CENTRAL VALLEY of California - How it developed - 1949 Documentary
Shows the agriculture, trade and infrastructure of
California's Central Valley, all made possible by irrigation.
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California's Central Valley is a large, flat valley that dominates the geographical center of the
U.S. state of
California. It is 40 to 60 miles (60 to
100 km) wide and stretches approximately 450 miles (
720 km) from north-northwest to south-southeast, inland from and parallel to the
Pacific Ocean coast.
It covers approximately 22,
500 square miles (58,
000 km2), about 13.7% of
California's total land area (slightly smaller than the state of
West Virginia), and is home to some of California's most productive agricultural areas.
The Central Valley comprises multiple major watershed systems: the
Sacramento Valley, which receives well over 20 inches (510 mm) of rain annually, in the north, and the drier
San Joaquin Valley in the south, with the
Tulare Basin and its semi-arid desert climate at the southernmost end.
The
Sacramento and
San Joaquin river systems drain their respective valleys and meet to form the delta, a large expanse of interconnected canals, stream beds, sloughs, marshes and peat islands, ultimately flowing to the
Pacific by way of
San Francisco Bay.
The waters of the Tulare Basin essentially never flow to the ocean, though they are connected by man-made canals to the San Joaquin and could drain there again naturally if they were ever to rise high enough.
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