page_title: El Centro, California
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: El Centro, California / Geography
caption_attribution_description: English: Ariel photo of the Salton Sea from the south
context_page_description: El Centro is a city in and county seat of Imperial County, California, United States. El Centro is the largest city in the Imperial Valley, the east anchor of the Southern California Border Region, and the core urban area and principal city of the El Centro metropolitan area which encompasses all of Imperial County. El Centro is also the largest American city to lie entirely below sea level. The city, located in southeastern California, is 113 miles from San Diego and less than 20 miles from the Mexican city of Mexicali.
  The city was founded in 1906 by W. F. Holt and C.A. Barker, who purchased the land on which El Centro was eventually built for about $40 per acre and invested $100,000 in improvements. The modern city is home to retail, transportation, wholesale, and agricultural industries. There are also two international border crossings nearby for commercial and noncommercial vehicles. El Centro's estimated population as of 2019 was 44,079, up from 42,598 at the 2010 Census.
context_section_description: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 11.1 square miles (29 km²), of which over 99% is land.
  El Centro is located in the Imperial Valley (considered locally as synonymous with Imperial County).  The city is 50 feet (15 m) below sea level and the largest city in the United States below sea level.  The Imperial Valley is in the Colorado Desert, an extension of the larger Sonoran Desert.
  The agriculture industry's demand for water is supplied by canals diverting water from the nearby Colorado River. The Salton Sea was created after a 1905 flood from the Colorado River.
  Geologically, the El Centro earthquake of 1940 had a moment magnitude of 6.9 and a maximum perceived intensity of X (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale. It was the first major earthquake to be recorded by a strong-motion seismograph located next to a fault rupture. It was intensely studied by structural engineers and assumed to be typical until the Northridge earthquake of 1994. In this region, the geology is dominated by the transition of the tectonic plate boundary from rift to transverse fault. The southernmost strands of the San Andreas Fault connect the northern-most extensions of the East Pacific Rise. Consequently, the region is subject to earthquakes, and the crust is being stretched, resulting in a sinking of the terrain over time.
caption: Aerial view of Imperial Valley and Salton Sea; El Centro is in the lower left.
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "2592", "Image ImageLength": "1944", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "Nokia", "Image Model": "X2-00", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2019:02:01 18:50:15", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "284", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "590", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6174", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:01:31 11:46:41", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:01:31 11:46:41", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2592", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1944", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}