Santa Teresa Hills
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Santa Teresa Hills | |
|---|---|
 Coyote Peak | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 1,027 ft (313 m) |
| Geography | |
  Santa Teresa Hills location of Santa Teresa Hills in California[1]  Santa Teresa Hills Santa Teresa Hills (the United States) | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| District | Santa Clara County |
| Range coordinates | 37°12′58.800″N 121°48′17.825″W / 37.21633333°N 121.80495139°W |
| Topo map | USGS Santa Teresa Hills |
The Santa Teresa Hills are a range of mountains in Santa Clara County, California, located primarily in the city of San Jose.[1] They separate the San Jose neighborhoods of Almaden Valley to the west and Santa Teresa to the east.
The range runs south of San Jose and is about 7 miles long. The New Almaden hills and greater Santa Cruz Mountains span south. Notable peaks include Coyote Peak and Bernal Hill.
Notable bodies of water include Santa Teresa Creek, which runs west down through the southern portion of the hills. It soon joins Arroyo Calero, which originates from Calero Reservoir in New Almaden.[2] Arroyo Calero then joins Alamitos Creek, which flows through Almaden Lake at the western end of the Santa Teresa Hills, exiting eventually to the Guadalupe River and then to the San Francisco Bay at Alviso. Santa Teresa Spring emerges at the base of the north side of the hills, in the nearby Santa Teresa County Park. [3]
Geology
Serpentinized ultramafic rock from the Jurassic, sandstone, mudstone, shale, and limestone from the lower Eocene, and Upper Cretaceous Franciscan Complex rock containing chert and basaltic volcanic rock make up most of the geologic structure of the Santa Teresa Hills.[4][5] The hills contain local thrust faults, while the Shannon Fault Zone cuts south.
Mining
Like in the nearby historic New Almaden mines, mining occurred in the Santa Teresa Hills since the early 20th century, though with much lower consistency and production. Limestone was quarried since 1915 for use in fertilizer and sugar refining, and chert was quarried for local road metal.[6] Sandstone was quarried from 1866 to 1906 and was used in the construction of Stanford University and several public buildings in San Francisco and San Jose. Rocks quarried here were also decoratively desirable.
Past mines include the Bernal Mine, which has been inactive since 1918, and the Santa Teresa Mine, both of which were quicksilver mines.[6] Like New Almaden, the Santa Teresa Hills contain “hilos,” or small tension fractures in silicate-carbonate rock containing veins of dolomite, quartz, and cinnabar, though in much lower quantity.
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