Revisiting Jalama Beach

This past weekend the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen embarked on their second expedition, this time to Jalama Beach in southwestern Santa Barbara County at the western end of the Gaviota Coast, one of the most magical stretches of California Coast on par with Malibu and Big Sur. Today it was three of us, Dennis, Ron, and myself. We turned left and headed eastward towards the better petrified whale bone prospects. Each of us found a piece, each one different: Dennis's piece was a naturally tumbled pebble featuring great bone cell structure, Ron's was palm-sized and naturally tumbled and polished, and mine was palm-sized and very rough with the bone mostly in its original configuration not long out of the matrix in which it was preserved and petrified. We each also had a good day finding beach agates which we knew were there but did not expect to find as much of as we did. We did get to the concretions and checked a few of them before heading back due to time constraints. Next time we visit we will get an earlier start and stay later and longer. Our time constraint was an appointment with the most legendary rockhound I know of the fruit of which encounter can be seen HERE.

View back towards the campground with Dennis and Ron at left and right, respectively.

These pebbles are predominately radiolarian chert pebbles.

My petrified whale bone find.

Jalama Beach sedimentary cliffs.

Natural tar snake

Natural tar shark. The natural tar detritus was quite prominent and the most I have ever observed here.

Tar shark head detail.

Note the stretch marks as this tar shark oozed out of a natural tar seep along a submarine fault-line nearby.

More mostly radiolarian chert and sandstone pebbles amidst stone outcroppings covered in weathered tar.

Note the concretions in the cliff face. All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).