Geology of the San Francisco Bay Region - Research Paper Example

The Bay Area of San Francisco A Place, defined as an area that includes everything in it, generally refers to thevarious elements found in a location. In every sense and reality, places have features, which essentially give them their personality and distinctive characteristics from other places. Location in itself refers to an area, either in its absolute definition that refers to specific coordinates in a map that considers longitudes and latitudes, or relative location that refers to its closeness to a point of reference. Thus, a place could be either located nearby, or close to something. Places too can be defined by nature of their occurrence, the people residing in them or the biology of the area which is inclusive of flora and fauna. Commerce and business are too ways of defining a place, while cultural reference gives an area its originality and unique features. The candid manner in which a place is defined determines the understandability of the place by the intended audience. In defining a place, various elements are put into consideration. Therefore, this paper while seeking to define The Bay Area, will address the cultural, social, geological and biological history of the place. In essence, how the place came into existence is important in understanding the kind of flora and fauna. Moreover, its location in the map helps to define the place by the very nature of its placement. In conclusion, the essay will give the full picture and relative understanding of Bay Area of San Francisco. The Bay Area of San Francisco is located in the northern region of California. The geographically diverse region, rich in business is extensively a metropolitan place, offering home to a staggering 8 million inhabitants. In the Bay Area, cities such as San Francisco, occupying the most part of the region, Oakland and San Jose contribute to its huge population and rich commerce industry. However, what puts Bay Area on the financial map and at the same time giving increasingly winning it popularity is its lifestyle, liberal nature of its politics and the high-tech industry. Hosting the famous Silicon Valley, the Bay Area has been the center of attraction for investors and technology experts. Moreover, the area is an attraction site, owing to its rich culture. The geography of the area, defined in the simplest language as easy to understand makes it easy for new visitors to trace their location. Some geographers hold that although many people find the area to be as big and very confusing, the reality is quite opposite. The complexity of its nature makes the whole picture understandable, yet it is a small and compact place. Barringer and Ryan (Web) points out that by the fact that the life of the city resonates in various levels, the city life is morally binding to the people. In defining San Francisco Barringer and Ryan “It has spectacular landscapes, it is prone to earthquakes, it is a coastal town with a thriving gay culture” (Web). Surprisingly, a number of cities of the Bay Area are thronged with the gay culture, a recent development in its moral culture that has exploded among the youth. People generally listen to rock music, with night clubs and blaring music filling the nights of the cities. These are the kinds of images triggered by the mention of San Francisco to any individual who has ever set foot in the area. The bay area has a rich history, dating to thousands of years ago. Geologists trace the origin of the bay area to melting of ice bergs. Estimated to date back 12,000 years ago, the melting of the ice raised the sea level. Subsequently, this brought into existence the San Francisco bay. Without any known economic importance, the bay remained unknown, with only about 20,000 Native Americans residing in villages formed in the area in the 1700s. what was an unknown region started receiving quite some attention in the year 1776, when a Spanish expedition led by Anza established a presidio right in front of the entrance to the then San Francisco Bay. Such visits and discoveries made the place known among the people in the American region. However, the period between 1776 and 1823 saw missionaries from Francisco put up missions around the Bay area. By this time, the area was under the rule of the Spanish. It was not until the year 1821 when Mexico was liberated, becoming free of the Spanish rules. Later, it was incorporated into the California region. When the town of Yerba Buena was founded in 1835, it remained as a trading city attracting various people. In 1847, its name was changed to San Francisco, which was the birth of the current San Francisco. By the fact that the city was increasingly becoming a center for wealth and power saw increased rivalries and war between the interested powers. Suddenly, the city gained a lot of attention and popularity. Even the United States was interested in it. Over the years, numerous powers had expressed interest. The entry of the United States into the picture in a major way changed the shape of the city. War broke out between Mexico and the United States between 1846 and 1848. Following the win by the United States, San Francisco became part United States. On wards from this period, the city of San Francisco and the Bay Area have remained in the hands of the United States. The discovery of gold in the foothills of Sierra Nevada transformed San Francisco into a commercial hub (Lewis 22). The numbers of people grew drastically as “Finding Gold In San Francisco” (40) notes, “Within a year's time, the population mushroomed from about 500 to more than 20,000”. The manner in which people flocked into the region drastically inflated the number of people in the region. This created the Gold Rush of the 1848, making it a hub in the United States. Flocking of people in the region saw a sharp growth of the people from 600 in the year 1848 to 25,000 in the year 1849. Business started taking shape in the region. Entrepreneurship took the face of the city, as amenities increased for the gold miners. Additionally, wealth was evident from mine owners and workers. Market niches were everywhere, for any interested parties to plunge in. such factors prompted entrepreneurs such as Levi Strauss in 1953 to set up a dry goods store, purposely to cater for the gold miners. They raked in numerous wealth