Palos Verdes Hills
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Palos Verdes Hills | |
|---|---|
.jpg) The Palos Verdes Hills atop the Palos Verdes Peninsula, extending into the Pacific Ocean at the southwest corner of Los Angeles County. | |
| Highest point | |
| Peak | San Pedro Hill |
| Elevation | 1,457 ft (444 m) |
| Geography | |
  Palos Verdes Hills location of Palos Verdes Hills in California[1]  Palos Verdes Hills Palos Verdes Hills (the United States) | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| District | Los Angeles County |
| Range coordinates | 33°44′50″N 118°20′9″W / 33.74722°N 118.33583°W |
| Topo map | USGS San Pedro |
The Palos Verdes Hills are a low mountain range on the southwestern coast of Los Angeles County, California.[1] They lie on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, a subregion of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Historically, the hills used to be referred to as the San Pedro Hills, named after the nearby Rancho San Pedro.
The Palos Verdes Hills are the landed end of the Channel Islands of California, a mountains formation in the Transverse Ranges System.
The Portuguese Bend Landslide area of the Palos Verdes Hills is geologically unstable and is unsuitable for building. However it is a natural research laboratory for the study of island biogeography and evolutionary ecology. The geographical location and geological history of the hills make the remaining coastal sage scrub habitat at Portuguese Bend extremely valuable for ecological and other scientific reasons. The Palos Verdes Peninsula, which was an island with the Palos Verdes Hills in recent geological time, has close floral and faunal similarities to the Channel Islands.
A species of the succulent live-forever, Bright green dudleya or Dudleya virens, is endemic to the Channel Islands and the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
