Carson is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, in the South Bay region of Los Angeles, located 13 miles (21 km) south of downtown Los Angeles and nearly 14 miles (23 km) away from Los Angeles International Airport. Incorporated upon February 20, 1968, Carson is the newest municipality in the South Bay region of Metropolitan Los Angeles. The city is locally known for its plurality of Filipino-Americans and immigrants. As of 2019, it was estimated that the city had a population of 91,394.

The year 1921 marked the first drilling for oil at Dominguez Hill, on the northwest side of the Rancho San Pedro (also called Rancho Domínguez), site of the famous battle during the Mexican–American War called the Battle of Rancho Domínguez in 1846. The mineral rights to this property were owned by Carson Estate Company, the Hellman Family, the Dominguez Estate Company, and the Burnham Exploration Company of Frederick Russell Burnham. On September 7, 1923, Burnham Exploration partnering afterward Union Oil brought in the first producer on the site: Callender No. 1-A without difficulty at a depth of 4,068 feet (1,240 m) and 1,193 barrels per day (189.7 m/d). Before long a number of refineries were taking place and running, with beyond 350 oil derricks, tank farms, and sprawling industrial complexes becoming a up to date part of the scenery. The principal leases were later Shell Oil Company and Union Oil of California and the first two wells were located west of Central Avenue and north of Victoria Street. Oil led to an addition in jobs in the community and a subsequent post-war population surge. An average of 300 barrels per day (48 m/d) was produced from each of these wells through 1960.

In 2011, Shell was ordered by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board to tidy up the Carousel Tract neighborhood after the discovery of benzene and methane gas contamination, as skillfully as soil and groundwater contamination.

In 2021, Carson was subjected to an freshen pollution event thus of hydrogen sulfide emanating from the straightforward Dominguez Channel, and customary the nickname “Stinky City”.