Elephant Rock is the ambiguously-facing (north or south?) large rock at Seal Rock State Park. You can also see the raised terrace sand deposits in the foreground. The puzzle here is "Why are the columns oriented parallel to the tabular aspect of the dike?" and the answer is "I haven't a bloody clue." It would be easy to suppose it isn't actually a dike, just a tabular erosional remnant, but everything about this spot says it is a dike. My suspicion, which I can neither defend nor support with evidence, is that the nature of the hot CRB lava invading and injecting into the wet, cold sediments, led to an unusual cooling gradient that was down-to-up rather than sides-to-inside. But really what I'm saying is, once again, "I haven't a bloody clue." And, as I've said before, "I just don't know" is one of my favorite phrases in science: it implies a puzzle and an opportunity to learn something new.
Photo unmodified. March 8, 2012.
FlashEarth Location.
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