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33-519: The Guijarral Hills are a low range of hills, rising a little more than a hundred feet above the floor of the San Joaquin Valley to the east, and scarcely noticeable in the shadow of the nearby Coast Range of central California. These low hills are the surface expression of the southern portion of the Coalinga Anticline, which separates the smaller, largely agricultural Pleasant Valley to

66-516: A great variety and widely varying geologic ages. Most of the rocks were formed during the Tertiary , Cretaceous and Jurassic periods. Most were deposited on the sea bottom as sediments, but in many places also had cracks, crevices and other gaps infused with molten lava or other masses of igneous rock , which were forced in molten condition into the sedimentary rocks. All of the range has been folded and faulted during several periods, with erosion of

99-534: A portion of the field with intent to redevelop, believing that the field contained considerable untapped reserves; they stated they intended to have the first new well operating by mid-2010. 36°09′10″N 120°12′42″W  /  36.1528°N 120.2118°W  / 36.1528; -120.2118 Guijarral Hills The Guijarral Hills are a range of low hills in the inner California Coast Ranges , in Fresno County , California , about seven miles east of

132-712: A source of mine waste runoff in Cache Creek and other downstream bodies of water. The Northern Coast Ranges are a section of the California Coast Ranges. They run parallel to the Pacific Coast from the North San Francisco Bay Area to coastal Del Norte County . The Klamath Mountains , including the Siskiyou Mountains sub-range, lie to the north and northeast. The Southern Coast Ranges lie to

165-606: Is Mount Tamalpais . The highest point in the Northern Coast Ranges is Mount Linn , at 8,098 ft. (2,468 m). The Northern Coast Ranges consist of two main parallel belts of mountains, the Outer Northern Coast Ranges lying along the coast, and the Inner Northern Coast Ranges running inland to the east. They are separated by a long system of valleys. The northern valley portion is drained by

198-829: Is the Leda Sands, which reside in the Miocene-age Vaqueros Formation , underlying the Temblor. The impermeable Salt Creek member of the same Vaqueros Formation is above the Leda Sands, trapping the oil and preventing its natural upward movement. Other oil pools were found later, including the Gatchell, Dessell, McAdams, Sanger, Bourdieu, and Smith, with the most recent discovery being the Dessell pool in 1962. These pools are accumulations of oil in permeable sand lenses within less permeable lithologic units. Oil quality varies throughout

231-506: Is the major east–west road through the hills. This Fresno County, California -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . California Coast Ranges The Coast Ranges of California span 400 miles (644 km) from Del Norte or Humboldt County, California , south to Santa Barbara County . The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Transverse Ranges , Peninsular Ranges and

264-629: The Eel River and its tributaries, and the southern by the Russian River . A series of short rivers, including the Mattole , Gualala , and Navarro rivers, drain the western slopes of the ranges. The eastern slopes of the ranges drain into the Sacramento Valley . Clear Lake lies in the southeast portion of the range, and drains eastward via Cache Creek . U.S. Route 101 runs generally north–south in

297-591: The Klamath Mountains . Physiographically , they are a section of the larger Pacific Border province , which in turn is part of the larger Pacific Mountain System physiographic division. UNESCO has included the " California Coast Ranges Biosphere Reserve " in its Man and the Biosphere Programme of World Network of Biosphere Reserves since 1983. The northern end of the California Coast Ranges overlap

330-533: The Maritime Coast Range Ponderosa Pine forests of the western Santa Cruz Mountains. These isolated groves may include Ponderosa pine , Douglas fir , and knobcone pine . Notably, the highest slopes of the Santa Lucias contain small patches of Sierran Conifer forest, including incense cedar , and ponderosa, Jeffrey, and sugar pines . Steep rocky slopes harbor the endemic Santa Lucia Fir ,

363-679: The Salinas Valley lie between them. The highest point of the Southern Coast Ranges is Junipero Serra Peak in the Santa Lucia Range, at 5,862 feet (1,787 m). Other peaks include Mount Diablo at 3,849 feet (1,173 m), and Mount Hamilton at 4,196 feet (1,279 m). The Southern Coast Ranges have a predominantly Mediterranean climate , and are primarily within the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion . However,

