Baja California peninsula


The Baja California peninsula is a peninsula in northwestern Mexico. It separates the Gulf of California from the Pacific Ocean. The peninsula extends from Mexicali, Baja California, in the north to Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, in the south.
With a length of, its width ranges from at its narrowest to at its widest point and has approximately of coastline and approximately 65 islands. The total area of the Baja California peninsula is.
The peninsula is separated from mainland Mexico by the Gulf of California and the Colorado River. There are four main desert areas on the peninsula: the San Felipe Desert, the Central Coast Desert, the Vizcaíno Desert, and the Magdalena Plain Desert.

History

The name of California existed as a myth among European explorers before it was discovered. The earliest known mention of the idea of California was in the 1510 romance novel Las Sergas de Esplandián by Spanish author Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The book described the Island of California as being west of the Indies, "very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by black women, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of Amazons".
The Baja peninsula was originally believed by the first Spanish sea explorers to be an island, and acquired the name California, after the mythical paradise. Following Hernán Cortés's conquest of Mexico, the search for the fabled Strait of Anián connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific helped motivate him to send several expeditions to the west coast of New Spain in the 1530s and early 1540s. In 1539, explorer Francisco de Ulloa proved that Baja California was a peninsula rather than an island, and named the water separating it from the mainland the "Vermillion Sea". The Spaniards gave the name Las Californias to the peninsula and lands to the north, including both Baja California and Alta California, the region that became parts of the present-day U.S. states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. Over time the name "Sea of Cortez" replaced Vermillion Sea, and today the term "Gulf of California" is used by some.
Although cartographers such as Abraham Ortelius showed the Baja as an extensive peninsula in his Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, published in Antwerpen in 1589, and on the map Maris Pacifici from 1589, in the first half of the 17th century the idea of California as an island spread again; this persisted well into the 18th century, and was included in many erroneous maps that did not have the knowledge of the Spanish sailors about the Pacific coast of North America. It is believed to have originated with Carmelite friar Antonio Ascension, who around 1620 drew a map of California depicting it as an island, supposedly on a misconception of reports by Spanish navigators Juan de Fuca and Martin d'Aquilar. A copy of this map was sent to Spain and was seized by the Dutch on its way and then reproduced in the Netherlands, and eventually found its way to Henry Briggs in London who widely disseminated this misinformation. The first printed map showing California as an island was published by Briggs in 1622, where it was written that it was sometimes supposed to be a peninsula, but had since been shown by the Dutch to be an island. The idea was warmly accepted by cartographers and presented even in c. 1720 on Carte Nouveelle de la Mer du Sud, published in Amsterdam by Andries and. Garcia and Jorge opined in 2023 that a reason for such a mistake could have originated in the secret in which the Spaniards held their cartography from other European powers' eyes.
The final blow to the notion of California as an island was struck by an influential map created by Italian Jesuit priest Eusebio Kino during his mission in the Pimería Alta. It was titled Paso por tierra a la California y sus confinantes nuevas Naciones y Misiones nuevas de la Compañía de JHS en la América Septentrional. Originally, in 1695, it depicted California as a peninsula but based on the presence of blue abalone shells from the Pacific coast in the Pimería Alta, the information from natives, and his own travels and sightings, Eusebio Kino redrew the map in 1701. The map was printed in 1707 in Hamburg and Leipzig and became one of the best-known maps of northern New Spain. A notable colleague of Eusebio Kino who accompanied him on one of his major travels and acted as the intermediary in the publication of this map and dissemination of Kino's knowledge in Europe was Carniolan priest.

