock beneath. Isla San Luis John Shelton Volcanoes can erupt by explosion or by oozing lava. This island shows examples of each.