Free parking is available along the street. Paid and
closer parking is available in the parking lot at the top of
the cliff or in the parking area at the bottom of the cliff.
This is a popular place on weekends, so mid-day parking is
difficult to find.
These layers of rock began as horizontal
layers of sediment. It is thought that these layers of
sediment slid down a slight incline and piled up on some
basalt outcrops to the southwest and began folding. This could
be likened to pushing a pile of paper down a slope into a
wall. More and more sediment piled up folding the folds into
complicated patterns. Later the sediments were sufficiently
compacted that they became rock.
Folds are classified by orientation of their limbs and axis. The
limbs are the two sides. Where the two limbs meet is called the
hinge and the plane connecting all the hinges together is called
the fold axis.
This example has been classified as a
recumbent fold. In this type of fold, the axis of the fold has
been tipped over and is almost horizontal.
Logging requirements:
Send me a note with :
- The text "GC15A1T Whites Point Recumbent Fold" on the first
line
- The number of people in your group.
- the approximate height up the cliff that the fold axis can be
found (there may be more than one).
- If you could follow the axis into the rock, which way do you
expect it to go
The above information was compiled from the
following sources:
- Prof. Stephen A. Nelson, Tulane University
http://www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/geol111/deform.htm, last updated on
17-Sep-2003 (images are from this page)
- Brown, Dick; Whites Point, Royal Palms Drive,
San Pedro, CA in A Day on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Arthur Brown
and John Cooper Editors, Pacific Section SEPM, October 7,
2006