GEOG 1280 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Santa Ana Winds, Denudation, Mass Wasting
Document Summary
Santa ana winds, blowing east-to-west across southern california, are a phenomenon of geography as well as meteorology. When high-pressure air moves south into nevada, utah and arizona, it pushes air up and over the san gabriel mountains. The air moves down the west side of the mountains, accelerating through canyons into southern california. Air is compressed by adiabatic (change in pressure related to change in temperature) processes as it descends and is heated up. Santa ana winds occur most often in the fall, typically gust up to 50 to 70 km/hour and warm the air by about 5-10 degrees. Temperatures have reached to over 30 degrees, 10 degrees above normal. The air becomes very dry, with the relative humidity dropping below 10 percent. Process that refers to all phenomena associated with the shaping of geologic structures and material. It includes endogenous processes (diastrophism and volcanism) and exogenous processes (mass wasting, weathering and erosion)