Formation of Delta
The narrow gap in the Coast Range that forms the strait has led to the formation of the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta, an inverted river delta, upstream of it, a rare geological feature. The strait is too small to allow the passage of huge amounts of floodwaters created during years that have tropical storms lined up, one after another, dropping torrential rainfall and melting snowpack in the Sierra Nevada Mountains simultaneously. These events have been documented since the Gold Rush period, when pioneers wrote about the "Inland Sea" upon the wet pages of their personal diaries. The Delta area is the first to fill up and the last to drain out after a flood event, causing silt and soil to drop out of the flow and creating the inverted river delta design.
Read more about this topic: Carquinez Strait
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