March 29, 2010
Liz and I have been walking every morning on Carbon Beach here in Malibu, and the action of the surf here is quite extraordinary. Huge piles of rocks appear and then disappear on the beach - often a complete change from one day to the next.
This is a shot of the beach on Saturday morning. There are a few, small rocks laying around, but it’s mostly sand.
Here is the exact same spot, on Sunday afternoon - note the huge pile of rocks!
And these aren’t little rocks!
We’ve asked many locals why this happens, and they just shrug and say "the tides." I guess, as year-round dwellers, they are used to this action. I have walked many beaches in my day, and I have never seen this kind of phenomenon. It certainly makes you aware of the powerful pull of the moon’s gravity, creating tides that move rocks with this kind of force! Certainly waves, which are created by the strength and "fetch" of the winds, are also responsible for the coming and going of the rock piles on the shore.
Just this morning when we walked on the beach, we saw that all the rock piles had disappeared again! I guess we need my fictional character Einstein Anderson to solve this mystery. I am, however, open to any non-fictional characters who want to explain this to me in more detail. Anyone?
Posted by: Seymour Simon
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Labels: Oceans
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