Sunday, April 21, 2013

Geo 365: April 21, Day 111: Spouting Horn

There is a spouting horn here, but I'm not certain this is actually it. A true spouting horn consists of a sea cave with a hole in its roof toward the end. Waves funnel into the cave and then burst through the hole, creating a geyser-like feature, but timed to the wave period. I'm not certain the feature we're seeing here is actually a cave rather than just a blind alley that's causing the waves to splash up at its end. The true spouting horn here is at the southern end of the trail system, below and seaward of a high bridge.

I didn't notice it until I'd assembled the gif, but in two sequential frames of this animation, you can see a human silhouette walking in front of the plume. Person for scale!

Photo unmodified. September 21, 2010. FlashEarth Location. (This is the viewing platform for the actual horn; I'm not sure where I was standing nor where I was looking in the above photo. Also, we were here intentionally at low tide; the horn is more spectacular at high tide. Unless you spend a whole day here- and there's certainly enough to justify that- you either get tidepools, or waves crashing at their most vigorous.)

1 comment:

Hollis said...

very cool to watch! except I'm getting a bit seasick ;-)