Shows a model for the tectonic evolution of southern California and northern Baja California, from 20 million years ago to present, approximately depicting the rotation of the Transverse Ranges block and the breakup of the continental shelf to form the California borderland.

Download package includes the animation and supporting map images of the present day Transverse Ranges physiography, the proposed rotation trajectory, and the California borderlands and offshore islands.

To view this movie, click on the images.

Download: Southern California Transverse Ranges Rotaion movie and related images (18 MB)

This movie was created by Tanya Atwater in Photoshop and Morph.
Physiographic maps are from K. Edwards and R.M.Batson, U.S.G.S., 1990, "Experimental Digital Shaded-Relief Maps of Southwestern United States."
Rotation trajectory follows suggestions by Crouch and Suppe, 1993, Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull., v 105, pp. 1415-1434.
Borderland maps were constructed by combining and modifying various images from Google maps.

Comments on this and all of the materials offered on this site are welcomed: atwater@geol.ucsb.edu