Sunday, July 12

Thursday, July 9

'Uplift' baffles scientists, transforms area beach


Photo by Michael Armstrong: Two men climb an uplift on the beach below Bluff Point on Sunday.



















BY MICHAEL ARMSTRONG
STAFF WRITER

Like a giant fist punching through the earth, a 1,000-foot long section of the beach below Bluff Point rose up 20 feet from the tidelands sometime last Friday or late Thursday, pushing boulders up from the ocean bottom, cracking sandstone slabs and toppling rocks upside down.

Below Bluff Point, a new fissure opened up at the base of the 800-foot high cliff. The uplift could be a re-activation of a landslide that happened perhaps 12,000 years ago.

"There was just beach before," said Ron Hess, who lives on Bluff Road above the new uplift. "Now there are tidal pools."You can see a rock circle," said Marilyn Hess. "All you used to see was one big rock, and now you can see this uplift of rock."Scientists don't know exactly what caused the uplift. It would take an earthquake over magnitude 7 to cause an uplift that high, said Peter Haeussler, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Anchorage.



Testing The Water GOM