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photo by Donald Kinney
This is Granite and it is extremely durable, but it has obviously seen a lot of weathering over the eons. Crashing waves laden with abrasive sand does the job of gradually wearing down the rock.
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photo by Donald Kinney
And this is Sandstone, a much softer rock which seems to erode into the most interesting patterns.
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photo by Donald Kinney
With the exception of the first photo, these photos were taken at Weston Beach, named after the world-famous photographer, Edward Weston, from the '30's and '40's who made great images here.
click photo for full-size image
photo by Donald Kinney
A person could spend days searching out all the little wild designs going on in this Sandstone at Weston Beach. I wish I lived closer to Point Lobos so I could do just that.
Stop back tomorrow for more rock shots from Weston Beach.
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5 comments:
wow it looks amazing!
Its art :)
Simply gorgeous. I wish I still had some of my Dad's photos taken here. I just love the abstract designs.
Thanks for posting these.
Sue
The stripes in the sandstone don't actually have anything to do with erosion. They are caused by the environment when the sand was originally deposited. The first sand picture was probably a stone or mudball that was stuck in with looser sand; you can see how it affected the layering as newer sand had to flow around it.
The second and third ones show alternating layers of coarser sand (the lighter-colored, grainy stuff) and finer sand/silt/mud (the darker stuff). The turbulent-looking patterns at the boundaries between those zones (and in the first photo) are disturbances caused by the next layer flowing over top of the previous layer relatively rapidly, probably associated with underwater landslides occurring at the edge of a continental shelf near the mouth of a river.
You can also see an upward-fining pattern where the bottom of each flow is coarser sand (directly on the disturbed top of the previous layer) which gradually grades into finer sand/silt/mud in thinner layers. It then starts over with the turbulent boundary and another layer of coarser sand. This is also a sign of underwater landslides. Each sequence from coarse to fine with a turbulent boundary is slide.
Also, I think the bottom picture is upside-down relative to the way the layers were originally deposited. At the bottom of picture the thinner dark/light layers fill in the uneven surface of the sandier layer, meaning that the thinner layers probably came after the thick sandy layer.
HI AND THANKS MULLEH AND PHOTOWANNABE SUE, AND THANKS ALSO ERIK -- I really appreciate you taking the time to explain all of that -- very interesting... But of course I wasn't trying to say that the patterns were totally the result of erosion -- I know full well that these are layers of sand and mud that have undergone all sorts of upheaval over time.
But I still contend that erosion plays a big part in the CHANGING of these formations. Rock can be worn down unevenly, and on a chunk of layered sandstone that will give a very interesting pattern.
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