chert

These rock layers are much more interesting than meets the eye. This formation is chert, a common feature on our coast. It is built from sediments that wound up on the ocean floor many millions of years ago. Silica in the exoskeletons of tiny ocean creatures held the particles together in these layers.

These layers were scraped up onto the Pacific Coast when the Pacific plate slid under the North American plate. The layers were twisted and bent in the process; that is why they aren't flat and paralell to the ocean floor.

This formation is in Huckleberry Regional Botanical Preserve. Much of the soil here formed when chert eroded; that's why the place has many of its unique plants. Chert is really colorful, and covered with many bright lichens!