Forest: Mendocino’s marine terraces rose and fell over thousands of years

I recently led a field trip at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens to observe, enjoy, and ponder the grandeur of Mendocino’s coastal landforms. In the process, I pecked at the tip of the iceberg of our understanding of the immense and dynamic forces that are actively shaping California’s evolving coastline.

The landscape before us is continually being transformed by the elements, by the ocean and wave action, and by tectonics. All of these mechanisms act as erosional as well as depositional forces on the landscape — perpetually building it up and then taking it away.