San Onofre and Aliso Beach

On Saturday, Kurt led a geology field trip for Math/Science Upward Bound high school students to San Onofre beach and Aliso beach. The San Onofre part was right next to that nuclear power plant. There happens to be an earthquake fault right next to the plant and the goal was for the students to determine if the fault poses any threat to the plant. By looking at where the fault comes to the surface and knowing the ages of layers, one can determine that the fault hasn't seen an earthquake in at least 125 thousand years, and therefore poses little threat.

We also went to Aliso beach, near Laguna, and looked at some mysterious rocks which come from an alleged mountain of the coast of California which doesn't exist anymore. We also had time to goof off an nearly get hit by gigantic waves breaking along the tide pools. On the right, you'll see Kurt in the middle stooping down to photograph something as a student and I see our lives flash before our eyes. OK, not really, the wave breaks several feet before us and only our feet get wet.