ISS018-E-11096 Click the photo number to access all resolutions available and the database record.
The dramatic landscape of the city is the result of tectonic forces; the Santa Barbara Channel is part of the boundary between the oceanic Pacific Plate and the continental North American Plate. Movement along the San Andreas Fault—the actual zone of contact between the two plates—over geologic time both raised the Santa Ynez range and lowered the seafloor, forming the deep Santa Barbara Channel. The city has experienced two earthquakes, one in 1812 and another in 1925, that caused significant damage.
The urban street grid is defined by white and red rooftops at image top center; to the southeast lie beaches and the boat slips of a large marina (image top right). Two large golf courses, characterized by expanses of green grass, are visible at image center. Low, east-west-trending hills that parallel the coastline are almost completely covered by residential and commercial development, lending a speckled appearance to the hillsides. Immediately offshore, giant kelp beds are the focus of the Santa Barbara Coastal Long Term Ecological Research site, part of the National Science Foundation’s Long Term Ecological Research Network.
