Today I went to Fitzgerald Marine sanctuary which is roughly 16 miles south of San Francisco. The plan is to explore fault lines and fossils. here in northern California to major fault lines meet. The North American fault line and the Pacific fault line.
The prisma terrace and the marine terrace shows us the different layers of rock. The prisma terrace a much darker compacted, an estimated to be 2.5 to 5 million years old. The Marine terrace is estimated to be to 100,000 years old.
The exploration was part of the beach and part of the cliffs above. Not understanding where we were standing the geologist was explaining how one fault line is higher than the other. While we’re in the area above she pointed out where to fault lines. She indicated the height difference that we were noticing on the trail.
We move to the north side explore the tide pools.
Here were looking for fossils. I honestly do not know what a fossil should or should not look like. So I looked up the definition on Google of what a fossil is. ”The remains or impression of a prehistoric organism preserved in petrified form or as a mold or cast in rock.". We finally found a large fossil. It is believed to be part of a whalf vertebrae. The color was a very dark brown which occurs during the oxidation of the bone. The rock itself that it was embedded in was a very dark grey. The geologist explain to us that the bone was harden through the oxidation process which made it preserve better. This rock that the fossil sat in was in the water. As the tide was constantly beating on the rock and fossil it actually wore away at the rock and left the fossil expose. Several of us touched the fossil and the texture was both smooth and rough. one of the scientists pointed out that we are touching something that’s 2.5 to 5 million years old. What you pointed that out your respect for the fossil suddenly changes.
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