Timeline

  • "At the time of contact, Baja California Norte was primarily inhabited by several indigenous groups belonging to the Yuman language branch of the Hokan linguistic family." Other indigenous groups in Baja California at the time of first contact include the Paipai, Kumeyaay, Cochimí, Cucapás, Kiliwa, Guaycura, and Pericú peoples.
  • 1532: Hernán Cortés sends three ships north along the coast of Mexico in search of the Island of California. The three ships disappear without a trace.
  • 1533: Cortés sends a follow-up mission to search for the lost ships. Pilot Fortún Ximénez leads a mutiny and founds a settlement in the Bay of La Paz in today's Baja California before being killed.
  • 1539: Francisco de Ulloa explores both coasts, confirms the Baja as a peninsula.
  • 1539: Domingo del Castillo, a cartographer in the Francisco de Ulloa expedition, draws his map with an accurate rendering of the peninsula.
  • 1578 or 1579: The San Juanillo was the Manila galleon which wrecked on a beach at Baja California in late 1578 or early 1579 became the first shipwreck on the coast of the Californias.
  • 1622: A map by Michiel Colijn of Amsterdam showed California as a peninsula rather than an island. Previous maps show the Gulf terminating in its correct location.
  • 1690s–1800s: Spanish settlement and colonization in lower Las Californias, the first Spanish missions in Baja California are established by Jesuit missionaries.
  • 1701: Explorations by Eusebio Kino expanded knowledge of the Gulf of California coast.
  • 1767: Jesuits expelled; Franciscans take over the Baja missions.
  • 1769: Franciscans go with the Portola expedition to establish new missions in Alta California. Control of the existing Baja missions passes to the Dominican Order.
  • 1773: Francisco Palóu's line demarcates Franciscan and Dominican areas of mission control.
  • 1804: Las Californias divided into Alta and Baja California, using Palóu's line.
  • 1810–1821: Mexican War of Independence
  • 1821: First Mexican Empire, Baja California Territory established, covering Baja California peninsula.
  • 1847: The Battle of La Paz and the Siege of La Paz occurs, as well as several other engagements.
  • 1848: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo cedes Alta California to the United States. As a U.S. territory it receives the California Gold Rush, causing increased maritime traffic along the peninsula.
  • 1850: California admitted to U.S. statehood.
  • 1853: William Walker, with 45 men, captures the capital city of La Paz and declares himself President of the Republic of Lower California. Mexico forces him to retreat a few months later.
  • 1931: The Territory of Baja California is further divided into Northern and Southern territories.
  • 1952: The North territory becomes the 29th State of Mexico, Baja California. The southern portion, below 28°N, remains a federally administered territory.
  • 1973: The long Trans-Peninsular Highway, is finished. It is the first paved road that spans the entire peninsula. The highway was built by the Mexican government to improve Baja California's economy and increase tourism.
  • 1974: The South territory becomes the 31st State of Mexico, Baja California Sur.
  • As of 2000, the five most common indigenous languages in Baja are Mixteco, Zapoteco, Náhuatl, Purépecha, and Triqui.

    Geology

The Baja California peninsula was once a part of the North American Plate, the tectonic plate of which mainland Mexico remains a part. About 12 to 15 million years ago the East Pacific Rise began cutting into the margin of the North American Plate, initiating the separation of the peninsula from it. Spreading within the Gulf of California consists of short oblique rifts or ridge segments connected by long northwest trending transform faults, which together comprise the Gulf of California Rift Zone. The north end of the rift zone is located in the Brawley seismic zone in the Salton Sea basin between the Imperial Fault and the San Andreas Fault. The Baja California peninsula is now part of the Pacific Plate and is moving with it away from the East Pacific Rise in a north northwestward direction.
Along the coast north of Santa Rosalia, Baja California Sur is a prominent volcanic activity area.
Volcanoes of the peninsula and adjacent islands include:
  • Volcanoes of east-central Baja California
  • Cerro Prieto
  • The San Quintín Volcanic Field
  • Isla San Luis
  • Jaraguay volcanic field
  • Coronado
  • Guadalupe
  • San Borja volcanic field
  • El Aguajito
  • Tres Vírgenes
  • Isla Tortuga
  • Comondú-La Purísima
Researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography have found a 2,000-year-old layer of non-decomposed roots, or peat, up to under the desert mangroves. The peat layer acts like a sponge for stored atmospheric carbon, a record of sea-level-rise is also recorded in the peat layer.
The desert mangroves restricted to rocky inlets on the rugged coast of Baja California have been growing over their own root remains over thousands of years to compensate for sea-level rise, accumulating a thick layer of peat below their roots. However, mangroves in flat coastal floodplains have accumulated a thinner peat layer.

Geography

The Peninsular Ranges form the backbone of the peninsula. They are an uplifted and eroded Jurassic to Cretaceous batholith, part of the same original batholith chain which formed much of the Sierra Nevada mountains in U.S. California. This chain was formed primarily as a result of the subduction of the Farallon Plate millions of years ago all along the margin of North America.

Climate
The climate of Baja California peninsula is predominantly a hot desert climate, with the northern parts featuring a Mediterranean climate, and contains some dots of Mediterranean and hot semi arid climate along all of the peninsula.
The two most prominent capes along the Pacific coastline of the peninsula are Punta Eugenia, located about halfway up the coast, and Cabo San Lázaro, located about a quarter of the way north from Cabo San Lucas.
The Sebastián Vizcaíno Bay, the largest bay in Baja California, lies along the Pacific coast halfway up the peninsula. The large Cedros Island is situated between the bay and the Pacific, just north of Punta Eugenia. Onshore southeast of the bay is the Desierto de Vizcaino, an extensive desert lying between the Sierra Vizcaino to the west, and the Tres Virgenes range which runs along the Gulf of California to the east.
The largest bays along the coastline of the Gulf are Bahia de La Paz where the city of La Paz is located, and Bahia Concepcion. The Bahía de los Ángeles is a small bay located west of the Canal de las Ballenas which separates the Baja California peninsula from the large island of Isla Ángel de la Guarda in the Gulf of California.