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396-509: The Spanish word chaparro , applied to California scrub oaks and Coastal scrub oaks . Common tree species of oak woodlands include oaks, California bay , and buckeye . Riparian species of the coast ranges include sycamore , white alder , willows , and bigleaf maple . Columbian Black-tailed deer occupy the northern and more coastal portions of the Southern Coast Ranges, and California mule deer occupy inland and southernmost portions of

429-729: The California Coast Ranges in the Pacific Coast Ranges System, run north and south, parallel to the Pacific Coast in north-central through north-southern California. The Southern Coast Ranges begin on the San Francisco Peninsula and in the East San Francisco Bay Area , and run south into Santa Barbara County . The Transverse Ranges lie to the south. The San Joaquin Valley is on the east, and Pacific Ocean on

462-465: The Gatchell pool, and in 1962 the Dessel pool. The discontiguous Polvadero pool was discovered in 1953 by Superior Oil Company, and reached its peak production in 1956. Production in all areas and units gradually declined after the early peak, in a typical production curve for an oil field. Many companies have operated on the field in its 60-year history, with Union Oil, now Chevron Corporation, being one of

495-449: The field but is always medium to light, with API gravity between 27 and 38. Sulfur content is generally low, with no pool over 0.63 percent by weight. In 2008 the remaining active well reported a water cut of 96%, a high value typically indicating a field near the end of its useful life (once that much of the fluid pumped from the reservoir is water, the cost to extract oil exceeds the revenue generated by selling it). The Guijarral field

528-484: The field was fast, with 55 new wells drilled in 1949, and another 20 in 1950. The field reached peak production in 1950 with over 5.4 million barrels (860,000 m) of oil pumped that year. As the Leda Sands had proven to be spectacularly productive, operators began searching for other rich petroleum deposits, and in 1949 found the second-most productive unit, the Allison Sand; in 1954, the rich North Leda unit; in 1957,

561-407: The field, joining with Jayne Avenue. The Pleasant Valley State Prison , also on Jayne Avenue, is adjacent to the oil field on the west. Climate in the area is arid to semi-arid, and native vegetation consists of grassland and low scrub. Summertime temperatures routinely exceed 100 °F (38 °C), and freezes occur during the coldest months, although snow is rare. Most precipitation occurs in

594-431: The inner ranges is Mediterranean California Lower Montane Black Oak-Conifer Forest , which supports particularly high biodiversity within the California Coast Ranges, including the nominate California Black Oak . Columbian Black-tailed Deer are the most widespread large mammal, after humans, of the Northern Coast Ranges. The rivers in the ranges are home to several species of salmon . The Southern Coast Ranges , of

627-478: The largest players. As of 2010, the only active operator remaining on the field was Longview Production Company, who retained one periodically active well. (Fields with no active wells must be formally abandoned in short order; it is often in an operator's interest to keep at least one well operating if there is any potential either for redevelopment or sale.) In early 2010, the Australian firm Solimar Energy acquired

660-451: The maximum depth of their boreholes was only a little over 4,000 feet (1,200 m), and while these boreholes were in good locations had they been drilled sufficiently deep, they were abandoned. The discovery well was put in by Barnsdall Oil Company in 1948 to a depth of 8,730 feet (2,660 m) and flowed over 800 barrels per day (130 m/d); by the end of 1948, seven more wells had been drilled to follow on this success. Development of

693-577: The moister areas of the Santa Cruz Mountains lie within the Northern California coastal forests ecoregion, characterized by forests of Coast redwood . Isolated groves of Coast redwoods are also found in the Big Sur region of the Santa Lucia Range, making them the southernmost natural occurrences of the species. Some of the rarest forest habitat that occurs in the California Coast Ranges are

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726-579: The northwest as the large eastern extension of the Coalinga Oil Field (named there the Coalinga Anticline, and Anticline Ridge on United States Geological Survey maps). The uppermost productive units in the field are sand lenses within the Miocene-age Temblor Formation , named the Smith and Allison respectively from upper to lower. The most productive unit, and the first to be discovered,

