Stornetta Lands

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A 2014 proclamation by President Obama added the Stornetta Public Lands to the California Coastal National Monument. The following quotation from the proclamation perfectly describes this coastal jewel.

The Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands, in Mendocino County, California, encompass a wind-swept landscape of dramatic coastal beauty and significant scientific importance. Like the monument’s striking offshore rocks and islands, these lands have been shaped by powerful geologic forces. An uplifted coastal terrace that underlies much of the area is part of the Gualala Block, a piece of continental crust that was captured by the San Andreas Fault and is now joined to the Pacific Plate. The striking bluffs that form the outer edge of the terrace are pierced in a few locations by blowholes—openings near the bluff’s edge through which rising tides force gusts of salt-laced air and occasional geysers of ocean water. . .