Broad fluctuations in the sea level caused various areas of the valley to be flooded with ocean water for the next 60 million years. The San Joaquin Valley began to form about 66 million years ago during the early Paleocene era. Geological history Millerton Lake, supplied by the Madera Canal and Friant-Kern Canal. Historically, Tulare Lake was fed by the Tule River, the Kings River, the Kaweah River, the White River and the Kern River, but much of this water has been diverted for agricultural uses and the watershed is mostly dry in its lower reaches. The somewhat larger southern portion is the Tulare Basin, an endorheic basin centered on Tulare Lake. The northern portion of San Joaquin Valley is called the San Joaquin Basin: the watershed of the San Joaquin River and its tributaries including parts of the Kings River, all of which drain northwest into the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and eventually out to the Pacific Ocean. The valley contains two large river systems, divided north and south. It extends from the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta in the north to the Tehachapi Mountains in the south, and from the California coastal ranges ( Diablo and Temblor) in the west to the Sierra Nevada in the east. The San Joaquin Valley is the southern half of California's Central Valley. Geography An 1873 map shows Tulare Lake prior to shrinkage from large-scale agriculture. Although the valley is predominantly rural, it has three densely populated urban centers: Stockton/ Modesto, Fresno/ Visalia, and Bakersfield. San Joaquin Valley draws from eight counties of Northern and one of Southern California, including all of San Joaquin and Kings counties, most of Stanislaus, Merced, and Fresno counties, and parts of Madera and Tulare counties, along with a majority of Kern County in Southern California. Praised as a breadbasket, the San Joaquin Valley is a major source of food, producing a significant part of California's agricultural output. The San Joaquin Valley ( / ˌ s æ n hw ɑː ˈ k iː n/ SAN whah- KEEN Spanish: Valle de San Joaquín) is the southern half of California's Central Valley, an area drained by the San Joaquin River. The San Joaquin River and its tributaries, showing the extent of the valley. Stockton, Tulare, Porterville, Modesto, Turlock, Merced, Fresno, Visalia, Bakersfield, Clovis, Hanford, Madera, Tracy, Lodi, Manteca and Ceres. A map of the counties encompassing the San Joaquin Valley ecoregion
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