Week 6 - Santa Monica Mountains

The Santa Monica Mountains run along the California coastline, east to west, northwest of Santa Monica and Los Angeles.  The mountains are complex in their geology with a wide variety of rocks, including both marine and non-marine sedimentary rocks and volcanic rock.  Additionally, the area has a large number of folds and a variety of fossils.  Lying along active faults, the mountains are still continuing to change.

The mountains are relatively young, considering that most of the rocks are from the Tertiary and Quaternary period, with most less than 20 million years old.

Geology of the Santa Monica Mountains

While the mountains have been studied extensively, information can be gathered using paleomagnetism information, fossil indexes, and radiometric dating of samples from the area.  Paleomagnetism can help with dating rocks based on the polarity of the earth at various times in history.  Fossil indexes can be used when compared with other areas, to determine relative dating and also help to understand the plant and animal life in the area's history.  Radiometric dating will give more exact measurements of the age of rocks back on the decay of several elements.

References

California Department of Conservation. (n.d.). Retrieved December 9, 2019, from https://www.conservation.ca.gov/

Geologic Formations - Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service). (n.d.). Retrieved December 9, 2019, from https://www.nps.gov/samo/learn/nature/geologicformations.htm

Wikipedia contributors. (2019, November 28). Santa Monica Mountains. Retrieved December 10, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Monica_Mountains