Jalama Beach

This is an amazing place. My wife and I decided to go here after seeing an image of the rocks on a calendar! The swirls in the sedimentary rocks really intrigued me. The sand was secondary. It is not an easy place to get to. It's about 40 miles north of Santa Barbara on the 101, then it's another 25 miles off of the 101 to get to the beach. The final 11 miles is on a winding small road.

International Space Station 800 mm Photograph Image credit: Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center (http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov)	JALAMA BEACH 34.51N, 120.50W The link is to a description of the beach.

ZERO MAGNIFICATION IMAGE	REFLECTANCE SPECTRUM


1X MAGNIFICATION (YELLOW LINE = 1MM)	3X MAGNIFICATION (BLACK LINE = 1MM)



ZERO MAGNIFICATION IMAGE	REFLECTANCE SPECTRUM


1X MAGNIFICATION (BLACK LINE = 1MM)	3X MAGNIFICATION (BLACK LINE = 1MM)

The beach is backed by cliffs composed of crumbling sedimentary rock (See the first two figures below). I assume the cliffs are part of the Jalama Formation, but I can't find any source to confirm that. The fragments are very fragile, and easily break in your hands. The highlight of the beach are the unusual weathering patterns in the rocks on the beach. We unfortunately went in the winter in most of the rocks were buried in sand; and also we were there on an incoming tide. Best views are when the tide is dead low. The good rock outcrops are about a mile south of the camp ground parking lot according to the guy in the camp store. The major hazard on the beach is lumps of tar!

The beach rocks and shells are amazing. Many of the sedimentary beach stones were miniature versions of the larger slabs.

Return to California Sand to view high resolution versions of all California sand samples. Click on the thumbnails above to view high resolution versions of these sand and rock samples.