Location Taken: Olympic National Park, Washington
Time Taken: June 2008
Hmmm… Those sure don’t look like normal rocks. Normal rocks aren’t all pitted like that, ya know.
It’s probably the barnacle’s fault. Or the mussels, or any of the other rock-clinging shellfish that inhabit this part of the world. In the tidal pools right by the water, the rocks are full of them. But they’re long gone here.
I wonder if it’s due to a change in water level or a change in land level that hoisted these marked rocks far away from the surf. Probably the latter. The Juan de Fuca Plate just offshore is happily pushing up the coastal mountains and beaches of the region, as it subducts underneath North America. That can easily raise rocks away from the shoreline, or well, raise the shoreline above the waves. There’s a pretty good chance this beach will be flooded when the next big earthquake hits the area, just like happened in the last one. Maybe then, these rocks will fill with life once more.
I love how tilted these rocks are, also. That’s a near perfect 90 degree tilt there. The layers of rock, laid down in large flat sheets, are now sitting right next to each other like peas in a pod. It must form an excellent base for the tidal pools, with lots of crevices for water to get trapped in and lots of rock surface for animals to latch onto. No wonder the local wildlife flocks to these beaches, it’s a marvelous place for them.
Well, aside from the fishermen out hunting with those traps, that is. But then, the natural world is full of predators, so what’s another one, right? Right?