before other people came in. later the place was thronged with business people and entrepreneurs. Not only were individual entrepreneurs interested in the gold, the government too felt the need to have a share in the boom of the bay area and especially the San Francisco. In 1853, the U.S government set up a mint in the city that was responsible for minting silver and gold coins to run the business in the region. “San Francisco Examiner” records, “The United States Government did not open a mint [in San Francisco] until 1854 (Web)”. This is an indication of how important the Bay area had become to the government to the effect of setting up a minting plant in the area. Different factors gradually increased the importance of the city. The clipper ships of 1850 saw San Francisco rise to the status of the most important import in the United States. Increase in business levels and wealth among the people increases fun in a region. The propensity of the people to spend made coastal region of the place infamous. Mushrooming of hotels, brothels and bars tarnished the name of the area in the 19th century. The fun, the high volumes of business and the gold of in the region of the San Francisco catapulted the massive growth of the San Francisco. In the second half of the 19th century, the Bay Area was famous enough to attract people from all regions of the world. With colonialism and slave trade, the numbers of people in the area grew tremendously. Numerous events such as the cable car to enhance transport, the unveiling of the golden gate and the opening of the Universality of California in Berkeley all catapulted the growth of the Bay Area to the current state it is today. Natural history is defined as the study of the plants, animals and rocks in a certain place. The evolution of history has too seen the evolution of the definition. Natural history currently encompasses the scientifically the study of living things, both plants and animals, but also includes meteorology, paleontology and geology. How these came into the existence in a particular place, their evolution and development is the concern of natural history. The bay area is rich in natural history. According to Rubissow and Kathleen (17), the common belief is that the region came into existence from melting of ice, which subsequently raised the sea level. Through this, the Bay Area came into existence. Dyl (63) notes that the region is characterized by numerous earthquakes that have changed the geology of the place. The escarpments, valleys and mountains have been as a result of the events in the history of the Bay Area. This has created the complicated the geography of the area (Sloan 8). Among the animal kingdom of the Bay Area are invertebrates, mammals, fish, birds and the endangered species. Most common invertebrates are Phylum Annelida which includes worms such as tube worms, Phylum Arthropoda which includes crabs and the crayfish, Phylum Cnidaria which includes the jellyfish and Phylum Chordata which includes sea squirts. Rubissow and Kathleen (78) studies that the common fish in the bay area are grouped into bottom dwellers, middle dwellers and top dwellers. While the bottom dwellers which are found at the bottom of the sea include leopard shark and California halibut, middle dwellers which dwell in the middle zone of the bay waters include shiner surfperch. Top dwellers on their part are found at the surface of the bay waters and include the Jacksmelt. The Mammalia Kingdom of the Bay Area has interesting mammals. They include sea lion, the California sea lion and the Salt-marsh Harvest mouse. Most important birds in the Bay area include the pacific flyway and the mudflats (Rubissow and Kathleen 92). Culture, defined as the set of cumulated knowledge depositories, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, religion, concepts of the universe and possessions of a particular group of people shows how the people relate among themselves in the course of their generations. By is definition, culture is shared by, a large group of people. Either the language, the way of interacting, socialization or lifestyles define culture. In this regard, the Bay Area is a culturally rich region. Over the years of its existence, the settling of various kinds of people has dynamically transformed the culture of the place. Notably, the gold rush period and the second half of the 19th century contributed to divergence of the culture. Presently, the many people living in the area freely practice their cultures. However, there are the adoptable elements of the place that have remained embedded in the locals over time. It can be argued that cultures changes with time, but still, people’s believe remain. Religion too remains in the hearts of the people. Heroes too are remembered, forming the important days, so the major events in that particular place. Interaction contributes to diversification of cultures. San Francisco has had a growing mixture of cultures including arts and language. The culture of provincial rebellion was founded in the area of the gold rush. The individuality, the excessiveness of resources and lawlessness that marked the period gave birth to the culture. Openness of ideas and character were prevalent in the region and still are, as Moyer (3) warns new visitors that, “beware that what is previously considered to be normal and what people hare regard as normal are two radically different things”. By here, he refers to the Bay Area, showing how serious the things practiced by people of the area are. The Beat Movement and counter-culture of the 1860s that powerfully and radically influenced the most important factors of the city catapulted social rebellion in an aggressive manner among the people of the Bay Area. Feminism too was a factor in the war of the Vietnam. Coupled with the free love culture, these two gave bay area a face of a counter-culture place. However, the dynamism in the culture of the people did not halt, as in the late 1960s, the influx of youth from the summer of love tore into the city of San Francisco. This saw the birth of the culture of gays which formed part of the city’s traditions and culture. The open mind-ness of the city gave birth to a class of authors and artists. The most famous authors in the history of the area include Ambrose Bierce, Samuel Clemens, and Mark Twain among others. Their