https://weather.com/news/weather/vid...bles-in-storms
Near San Luis Obispo a natural arch is no more. Apparently wind and water and weathering have done it in.
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https://weather.com/news/weather/vid...bles-in-storms
Near San Luis Obispo a natural arch is no more. Apparently wind and water and weathering have done it in.
We lost three significant arches off the coast here further north in just the past couple years. Glad I got some nice 8x10 shots long before that happened. In one case, a woman walked too close to the edge last year, not realizing that the whole area formerly supporting the arch below had collapsed and was now gone, and fell to her death. It's called geology. Let those who wish for real estate right on the brink for sake of a great view take heed; I've seen houses upside down on the beach below too. And of course, all this causes a tremendous legal squabble, because in this State, private property is classified as "above the mean high tide line", yet sea level rise is progressing along quite efficiently whether people believe in it or not, and shoreline erosion has been taking away soil for millions of years, unless uplift or deposition is happening faster. One of my nephews specializes in appellate land law, and has been right in the middle of some of those sea level disputes. Surfers and beachcombers can sue homeowners over beach access, and visa versa; but no matter how rich and influential you are, suing the ocean just ain't going to work; it has a mind of its own, with plenty of muscle to back it up.
It's not just sea level rise that can cause bluff houses to go tumbling down. This is in the Pacific Palisades after the Northridge earthquake:
Attachment 223207
Weather can have harsh consequences.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_L...hita_landslide
Loosing the arch is sad. It’s often sad.
An awful lot of our Calif coastline involves very poorly consolidated Pliocene mudstone bluffs. Yes, solid material like basalt plugs and sometimes granite intersperse here and there, but much of it is quite slide prone, especially given our frequency of quakes. Ironically, two of those arches at Pt Reyes which recently collapsed were granite. Not really surprising to me - centuries or millennia of expanding salt crystal build-up in even the tiniest cracks will eventually wedge just about anything apart. It's even a major component of alcove and bridge formation in sandstone further inland from here, due to salt-laden coastal fog, and technically a version of tafoni weathering. I love the photogenic opportunities of tafoni contorted sandstone formations. Now some of these are off-limits much of the year due to Peregrine Falcon nests.
Rock climbers learned about it the hard way. They secured their ropes using wedge bolts driven into drilled holes into Miocene sandstone, then the salts eroded the adjacent sand grains slowly over a decade or so, and a few climbers fell to their death. After that, they changed to epoxied-in bolts instead. For the same reason, seismic retrofit bolts for houses into foundations now require epoxy too, and not just mechanical wedging into the hole.
It's a fascinating topic really. But it does make one think twice before setting up your tripod too close to a suspicious seacliff edge. Pt Reyes Natl Seashore has recently rerouted certain coastal trails somewhat further from the edge for that very reason, along with warning signs.
Change is constant, Change is a given.
Hwy. 1 land slide near Big Sur not that long ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59JcDmbI1hw
Add to this, tourist that visit California Coastside then decide to get close up and "personal" with the ocean only to be taken in by the ocean. Happens more than once each year.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/01/...-area-beaches/
Bernice