Carquinez Strait
Carquinez Strait | |
---|---|
Spanish: Estrecho de Carquinez | |
Location | Bay Area, Northern California |
Coordinates | 38°03′33″N 122°12′45″W / 38.05918°N 122.21260°W |
Etymology | The Karkin people |
River sources | Sacramento River, San Joaquin River |
Primary outflows | San Pablo Bay, San Francisco Bay |
Basin countries | United States |
Max. length | 8 miles (13 km) |
Settlements | Benicia, Crockett, Martinez, Vallejo |
The Carquinez Strait (
The strait formed in prehistoric times, near the close of one of the past ice ages, when the Central Valley was a vast inland lake. Melting ice from the Sierra Nevada raised the water level while seismic activity created a new outlet to the Pacific Ocean, draining the lake into the ocean and exposing the valley floors.
Etymology
The strait is named after the Karkin people (los Carquines in Spanish), a linguistic division of the Ohlone indigenous peoples who once resided on both sides of the strait.[3]
History
Andrei Sarna-Wojcicki, a geologist emeritus of the
The strait forms part of the county border between Solano (to the north) and Contra Costa (to the south), and it is approximately 15 mi (25 km) north of Oakland. The cities of Benicia and Vallejo lie on the north side of the strait, while Martinez, Port Costa, and Crockett sit on the southern coast. The Napa River joins the strait, via the short Mare Island Strait, near its entrance into San Pablo Bay. Its watershed covers 62,500 square miles (162,000 km2), approximately 40 percent of California's total surface.[4]
Installations
The
Bridges
The strait is crossed by two highway bridges: the Carquinez Bridge on Interstate 80 and the Benicia–Martinez Bridge on Interstate 680. Each highway bridge consists of two spans.
Interstate 780 connects the two highways on the northern slope of the strait. State Route 4 connects these highways south of and inland from the strait.
A rail bridge just east of the Benicia–Martinez Bridge is used by the
Tall
Ship traffic
The channel is navigable and is used for commercial and military shipping. Deep water ship traffic bound for both the
Formation of delta
The narrow gap in the
Saltwater intrusion
Seawater is more dense than fresh water because of its higher concentration of salts. Under stable conditions, this means that an invisible boundary forms where two such streams meet, as where the fresh water from Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers meet the sea water contained in the San Francisco Bay.
By the early 20th century, farmers in the
In September 1923, the California Legislature appropriated $10,000 (equivalent to $179,000 today) for a saltwater dam survey. The Federal government added a $20,000 contribution ($358,000 today) through the US Reclamation Service.[a] Under Reclamation Service rules, another $10,000 needed to be raised from local supporters of the project. The necessary money was raised by March 1924, and the first of three site surveys was announced.[5]
The first survey was at Army Point, near Benicia, which was the preferred site based on preliminary studies. The second choice was
On January 24, 1930, with the Great Depression taking hold, President Herbert Hoover cancelled the Carquinez Strait project, saying that it was too costly. All efforts to revive the project failed. Years later, the Central Valley Project attempted to mitigate the effects of seawater intrusion by constructing other dams much farther inland and canals to send fresh water to the San Joaquin Valley.[5]
See also
Notes
- ^ The U.S. Reclamation Service was removed from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in 1907 and reestablished within the Department of the Interior. In 1923, the Reclamation Service was renamed as the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), by which it is now known.
- ^ Bowen wrote that later in 1929, some reports indicated that the proposed dam would not store sufficient water to satisfy the projected needs of industry and agriculture.[5]
References
- ^ Univision Área de la Bahía - Múltiples sismos sacuden el este de la Bahía; el mayor fue de magnitud 3.8 con epicentro en San Ramón
- ^ "El temblor en el Área de la Bahía es la advertencia más reciente del alto peligro sísmico en esa zona", sandiegouniontribune.com. Accessed December 21, 2022. (in Spanish)
- ^ Coffey, Geoffrey (2004-07-28). "Going in for natural solitude on Mt. Wanda". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
- ^ a b Wong, Kathleen. "Carquinez Breakthrough." Bay Nature. September 30, 2006. Accessed July 19, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e Bowen, Jerry."A dam across Carquinez Strait?" Historical Articles of Solano County Online Database. Posted August 12, 2001. Accessed July 21, 2017