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Geologic Trips, Fort
Funston Ocean Beach The sand that now forms Ocean Beach made
its trip through the Golden Gate during the last ice age, when sea level was
a couple of hundred feet lower, about 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. At that
time, the Sacramento River flowed through the Golden Gate and continued west
for another 20 miles before it reached the shoreline of the Pacific Ocean. Large quantities of sand were
carried from the Sierras by the Sacramento River and deposited to form
beaches and dunes along this old shoreline. As the glaciers melted,
sea level rose and the shoreline, beach sand, and sand dunes moved eastward
with the rise of sea level. Ocean Beach represents the present location of
this shoreline. Most of Golden Gate Park and much
of northern San Francisco were built on dune sands blown eastward from Ocean
Beach. Exterior Websites Golden Gate NP Conservancy: Wikipedia:
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Ocean Beach, looking south from the
Cliff House toward Fort Funston. |