The Cuyama Valley is an alluvium filled synclinal basin in central California, spanning parts of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Kern and Ventura counties. Its name comes from the Chumash word kuyam, meaning clam or freshwater mollusk. The valley's southern foothills expose outcrops of the Miocene age Monterey Formation, and the basin floor sits roughly 2,000 to 2,500 feet above sea level across about 300 square miles. Ranching, agriculture and oil and gas production, discovered there in the late 1940s, are the valley's main economic activities.
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