Elevation 2,762 ft (842 m) Width 10 mi (16 km) E Country United States Highest point Estelle Mountain Types of rock Igneous rock, Batholith | Length 25 mi (40 km) SE Native name Sierra Temescal State California Range Peninsular Ranges | |
Mountains Estelle Mountain, Arlington Mountain, Murrieta Hogbacks, Adelaide Peak, Beacon Hill Settlements Corona, El Sobrante, Riverside County, California | ||
Temescal Mountains, formerly the Sierra Temescal, are one of the northernmost mountain ranges of the Peninsular Ranges in western Riverside County, in Southern California in the United States. They extend for approximately 25 mi (40 km) southeast of the Santa Ana River east of the Elsinore Fault Zone to the Temecula Basin and form the western edge of the Perris Block.
Contents
The Santa Ana Mountains lie to the west, the Elsinore Mountains to the south and the Perris Valley and Lakeview Mountains to the east.
HistoryEdit
The Temescal Mountains were originally named by the Spanish, Sierra Temescal, (perhaps from the nearby Rancho Temescal), a name which appears on the Rail Road Route survey map made by the U. S. Army Pacific Railroad Surveys in 1854-55. The Temescal Mountains are one of the northernmost of Peninsular Ranges of California, running from the south side of the Santa Anna River, southeast nearly parallel with the Santa Ana Mountains, from which it is separated by the Temescal Valley and Elsinore Valley sections of the Elsinore Trough. The Temescal Mountains were originally considered to be bounded on the south by the San Jacinto River, by J. D. Whitney in his 1865 Geological Survey of California. A later study by Rene Engel, considers the Sedco Hills and the other mountains that extend to the southeast of the San Jacinto River east of Lake Elsinore and north of the Temecula Basin, in Murrieta to be part of the same range forming the natural continuation of the mountains. The Murrieta Hogbacks are the southeastern-most heights of the range, overlooking the Warm Springs Creek Canyon.
GeologyEdit
As part of the Perris Block, the Temescal Mountains are part of its eroded mass of Cretaceous and older granitic rocks of the Peninsular Ranges Batholith and metasedimentary basement rocks. Most of this basement rock that once overlay the granitic plutons that rose up into it, has been eroded away, the remainder being found between the similarly eroded plutons of granitic rock.
Geographic featuresEdit
Geographic features, northwest to southeast, include: