The Southern Oregon Coast Range is the southernmost section of the Oregon Coast Range , in the Pacific Coast Ranges , located in the southwest portion of the state of Oregon , United States , roughly between the Umpqua River and the middle fork of the Coquille River , beyond which are the Klamath Mountains . To the east is the Umpqua Valley and to the west the Pacific Ocean . This approximately 55-mile (89 km)-long mountain range contains mountains as high as 3,547 feet (1,081 m) for Bone Mountain. The mountains are known locally in the Roseburg area as the Callahan Mountains, or simply as The Callahans.
28-659: As with the Oregon Coast Range as a whole, the Southern Oregon Coast Range likely began as an ocean island chain that collided with the continental tectonic plate of North America more than 60 million years ago. In the Southern Range the 64-million-year-old Roseburg Volcanics that formed this section are the oldest portions of the entire range. The range is part of a forearc basin that has slowly rotated about 51 degrees since
56-1299: A significant portion of their life cycle in the mountains. Birds living in the Southern Coast Range include a variety of smaller and larger bird species. These include northern goshawks, peregrine falcons , pileated woodpeckers , olive-sided flycatcher, and western bluebirds. The northern spotted owl , listed as a threatened species by the United States also inhabit the mountain forests. Aquatic life includes river lamprey , Pacific lamprey, coastal cutthroat trout , Millicoma longnose dace, Umpqua chub, red-legged frogs, southern seep salamander, western pond turtles, coho salmon , Chinook salmon, steelhead trout, and others. Other wildlife includes fringed myotis bats, long-legged myotis bats, Townsend's big-eared bat, fishers , and sharptail snakes, northern flying squirrels, red tree voles, Roosevelt elk, among others. Other small animals include shrews, moles, deer mice, and ermine. Plants include large stands of Douglas-fir trees, western hemlock forests, cedar trees, with portions of these forests including old-growth stands. Other flora include Sitka spruce , salmonberry , salal , tanoak, and western azalea. Portions of
84-554: A small subspecies of Canada goose, the Bering Canada goose ( Branta canadensis asiatica ) is extinct due to overhunting and the introduction of rats to their breeding islands. The Bering Sea supports many species of fish, some of which support large and valuable commercial fisheries. Commercial fish species include Pacific cod , several species of flatfish , sablefish , Pacific salmon , and Pacific herring . Shellfish include red king crab and snow crab . Fish biodiversity
112-601: Is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean . It forms, along with the Bering Strait , the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and the Americas . It comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves . The Bering Sea is named after Vitus Bering , a Danish -born Russian navigator, who, in 1728,
140-640: Is commonly referred to as the " Bering land bridge " and is accepted by most, though not all scientists, to be the first point of entry of humans into the Americas . There is a small portion of the Kula Plate in the Bering Sea. The Kula Plate is an ancient tectonic plate that used to subduct under Alaska. On 18 December 2018, a large meteor exploded above the Bering Sea. The meteor exploded at an altitude of 25.6km, releasing 49 kilotons of energy. The International Hydrographic Organization defines
168-416: Is high, and at least 419 species of fish have been reported from the Bering Sea. The Bering Sea is world-renowned for its productive and profitable fisheries, such as king crab , opilio and tanner crabs, Bristol Bay salmon, pollock and other groundfish. These fisheries rely on the productivity of the Bering Sea via a complicated and little understood food web. Commercial fishing is lucrative business in
196-455: Is of the mild maritime variety. It is characterized by cool dry summers followed by mild and wet winters. Most precipitation falls in the form of rain, with snow during the winter months at the higher elevations. Annual precipitation varies from 60 to 120 inches (1,500 to 3,000 mm), with more in the higher elevations. The average high temperature in January is 36.3 °F (2.4 °C), and
224-401: Is very important to the seabirds of the world. Over 30 species of seabirds and approximately 20 million individuals breed in the Bering Sea region. Seabird species include tufted puffins , the endangered short-tailed albatross , spectacled eider , and red-legged kittiwakes . Many of these species are unique to the area, which provides highly productive foraging habitat, particularly along
252-787: The Aleutian Islands . It has been subducted under the North American plate at the Aleutian Trench , being replaced by the Pacific plate . The name Kula is from a Tlingit language word meaning "all gone". As the name suggests, the Kula plate was entirely subducted around 48 Ma and today only a slab in the mantle under the Bering Sea remains. There is some evidence of a Resurrection plate broken off from
280-536: The Discovery Channel television program Deadliest Catch . Landings from Alaskan waters represents half the U.S. catch of fish and shellfish. Because of the changes going on in the Arctic, the future evolution of the Bering Sea climate and ecosystem is uncertain. Between 1979 and 2012, the region experienced small growth in sea ice extent, standing in contrast to the substantial loss of summer sea ice in
308-571: The Eocene period. Much of the mountain structures are pillow basalt formations created during the volcanic period and then uplifted with the collision into the North American Plate . Other geologic features are mainly the result of erosion and weather forces carving steam beds and valleys out of the rock formations. The Oregon Coast Range is home to over 50 mammals, 100 species of birds, and nearly 30 reptiles or amphibians that spent
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#1732775539923336-576: The North Aleutians Basin is also known as the "Greenbelt". Nutrient upwelling from the cold waters of the Aleutian basin flowing up the slope and mixing with shallower waters of the shelf provide for constant production of phytoplankton . The second driver of productivity in the Bering Sea is seasonal sea ice that, in part, triggers the spring phytoplankton bloom. Seasonal melting of sea ice causes an influx of lower salinity water into
