Investigations and Problems of Southern California Geology

Recognition of geologic features and processes by the peoples of southern California dates back at least several thousand years, when Indian tribes lived in some of the coastal areas and on the shores of now-extinct lakes farther inland. These early inhabitants were well aware of earthquakes, floods, landslides, and other natural phenomena, as well as unusual elements of the terrain, and they attempted to explain these things by means of various myths, many of which appear to have been founded upon more careful observations than do some of the scientific explanations of much more recent times