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Griffith Park: Santa Monica Mountains

and its Volcanic Past

By: Rogelio Gaeta

11/10/17 EAR 100

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Griffith Park is an 4,210-acre park located just north of Los Angeles, California and is

considered the largest municipal park with urban wilderness in the United States (Griffith Park).

The park is also home of the famous Griffith Park Observatory due to its location on the Santa

Monica Mountains which has an average elevation range of 384 to 1625 feet about sea level

(Griffith Park). The park, as well as the Santa Monica Mountains, werent always just low-lying

mountains covered in lush vegetation, hiking trails and an observatory. The mountains had a

dramatic past, filled with volcanoes and continental collisions. It is still possible to see signs of

the Santa Monica mountains volcanic past if you look hard enough. However, due to millions of

years of weathering and erosion, those volcanoes are now just hills overlooking the city. With

the collision of the Farallon and North American plate, a new and dangerous fault line emerges.

To begin, we will take a look on how the area used to look like.

Around 24 million years ago, during the Oligocene epoch, the Farallon plate (precursor

of the Pacific plate), began to sink under the North American Plate in a process called subduction

(NPS, 2015). Before this, the area that is now known as the Santa Monica mountains used to be

underwater. As the Farallon pushed down under the North American plate, the force generated

by the two plates colliding lead to the ground begin to push upward by newly created volcanoes.

Like Hawaii, these volcanoes started underwater and slowly build up onto the surface (NPS,

2015). These volcanoes generated multiple eruptions, these eruptions pushed lava and ash out

from underneath the Earths surface and onto the surrounding area. The lava flows would later

harden up and form the land that make up the mountain range. The eruptions continued for

millions of years as the Farallon plate subducts into the North American plate. The Santa Monica

mountains and the Channel Islands started to grow out of the ocean about 8 million years after

(NPS, 2015).
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These eruptions continued for another 3 million years, so much so that many of the

mountains that sprang up from the ocean floor grew to as high as 10,000 feet (NPS, 2015). As

soon as the eruptions stopped and the Farallon plate sank into the North American plate,

weathering and erosion began to set in. The biggest obstacles mountains face during their

lifespan are strong winds, lightning, temperature changes and rock falls and avalanches (GNS

Science). Due to the enormous size of the Santa Monica mountains, strong winds from the

Earths upper atmosphere would be a daily occurrence. The winds would pick off the dust and

wear away at the mountains surface, like waves crashing on a shoreline. When lightning strikes a

surface, it would create holes and fissures that can help water and ice to flow in. Temperature

changes can greatly affect the weathering and erosion of the Santa Monica mountains. Extremely

cold temperatures during the winter months can create ice formations deep in the mountain,

which can lead to wedging and rocks being peeled way. Avalanches would help speed up this

process when the temperature begins to climb. During the summer months, thermal expansion

from the sun and contraction during the nights will cause the rock surface to fall apart. These

processes have lasted for millions of years, many mountain ranges have suffered the same fate as

the Santa Monica mountain range. Tall mountain peaks withered away into smaller mountains

and hills.

Due to its volcanic past, the area should be teaming with a diverse type of rocks. Igneous

rocks like granite and gneiss should be visible due to the millions of years of erosion affecting

Griffith park and the surrounding mountain side (Sheer, 1994). Because the Santa Monica

mountains started out at sea, sedimentary rocks like sandstone and shale should be around the

area (Sheer, 1994). The uplift from the ocean floor means that fossils from past sea life could be

in the area. The best possible to see evidence of past volcanic activity is the structures they left
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behind. When looking around the park, there will be rocks that are red and orange in color. This

color means that the rocks are rich in iron content (NPS, 2015).

One of the biggest legacies that the subduction of the Farallon plate created was creation

of the San Andreas fault line. 30 million years ago, the Farallon-North American plates had a

convergent boundary (with the Farallon subducting) (USGS, 1999). 20 million years later, the

Farallon plate has all but subducted into the North American plate, the Pacific plate replaces it

(USGS, 1999). When the Pacific plate collided with the North American plate, the boundary that

both plates share changes from convergent to divergent. The reason for this is that the Pacific

plate is moving upward while the North American plate is moving downward (USGS, 1999).

The resulting collision and diverging from the two plates created what is now known as the San

Andreas fault.

It should be noted that the San Andreas fault isnt the only fault around Southern

California. Many fault lines stretch across the southland. There is the Malibu Coast Fault line

just under the Santa Monica mountain, the Benedict Canyon Fault near Griffith Park, and the San

Andreas fault line about 60 miles north of Los Angeles (DPW). These fault lines, plus many

more, were created after the collision of the Pacific plate and the North American plate. The San

Andreas fault stretches for 1200 km long and is known as a right-lateral strike-slip fault

(SCEDC). This means that one side of the fault line is moving north while the other side is

moving south at about 20-35 mm per year (SCEDC). It is predicted that another major quake is

in the forecast to occur in the next 20 years (SCEDC). Like the Santa Monica mountains, fault

lines are created by the movement of continental plates The Santa Monica mountains were

created through convergence, the San Andreas fault is created by divergence. Even though the
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Santa Monica mountains have long since stopped being active, the faults are still alive and well,

ready to go off anytime.

In conclusion, Griffith park is land full of lush wilderness and geological beauty waiting

to be explored. The park itself was founded in 1896 after businessman Griffith J. Griffith gave

the city of Los Angeles 3,015 acres of land to be used for a park (Griffith). Since then, the park

has been through numerous expansions, renovations, and even having an observatory built on the

land. The park, which is located on the Santa Monica mountain range, is full of geological

history. Before the mountain range, it was underwater. Then, when two massive plates collided,

the resulting force pushes the ground upward through volcanic eruptions. The result was a

mountain range peaking at over 10,000 feet. However, millions of years of weathering, erosion

and plate tectonics would take its toll. Today, we have a mountain range and a pretty active fault

line. All of which makes up the geologic makeup of Southern Los Angeles.
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Work Cited

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191715

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Valley. The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 06, 2017, from

http://articles.latimes.com/1994-03-27/local/me-39801_1_sedimentary-rock/2
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Southern California Earthquake Data Center. Significant Earthquakes and Faults. (n.d.).

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