Spotlight on California Geology: the 2006 Cambria Meeting

The Spring 2006 conference of the Far West Section included a tour of the Big Sur Coast and the geology of Estero Bay, which includes Morro Rock and Montana del Oro State Park. Our host was Cuesta College, and the organizers were Jeff Grover, Paul Bauer and Tom Hollis.

The picture above shows our tour of a section of the pillow basalts and ribbon cherts of the Franciscan melange exposed in the Estero Bluffs just west of Cayucos. The chert is the reddish rock along the lower cliffs, and the pillow basalts are the grayer rocks lying above. The terrace above is a former wave-cut platform that was uplifted in Pleistocene/Holocene time. Numerous former sea stacks are exposed along the terrace surface.


The guidebook for the trip includes two extensive road guides:

• Geology of the Big Sur Coast by Mihal Ducea (pages 1-42)


• Geology of Estero Bay, San Luis Opisbo County, California (pages 43-54)

The guidebook is available for sale here. As with all our guidebooks, proceeds go to support scholarships for deserving students in the Far West Section region.