Morro Rock | |
---|---|
![]() Morro Rock looking west | |
Highest point | |
Elevation | 581 ft (177 m) NAVD 88 [1] |
Coordinates | 35°22′10″N120°52′03″W / 35.369430653°N 120.867550139°W [1] |
Geography | |
Parent range | Santa Lucia Range |
Topo map | USGS Morro Bay South |
Geology | |
Age of rock | c. 23 million years [2] |
Mountain type | Volcanic plug |
Volcanic arc/belt | Nine Sisters |
Designated | January 1, 1968 |
Reference no. | 821 [3] |
Morro Rock (Salinan: Le'samo; Chumash: Lisamu'; Spanish: El Morro) [4] [5] [6] is a volcanic plug in Morro Bay, California, on the Pacific Coast at the entrance to Morro Bay harbor. A causeway connects it with the shore, making it a tied island. The rock is protected as the Morro Rock State Preserve. [7]
The 581-foot (177 m) [1] Morro Rock is one of 13 volcanic plugs (remnant necks of extinct volcanoes), lava domes, and sheetlike intrusions between Morro Bay on the north and Islay Hill on the south, all in San Luis Obispo County. [8]
It is composed mostly of dacite, an igneous, volcanic rock. It is a groundmass of plagioclase, with amphibole (hornblende), biotite, pyroxene (augite), quartz, and glass; it also includes phenocrysts of plagioclase. Its silicon dioxide (SiO2) content ranges from 63 to 69 percent.
The dacite volcanic plugs, lava domes, intrusive sheets, and felsitic rhyolite-dacite between Morro Rock and Islay Hill are part of the Morro Rock-Islay Hill Complex of the Oligocene epoch (from 27 to 23 million years ago). The complex lies east of the San Gregorio-San Simeon-Hosgri fault (the SG-SS-H fault). This complex is one of three probable sources of the volcanic clasts within the sandstone and conglomerate of the Miguelito and Edna members of the Pismo Formation in the Point Sur area 145–160 km (90-100 mi) to the north and west of the SG-SS-H fault. Based on paleomagnetic signatures, the Morro Rock-Islay Hill Complex was rotated 40 to 50 degrees, perhaps during late Miocene or early Pliocene time. [9]
The Salinan and Chumash tribes consider Morro Rock to be a sacred site. The Salinan name for Morro Rock is Le'samo and the Chumash name is Lisamu. [10]
The Chumash had an important nearby prehistoric settlement at least as early as the Millingstone Horizon (6500-2000 B.C.E.), and the village was near the mouth of Morro Creek, at the current site of Morro Bay High School. The right of the Salinan people to climb Morro Rock for their biannual solstice ceremonies has been established, in which they celebrate the time in legend when a hawk and a raven destroyed a two-headed serpent-monster Taliyekatapelta as he wrapped his body around the base of the rock. [11] The established Salinan right to climb the rock has been in legal dispute by the local Chumash tribe, which claims that Morro Rock is Chumash, not Salinan, territory. [12] The Chumash also believe that the rock is so sacred that it should never be climbed. Because of its fragility, it is illegal for the general public to climb it. [13]
Morro Rock was probably seen by Spanish maritime explorers as early as 1542 under Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, but its current name was given during the first European land exploration of Alta California. The Spanish Portolá expedition came down Los Osos Valley and camped near today's Morro Bay on September 8, 1769. Franciscan missionary and expedition member Juan Crespí noted in his diary that "we saw a great rock in the form of a round mountain (Spanish:morro )". [14] [15]
The rock, which was quarried on and off from 1889 to 1969, provided material for the breakwater of Morro Bay and the improvements at Port San Luis Harbor. [16] In 1966, a state law was adopted that transferred title to the State of California. In February 1968, the San Luis Obispo County Historical Society and the City of Morro Bay succeeded in having Morro Rock declared California Historical Landmark number 821. [3] [11]
Several types of birds nest on Morro Rock, including three cormorant species and two gull species. [17] It presently serves as a reserve for peregrine falcons, which are locally endangered and cause most of the laws that prohibit intervention with avian life.
Sea lions and sea otters can be seen regularly in the water around the rock. [18] Seals, however, are much more common in the nearby Morro Bay State Park, where they breed.
Other fauna include a wide selection of tide pool animals, like hermit crabs, small fish, starfish, sea cucumbers, mussels, bivalve mollusks, coral, and more.
On land few flora can survive the harsh, dry environment on the rock, but in the surrounding bay, kelp, sea grass, kelp forest plants, and tide pool plants can survive, and a few common grasses, mosses, lichens and weeds from the mainland take root on the rock itself.
Morro Bay State Marine Recreational Management Area and Morro Bay State Marine Reserve are protected areas offshore from Morro Bay. Like underwater parks, protected areas help conserve ocean wildlife and marine ecosystems.
In Cyberpunk 2077 , where Morro Bay is home to the independent city-state of Night City, Morro Rock has been demolished in order to build Night City International and Translunar Spaceport (NCX) between 2045 and 2047.
The Chumash are a Native American people of the central and southern coastal regions of California, in portions of what is now Kern, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, extending from Morro Bay in the north to Malibu in the south to Mt Pinos in the east. Their territory includes three of the Channel Islands: Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Miguel; the smaller island of Anacapa was likely inhabited seasonally due to the lack of a consistent water source.
