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Geography of California

Can you answer these random questions about the geography of California?
Quiz by Aaron197
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Last updated: July 9, 2020
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First submittedJune 6, 2019
Times taken9,105
Average score65.0%
Rating4.22
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Question
Answer
What is the capital of California?
Sacramento
What major city is located just 20 miles north of the Mexican city of Tijuana?
San Diego
What valley marks the lowest elevation in North America?
Death Valley
What desert, south of the above, is the driest desert in North America?
Mojave
What phenomenon occurs every ten years or so when desert plants spring into
blossom following a rare rainy period?
Superbloom
What famous fault line runs along most of California's coast?
San Andreas
In which county would you find the cities of Anaheim and Santa Ana?
Orange
What mountain range is mostly in California, but has a neighboring state as part of its name?
Sierra Nevada
Located in the range above, what is the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States?
Mount Whitney
What city in the San Francisco Bay area is more populous than San Francisco itself?
San Jose
What river makes the entire border with Arizona?
Colorado River
What northwestern national park is famous for its giant trees?
Redwood
In what national park would you find Half Dome and El Capitan?
Yosemite
What volcanic mountain range is Mount Shasta a part of?
Cascades
What is North America's largest alpine lake, found on the border of California and Nevada?
Lake Tahoe
What island chain is off the coast of Los Angeles county?
Channel Islands
What large valley is responsible for about 50% of U.S. production of fruits and vegetables?
Central Valley
What beach area of Los Angeles got its name because of its canals?
Venice Beach
What city is home to the flagship campus of the University of California?
Berkeley
What bay can be found about 40 miles south of San Francisco Bay?
Monterey Bay
20 Comments
+4
Level 89
Jun 7, 2019
Californian born and raised. Nice quiz.
+3
Level 85
Jun 10, 2019
Unusual wording to call Santa Ana the "capital" of Orange County. Most places, it would be the county seat, but maybe California is different...?
+3
Level 61
Jun 10, 2019
Yeah, they're called county seats in California, as well.
+2
Level ∞
Jun 10, 2019
Changed the question a little. Can't believe I didn't notice that before.
+9
Level 71
Jul 29, 2019
San Joaquin is often considered synonymous with Central Valley for the California agricultural region. Can you please accept San Joaquin?
+3
Level 65
Aug 7, 2019
The San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys are synonymous with the Central Valley. San Joaquin is just half of the Central Valley.
+2
Level 57
Aug 20, 2019
got 19/20, missed super bloom
+2
Level 67
Aug 20, 2019
I have a question, I have a quiz that I think would be very good as a featured quiz, do you think it could be featured? If so I will send a link to said quiz.
+2
Level 58
Mar 8, 2022
no
+1
Level 49
Jul 6, 2022
Well, if that quiz is gonna be featured, can you feature my quiz, like just one?
+2
Level 65
Aug 20, 2019
The Channel Islands of California are named, as you said, because most are across the Santa Barbara or San Pedro Channels from Los Angeles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara Counties. San Nicolas Island isn’t across from a channel from the mainland, it is across a channel between it and the other islands. I can see the Channel Islands from my house, so I know.
+1
Level 86
Apr 16, 2024
And Sara Palin can see Russia from hers.
+1
Level 57
Aug 20, 2019
It's called the San Joaquin Valley, Central Valley is a generic term.
+3
Level 42
Aug 20, 2019
That's not correct. San Joaquin Valley is only the bottom half of the Central Valley.
+2
Level 73
Aug 21, 2019
People use both names regularly though, as well as Sacramento Valley.
+2
Level 75
May 15, 2020
I tried San Joaquin first, but still ended up getting the question.
+1
Level 37
Dec 24, 2022
I'm from norcal, and I only got 14/20, I am not familiar with socal.
+1
Level 83
Jan 27, 2023
Man, I should have gotten the Mojave desert. Unfortunately my brain saw "driest desert" and only supplied me with Atacama desert, which is very obviously wrong
+1
Level 54
Nov 3, 2023
The Colorado River is almost the entirety of the CA-AZ border, but there is a small land border near Yuma, so "entire" isn't technically true. 🤓
+1
Level 65
Jul 13, 2024
San Diego actually shares a border with Tijuana, since San Ysidro (which is the site of the border crossing) is part of the city of San Diego. It's true that downtown San Diego is farther north.