colloquial mode of writing took center of the American literature, becoming part of the tradition. Most of the literature then was inspired by the city of the San Francisco. Most of the literature commonly drew reference to the newspaper columnist Herb Caen. Music too was a celebrated part of the Bay Area culture. Symphony music of the San Francisco, the Ballet and the Opera of the San Francisco are part of the rich culture. They were performed in the in the city’s vulnerable venues and later gained a worldwide attention. Jazz too found its way to the hearts of the Bay Area residents. Although other genres of music such as pop, rock and soul have taken over the clubs of the Bay Area, the traditional music is still embedded in the hearts of the old folks. The future is likely to welcome new types of music, which will see the loss of meaning n of the traditional music of the people. Due to the love of entertainment, the Bay Area was a hub for cinema in both large and small screens. To date, cinema is a thriving business and a commonly practiced culture of the people. The introduction of movies in homes, and adoption of the culture of home entertainment has slowly stolen the glory of the San Francisco cinema. However, this culture is not likely to erode to insignificant levels as most of the people take time off their busy schedule s to catch a movie since it forms part of their social life. Innovation and entrepreneurship, started in the era of gold rush has remained a culture of the people of the Bay Area. Presently, the Silicon Valley can attest to this phenomenon. Many investments have cropped around the cities of the area, especially in technology. There is no likelihood of the people stopping from investing in the area. Technology is bound to be the key form of investment in the region as more expertise and skill keeps being developed for example in the University of California. The emerging cultures of gayism and lesbianism are likely to change to culture of sex in the area. With the rise in gay campaigns and same sex marriages, there is a big likelihood of the shape of socialization of the area being altered. With the manner in which the evolution of the population of San Francisco and the Bay Area took place, the social life of the people too took a drastic change and twist. From a population of just about 900 people, in 1848, the city and the region registered about 50,000 inhabitants in a span of 10 years. Among the various immigrants into the region, the social life changed. The French were the largest group of people in the region. Although they did not have much influence in the business and politics of the place, they had influence in the social life of the area. They played a major role in influencing the lifestyles of other people in the area. They created their restaurants, movie theatres; stores and saloons, there were given the touch of French decor and color. Their mode of dressing too had a significant contrast with dressing of other people in the area. Social life of the people was characterized by love and open minded theories about love. Intermarriages among the people were commonly practiced. The advent of the hotels, clubs and restaurants in the Bay coastal cities started taking shape in the era of Gold Rush. The culture of love in San Francisco has remained to date. However, it has evolved to include gays and lesbians, and same sex marriages. Evolution in the service industry is apparent. The dynamics that the industry has undergone are evidenced by the increase in the number of hotels and restaurants in the area. A stroll in the streets of San Francisco, the biggest city, many five star hotels and fun fairs dots the place as Benard de Russailh observes, “It is easy for pleasure-loving people to find amusement in San Francisco”, indicating that the place is full of fun and highly entertaining. This gives the area its unique characteristics of a high lifestyle area. Brothels, although being replaced by the night clubs and restaurants are still a common business. The Bay area is rich in many things. The transformation the area has undergone with time has helped shape the place to what it is now. A fulfilled area with plenty of places to visit and tourist attraction, the area is shaped by the richness of the social life. Geographically, it enjoys a nice location to the Pacific Ocean, while the people have helped shape the culture found in the place. The relationship between place and nature according to the Bay Area is evident by the uniqueness of its nature. The birds, animals and the fish are a defining characteristic of Bay. Historically, being believed to have come emerged from the ocean due to the melting of the ice gives it a unique history. The bay area is unique, socially, culturally as well as geographically. Works Cited "Finding GOLD in San Francisco." American Water Works Association.Journal 97.5 (2005): 40-4. ProQuest. Web. 21 May 2013.  Barringer, Felicity  and Ryan M., San Francisco, The Rorschach Test; The Bay Area. The New York Times, Tuesday, May 21, 2013. Web http://bayarea.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/san-francisco-the-rorschach-test/#more-8183 Benard de Russailh, Bernard. Social Life in 1851: A Frenchman's View, shaping san franscisco’s digital archive. Web, n.d. http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Social_Life_in_1851:_A_Frenchman's_View Dyl, Joanna. "Lessons from History: Coastal Cities and Natural Disaster." Management of Environmental Quality 20.4 (2009): 460-73. ProQuest. Web. 21 May 2013. Lewis, Frank. Gold Rush, 1847-1849. S.l.: Xlibris Corp, 2010. Print. Moyer, Thomas. Conservative Survival Guide to San Francisco: A Tale of Two Cities. Xlibris Corp, 2012. Print. Richards, Rand. Mud, Blood, and Gold: San Francisco in 1849. San Francisco: Heritage House Publishers, 2008. Print. Rubissow, Okamoto A, and Kathleen M. Wong. Natural History of San Francisco Bay. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011. Internet resource. San Francisco Examiner. Remarkable Record Is Made By Banks Here First Opened In 1849 Confusion Reigned During Golden Epoch, Virtual Museum Of The City Of San Francisco. Web http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist9/banking.html Sloan, Doris. Geology of the San Francisco Bay Region. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Print. Read More