Geology of Lompoc California
Take a virtual field trip of the geology of Lompoc, California or try it out yourself. Here are the stops:
Stop 1: San Miguelito Rd. Drive south on I St. and continue onto San Miguelito Rd. The folds in the video are about a half mile down the road before the diatomite quarry. To see them up close you may need to park in the neighborhood along I St. and walk in. Notice the numerous synclines and anticlines along the railroad tracks as well as the beautiful chert layers.
Stop 2: Lookout Point. Park on Z St. and begin the hike. On your left you can see an exposure of the Sisquoc Formation in the cliff and on your right you can see diatomite up close. Feel how soft it is, this is the good stuff.
Stop 3: Burton Mesa. Take a hike in the Burton Mesa Ecological Reserve (https://wildlife.ca.gov/Lands/Places-to-Visit/Burton-Mesa-ER) and try to find a nice outcrop of bright orange sandstone.
Stop 4: Harris Grade Rd. Drive north on Harris Grade Rd. and carefully pull over at the first turnout overlooking the city. See if you can identify the same diatomite that’s behind you all the way across the valley in the quarry and look to your left to spot the Purisima Anticline. Enjoy the view!
I live in lompoc
Lompoc has some of the coolest landscapes you’ve ever seen, we went just about everywhere we could in the 4 days we were filming there but this video shows a few places we weren’t able to get to, the baby wouldn’t let us do the hike to lookout point!
This was surprisingly good.
awesome video, gotta appreciate the interest in the town
So that’s what you are doing that day.
That’s some major foldage. Dang. Didn’t know.
love these, slow down your camera work….less viewers will need Dramamine
This video is really cool.
This guy doesn’t know what chert is.
Have a connection to Lompoc and visit often. You can see vandenberg airforce base from harris grade road, where you can see SpaceX launches some times. It is also the location of the local town ghost. Very beautiful place in terms of geography and nature. Burton Mesa looks like the chaparral behind where i used to stay. Very fun to walk around out there and look for the abandoned car.
When I lived in Lompoc in the early 70’s we could drive up to Lookout point. The view of acres and acres of flower fields from up there was amazing.