Big Sur River Mouth, California by ahochstaedter

The Big Sur River empties into the Pacific at low tide. Marine terrraces rise above the wooded floodplain on both sides of the river. Waves refract around the point from which this image was taken forming surfable waves when conditions are right. There were surfers in the water on the day this image was taken, but the imaging process did not capture them. Longshore drift causes sand to form a spit in front of the Big Sur River. The outlet to the lagoon is just out of view to the left. Seagulls occupy the beach gravels exposed at low tide.

Pico Blanco is the dominant white mountain on the central skyline. Mt Manuel is the large mountain to its right. Pfeiffer Ridge parallels the coastline in the right half of the image. The Big Sur River drainage curves to the right between Pfeiffer Ridge and the Pico Blanco--Mt Manual skyline.

The course of the Big Sur River marks the location of the Sur Fault complex. The Sur Fault complex separates Franciscan assemblage rocks from those of the Salinian Block. In this view, The Franciscan assemblage rocks crop out along the coast and on Pfeiffer Ridge.These rocks are oceanic in character and can be seen in the pillow basalts in the bottom central portion of the image and in left-dipping greywackes along the seaclifff exposuresin the center right. Salinian Block rocks crop out on the ridge forming the central skyline. These rocks are continental in character and composed of metamorphic and plutonic rocks. Pico Blanco, the white peak on the central skyline, is marble, representing metamorphosed limestone deposited in a warm shallow sea.

A gigapan of the Franciscan pillow basalts that underlie this point is here:
www.gigapan.org/gigapans/96882