30 August 2019

Friday fold: Calafia State Beach

Posted by Callan Bentley

Happy Friday, good people!

We close out the workweek with a fold, and today it comes to us from Larry O’Hanlon, who manages the AGU Blogosphere.

Larry writes that he was recently in California, and…

I noticed a little fold in a sea cliff at Calafia State Beach in San Clemente. I barely managed to snap a few pictures before being pulled away by the kids. Looks like soft sediment deformation of beach sands? As it is about 100 m from the surf and maybe less than 10 m above sea level, I’m guessing this is a fairly young deposit exposed by uplift.

Here it is:

I’ve attempted to trace out bedding here, but it’s hard to do in the most tightly folded bit:

I agree that this looks like a soft sediment slump fold.

Thanks for thinking of the Friday fold when you were traveling, Larry! I hope all readers of the blog will consider snapping some fold photos when they see them during their global peregrinations…