page_title: Transverse Ranges
section_title: Geology
hierarchical_section_title: Transverse Ranges / Geology
caption_attribution_description: English: The Mojave Desert or High desert on the right, with the San Bernardino Mountains (near) and San Gabriel Mountains (far) of the Transverse Ranges System on the left. Silverwood Lake reservoir in the San Bernardinos is a part of the California State Water Project system infrastructure. The San Andreas Fault runs straight up the middle, from San Bernardino County toward Los Angeles County on the horizon. The mountain ranges are formed by the Pacific Plate colliding into the North American Plate, right here, on this boundary. The 2 mountain ranges are also headed northwest. Here we are looking at the one section of the famous fault where a collision is actually taking place, because this is where the fault bends west before heading north again.
context_page_description: The Transverse Ranges are a group of mountain ranges of southern California, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region in North America. The Transverse Ranges begin at the southern end of the California Coast Ranges and lie within Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and Kern counties. The Peninsular Ranges lie to the south. The name Transverse Ranges is due to their east–west orientation, making them transverse to the general northwest–southeast orientation of most of California's coastal mountains.
  The ranges extend from west of Point Conception eastward approximately 500 kilometers into the Mojave and Colorado Desert. The geology and topography of the ranges express three distinct segments that have contrasting elevations, rock types, and vegetation. The western segment extends to the San Gabriel Mountains and San Gabriel fault. The central segment includes that range eastward to the San Andreas fault. The eastern segment extends from the San Andreas fault eastward to the Colorado Desert. The central and eastern segments have the highest elevations.
  Most of the ranges lie in the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion.
caption: View west of the eastern portion of the San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains, with the Mojave Desert on the right and Silverwood Lake near the boundary. The San Andreas Fault runs straight up the middle toward the horizon.
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