Geo 886: View of a Broken Shoreline

You can see (barely) the two beds from yesterday's photo behind Gary, and the fault in that photo is the nearly horizontal dark line extending east-west. Less obvious, but quite clear when you recognize what you're seeing, is a larger fault just behind him. The prominent sandstone bed behind Hollie is the same as the one on the far right side of the photo. If the offset on the closer fault is horizontal, and I'm not sure it is, it looks to be about 30-35 feet. Some three and a half years ago, I posted and annotated a shot of this same area, but looking approximately the opposite direction.

On that previous visit, in early March, the wind and chilly temperature combined to make not-so-pleasant conditions. On this visit, apparently, warmer temperatures and less energetic summer waves in July combined to deposit a couple inches of disgusting, sulfurous, black, slimy mud in certain areas of the intertidal zone. We had to walk through that to cross the larger foreground fault. I'm honestly not sure which "downside" was more unpleasant, but in both cases, it was well worth the discomfort. Though if I'd slipped and fallen in that awful mud, I have no doubt I'd prefer March.

Photo unmodified. July 21, 2016. ZoomEarth location.