Morro Bay is a seaside city in San Luis Obispo County, California. Located on the Central Coast of California, the city population was 10,757 as of the 2020 census, up from 10,234 at the 2010 census. The town overlooks Morro Bay, a natural embayment with an all-weather small craft commercial and recreational harbor.
The Central Coast is an area of California, roughly spanning the coastal region between Point Mugu and Monterey Bay. It lies northwest of Los Angeles and south of the San Francisco Bay Area, and includes the rugged, rural, and sparsely populated stretch of coastline known as Big Sur.
Point Mugu is a cape or promontory within Point Mugu State Park on the Pacific Coast in Ventura County, near the city of Port Hueneme and the city of Oxnard. The name is believed to be derived from the Chumash Indian term "Muwu", meaning "beach", which was first mentioned by Cabrillo in his journals in 1542. Mugu Lagoon is a salt marsh just upcoast from the promontory within the Naval Base Ventura County formerly called the Naval Air Station Point Mugu.
Cerro Cabrillo, also known locally as Cabrillo Peak, is a rocky mountain in eastern Morro Bay State Park, San Luis Obispo County, central California.
Morro Bay State Park is a state park on the Morro Bay lagoon, in western San Luis Obispo County, on the Central Coast of California. On the lagoon's northeastern and eastern edges in the park, there are saltwater and brackish marshes that support thriving bird populations.
The Nine Sisters or the Morros are a chain of twenty-three, although typically only nine are included, volcanic mountains and hills in western San Luis Obispo County, Southern California. They run between Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo.
Bishop Peak is a 1,546-foot (471 m) volcanic plug in San Luis Obispo, California. It is the tallest of the Morros or "Nine Sisters", a chain of similar peaks stretching to Morro Bay. Often said to take its name from its resemblance to a bishop's miter, it is named in homage to the town's name. "Obispo" is the Spanish word for Bishop.
Los Osos is an unincorporated town in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast of California, Los Osos had a population estimated to be 16,533 in 2019. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined Los Osos as a census-designated place (CDP).
Montaña de Oro is a state park in Central Coastal California, six miles southwest of Morro Bay and two miles south of Los Osos.
Islay Hill is a volcanic cone, and is the southernmost of the nine volcanic mountains and hills that make up the Nine Sisters, located in the San Luis Obispo County of central California.
Hearst San Simeon State Park is a state park of California, United States, preserving rocky coast and rare habitats. It is located between Cambria and San Simeon. The 3,409-acre (1,380 ha) park was first established in 1932. The park includes the Santa Rosa Creek Natural Preserve, the San Simeon Natural Preserve and the Pa-nu Cultural Preserve, which were established in 1990.
The Los Osos Valley is a valley within San Luis Obispo County, in the Central Coast of California region.
Morro Creek is a coastal stream in San Luis Obispo County, in the central region of the U.S. state of California. The watercourse flows from the Santa Lucia Mountains to discharge into the Pacific Ocean, at its mouth on Estero Bay, near the city of Morro Bay.
Painted Rock is a smooth horseshoe-shaped marine sandstone rock formation with pictograph rock art about 250 feet across and 45 feet tall near Soda Lake within the Carrizo Plain National Monument on the southwest side of the northern Carrizo Plain, west of Bakersfield and about 70 miles (110 km) east of San Luis Obispo and 45 miles (72 km) west of Taft, in California, United States.
The Elfin Forest Natural Area is a nature preserve protecting a unique plant community in Los Osos-Baywood Park, San Luis Obispo County, central California. It consists of prehistoric sand dunes, rising 150 feet (46 m) above southern Morro Bay, on the north of Los Osos-Baywood Park.
Morro Bay State Marine Recreational Management Area (SMRMA) and Morro Bay State Marine Reserve (SMR) are two marine protected areas that provide protection for Morro Bay Estuary on California's central coast. The two marine protected areas together encompass 3.31 square miles (8.6 km2). Within the SMRMA, fishing and take of any living marine resources is prohibited except that north of latitude 35° 19.70′ N the recreational take of finfish and aquaculture of oysters, pursuant to a valid state water bottom lease and permit, is permitted. And recreational hunting of waterfowl is allowed unless otherwise restricted by hunting regulations. The SMR protects all marine life within its boundaries. Fishing and take of any living marine resources is prohibited.
The geological history of Point Lobos, regarding the Point Lobos headland on the Central Coast in Monterey County, California.
The geology of California is highly complex, with numerous mountain ranges, substantial faulting and tectonic activity, rich natural resources and a history of both ancient and comparatively recent intense geological activity. The area formed as a series of small island arcs, deep-ocean sediments and mafic oceanic crust accreted to the western edge of North America, producing a series of deep basins and high mountain ranges.
There are nine national parks located in the state of California managed by the National Park Service. National parks protect significant scenic areas and nature reserves, provide educational programs, community service opportunities, and are an important part of conservation efforts in the United States. There are several other locations inside of California managed by the National Park Service, but carry other designations such as National Monuments. Many of the national parks in California are also part of national forests and National Wildlife Refuges, and contain Native American Heritage Sites and National Monuments.