364-623: The Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands and on the far north by the Bering Strait , which connects the Bering Sea to the Arctic Ocean 's Chukchi Sea . Bristol Bay is the portion of the Bering Sea between the Alaska Peninsula and Cape Newenham on mainland Southwest Alaska . The Bering Sea ecosystem includes resources within the jurisdiction of the United States and Russia , as well as international waters in
392-466: The Arctic Ocean to the north. 'The White Seal', one of many chapters on Rudyard Kipling 's The Jungle Book , features the Bering Sea as the birthplace and homeland of Kotick, a rare white fur seal . The film Harbinger Down , which was released on August 7, 2015, was about a group of grad students who booked passage on the crabbing boat Harbinger to study the effects of global warming on
420-488: The Bering Sea, which is relied upon by the largest seafood companies in the world to produce fish and shellfish. On the U.S. side, commercial fisheries catch approximately $ 1 billion worth of seafood annually, while Russian Bering Sea fisheries are worth approximately $ 600 million annually. The Bering Sea also serves as the central location of the Alaskan king crab and snow crab seasons, which are chronicled on
448-597: The Kula plate and also subducted. The Kula plate began subducting under the Pacific Northwest region of North America during the Late Cretaceous period much like the Pacific plate does today, supporting a large volcanic arc system from northern Washington to southwestern Yukon called the Coast Range Arc . There was a triple junction of three ridges between the Kula plate to
476-412: The Kula plate was inferred from the westward bend in the alternating pattern of magnetic anomalies in the Pacific plate . Bering Sea The Bering Sea ( / ˈ b ɛər ɪ ŋ , ˈ b ɛr ɪ ŋ / BAIR -ing, BERR -ing , US also / ˈ b ɪər ɪ ŋ / BEER -ing ; Russian: Бе́рингово мо́ре , romanized : Béringovo móre , IPA: [ˈbʲerʲɪnɡəvə ˈmorʲe] )
504-630: The average high in July is 61.9 °F (16.6 °C) with temperature also varying by elevation. All peaks in the range are over 3,000 feet (910 m) in elevation. The following rivers have portions of their headwaters in the Southern Oregon Coast Range: Kula Plate The Kula plate was an oceanic tectonic plate under the northern Pacific Ocean south of the Near Islands segment of
532-584: The last 50 years. The implication is that the carrying capacity of the Bering Sea is much lower now than it has been in the past. The sea supports many whale species, including the beluga , humpback whale , bowhead whale , gray whale and blue whale , the vulnerable sperm whale , and the endangered fin whale , sei whale and the rarest in the world, the North Pacific right whale . Other marine mammals include walrus , Steller sea lion , northern fur seal , orca and polar bear . The Bering Sea
560-402: The limits of the Bering Sea as follows: Islands of the Bering Sea include: Regions of the Bering Sea include: The Bering Sea contains 16 submarine canyons including the largest submarine canyon in the world, Zhemchug Canyon . The Bering Sea shelf break is the dominant driver of primary productivity in the Bering Sea. This zone, where the shallower continental shelf drops off into
588-424: The middle and other shelf areas, causing stratification and hydrographic effects which influence productivity. In addition to the hydrographic and productivity influence of melting sea ice, the ice itself also provides an attachment substrate for the growth of algae as well as interstitial ice algae. Some evidence suggests that great changes to the Bering Sea ecosystem have already occurred. Warm water conditions in
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#1732775539923616-485: The middle of the sea (known as the "Donut Hole" ). The interaction between currents, sea ice, and weather makes for a vigorous and productive ecosystem. Most scientists think that during the most recent ice age , sea level was low enough to allow humans to migrate east on foot from Asia to North America across what is now the Bering Strait. Other animals including megafauna migrated in both directions. This
644-601: The north, the Pacific plate to the west and the Farallon plate to the east. The Kula plate was subducted under the North American plate at a relatively steep angle, so that the Canadian Rockies are primarily composed of thrusted sedimentary sheets with relatively little contribution of continental uplift , while the American Rockies are characterized by significant continental uplift in response to
672-807: The range are in the Elliott State Forest . The range begins around the Umpqua River with the Central Oregon Coast Range to the north. Oregon Route 38 is the general divide between the two sections. On the southern end the Coquille River 's middle fork provides the general dividing line between the Central Range and the Klamath Mountains to the south and east. The climate of the mountains
700-560: The shallow subduction of the Farallon plate. About 55 million years ago, the Kula plate began an even more northerly motion. Riding on the Kula plate was the Pacific Rim Terrane consisting of volcanic and sedimentary rock . It was scraped off and plastered against the continental margin , forming what is today Vancouver Island . By 40 million years ago, the compressional force of the Kula plate ceased. The existence of
728-526: The shelf edge and in other nutrient-rich upwelling regions, such as the Pribilof, Zhemchug , and Pervenets canyons. The Bering Sea is also home to colonies of crested auklets , with upwards of a million individuals. Two Bering Sea species, the Steller's sea cow ( Hydrodamalis gigas ) and spectacled cormorant ( Phalacrocorax perspicillatus ), are extinct because of overexploitation by man. In addition,
756-426: The summer of 1997 resulted in a massive bloom of low energy coccolithophorid phytoplankton (Stockwell et al. 2001). A long record of carbon isotopes , which is reflective of primary production trends of the Bering Sea, exists from historical samples of bowhead whale baleen . Trends in carbon isotope ratios in whale baleen samples suggest that a 30–40% decline in average seasonal primary productivity has occurred over
784-724: Was the first European to systematically explore it, sailing from the Pacific Ocean northward to the Arctic Ocean . The Bering Sea is separated from the Gulf of Alaska by the Alaska Peninsula . It covers over 2,000,000 square kilometers (770,000 sq mi) and is bordered on the east and northeast by Alaska , on the west by the Russian Far East and the Kamchatka Peninsula , on the south by
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