759-547: The productive portion of the oil field ranges from around 550 to 650 feet (200 m) above sea level. The field, like many in and adjacent to the California Central Valley, is an anticlinal structure, in which oil has accumulated through both structural and stratigraphic mechanisms. The Guijarral Hills are a segment of a long anticline which includes the Kettleman Hills to the southeast, and which continues to

792-532: The rarest species of fir on earth. The California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion has a great range of plant communities in the Southern Coast Ranges, including mixed evergreen forests , oak woodland and savannas , grasslands , northern coastal scrub , and the Monterey Pine woodlands of the Monterey Peninsula and two other coastal enclaves of the Santa Lucia Range. The name " chaparral " comes from

825-642: The softer rock giving much of the current appearance. The California Ranges had a high production of mercury following the discovery of gold in the Sierra Nevada . In the Cache Creek Basin , Cenozoic cinnabar deposits near Clear Lake are the northernmost of a group of similar deposits associated with volcanism and migration of a transform fault system. During 1877, these deposits hit their peak production of mercury, producing approximately 2,776 metric tons (3,060 short tons). These abandoned mines are still

858-683: The south. The Northern Coast Ranges run north–south parallel to the coast. Component ranges within the Northern Coast Ranges include the Mendocino Range of western Mendocino County and the Mayacamas , Sonoma , and Vaca Mountains and the Marin Hills of the North Bay . They also include the King Range , which meet the sea in the " Lost Coast " region. The southernmost peak of the Northern Coast Ranges

891-553: The southern end of the Klamath Mountains for approximately 80 miles (130 km) on the west. They extend southward for more than 60 miles (97 km) to where the coastline turns eastward along the Santa Barbara Channel , around the area of Point Conception . Here the southern end meets the Los Angeles Transverse Ranges , or Sierras de los Angeles . The rocks themselves that comprise the mountains are of

924-496: The town of Coalinga . Guijarral is derived from a Spanish word meaning "heap of pebbles". They are the surface expression of an anticlinal structure which continues to the south as the Kettleman Hills , and to the north as Anticline Ridge, a portion of the huge Coalinga Oil Field . The Guijarral Hills overlie the smaller and mostly exhausted Guijarral Hills Oil Field . Jayne Avenue, which connects Interstate 5 to Coalinga,

957-583: The valleys between the Outer and Inner Northern Coast Ranges. The seaward face of the coastal Outer Northern Coast Ranges is part of the Northern California coastal forests ecoregion, home to lush forests of Coast Redwood and Coast Douglas-fir . The inland and dryer Inner Northern Coast Ranges are part of the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, home to a number of plant communities including: mixed evergreen forest ; oak woodland ; and Interior chaparral and woodland . A major specific plant community of

990-579: The west from the main portion of the California Central Valley to the east. The town of Coalinga is about eight miles (13 km) west of the hills, with the large Coalinga Oil Field wrapping around the town in a crescent shape. The Guijarral field is a similar, smaller, and separate field southeast of the giant Coalinga field. The major road through the field is Jayne Avenue, which runs east to west, connecting Interstate 5 to Coalinga. California State Route 33 runs from north to south, west of

1023-826: The west. The Southern Coast Ranges include the Berkeley Hills , the Diablo Range , the Santa Cruz Mountains , the Gabilan Range , the Santa Lucia Range and Sierra de Salinas , the Temblor Range , and the Sierra Madre . There are Outer Southern Coast Ranges along the Pacific Ocean on the west, and Inner Southern Coast Ranges to the east, inland to the San Joaquin Valley . The central and southern San Francisco Bay and

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1056-519: The winter. Runoff to the west and north is into Los Gatos Creek, which flows northeast into the San Joaquin Valley; runoff to the south and east is into Zapato Chino Creek, which joins with Los Gatos Creek draining to the northeast. Elevations in the vicinity range from around 500 feet (150 m) in Los Gatos Creek north of the hills to 733 feet (223 m) at the highest point in the hills;

1089-458: Was discovered relatively late (1948) because of the depth and relative inaccessibility of the oil-producing formations. While the enormous Coalinga field is but a few miles away, in a similar anticlinal structure, it is richly productive at under 1,000 feet (300 m) below ground surface, and hence was easier to exploit. Drillers attempted to find oil at the Guijarral Hills in the 1920s, but

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