Table of Contents

3. Formation of Sea Caves

4. Sunny Jim History

5. Location

6. The Current Landmark

7-12. Rocks and Minerals

13. La Jolla Climate

14-20. Animal Life

The Formation of Sea

Caves

The ocean water will attack the weaker areas of coastal cliffs.

Once there is even just a small crack along the cliff, the weight

of water and the compression of air will crack the rock more

form within. The cave walls will experience even more erosion

through rock particles being carried by the ocean

current.(Bunnell, 2013).

La Jolla Cave History In total, there are seven sister caves that have been

weathered away into the 75 million year old cliff of La

Jolla(Newell, 2012).

Newell states in his article about the caves that back in the day

these caves provided shelter for ‘profiteering pirates’.

There is evidence from fossilized shells and water level marks

then Sunny Jim’s cave

formed after about

200,000 years of

erosion (Cave Store,

N/A).

Location1325 Coast Blvd,

La Jolla, CA

92037

The Cave Store holds the access to the hand-dug tunnel that

leads to the bottom of the cave. For only $5 anyone can make

the trip down the 145, usually damp steps to the the only sea

cave on the California coast that is accessible by land.

Sunny Jim’s Landmark

Gustauf Schultz wanted to be able to see the rare view from inside the cave so decided to build the tunnel.

The tunnel was built in 1902 and then was completed 1 year later.

Originally there was only a rope to help people down, but it has been replaced by stairs.

This landmark was named by Frank Baum who believed the view looked like a British cartoon mascot with the same name.

(Cave Store, N/A)

Rocks &

Minerals

Stalagmites

To the right of the stair entrance of the cave floor is dripping stalagmites.

Stalagmites result from water dripping from the ceiling due to precipitation

and then calcite building up on the floor (Monroe & Wicander, 2012).

As you see to the right, there is still a lot of precipitation in this section of

the cave and so new stalagmites are still in the process of forming.

(Newell, 2012)

Sandstone Sandstone are primarily quartz

minerals that are loosely cemented together by calcite and iron oxides (StoneForensics.com, 2004-2014).

Sand particles between 1/16 and 2 mm can be found in sandstone (Monroe & Wicander, 2012).

Sandstone is very rough from its structure and is very abrasive. It is also very porous (StoneForensics.com, 2004-2014).

The purpled colored rocks have formed from the pinkish purple of iodine in the kelp (Cave Store, N/A).

Iodine has a relatively high atomic number and easily attaches to organic compounds (Wikipedia, 2014).

It is found in oceans and brine pools as highly water-soluble, which is why the rocks on the cave floor are purple. You can find kelp among the rocks and the rocks are constantly being covered by the ocean current that flows into the cave (Monroe & Wicander, 2012).

Purple Rocks

Red Rocks

The red-colored rocks found in the cave have been colored from the red of Iron Oxide (Cave Store, N/A).

Iron Oxides are known for being inorganic chemicals that are used as colorants.

Continental red beds or stained red sandstone had first appeared 1.8 billion years ago and became more common during the Proterozoic. For the right chemically oxidizing conditions free oxygen must be present. This means the rocks on the cave floor could have been stained at any point after the caves existence (Monroe & Wicander, 2012).

Limestone/Dolostone In order to figure which type of rock

the darker region of this picture is, one could use an acid test. If you were to drip hydrochloric acid on the rock and there was a lot of fizz it is limestone. If there is a very weak fizz it is Dolostone. One could also use acetic acid or household vinegar instead of hydrochloric acid.

Limestone is made almost entirely of calcite, while Dolostone is made of dolomite.

Limestone is more commonly found in shallow waters of the sea shelf and usually contain fossils and shell fragments

(StoneForensics.com, 2004-2014)

La Jolla’s

Climate

La Jolla is known for generally having warm weather and sunny

days the majority of the year.

The amount of humidity in the air is very minimal.

During the summer, the ocean temperatures are generally in the

upper sixties and then drop to the mid fifties in the winter.

(La Jolla Village Merchants Association, 2013)

Cave Creatures & Animals

Seals

Just outside the cave you can watch dark brown seals swimming through the water or lying on the outer edges of the cave, relaxing. They spend about half their time on land and the other half in the water.

As long as those who visit La Jolla do not get too close, the seals will stay where they are.

These creatures will eat sole, flounder, sculpin, hake, cod, herring, octopus, and squid; they are known as opportunistic features.

(The Marine Mammal Center, 2000)

Evolution of Seals Their animal classification is Phoca citulina. These animals will

reach 5 or 6 ft. in length and can weigh up to 300 pounds (The Marine Mammal Center, 2000).

There are around 500,000 of them in the world wide seal population. In California alone, it was estimated in 2009 that 34,000 of them live in California (The Marine Mammal Center, 2000).

Evidence has made scientists believe that seals evolved from land animals and have been on Earth for 15 million years. Overtime their appendages evolved to flippers; if this adaption didn’t occur seals would have most likely been extinct (Seals-World, 2014).

Seals today still share many characteristics with their ancestors. They had long periods of time when no adaption was needed and then sometimes it seemed like they needed to adapt in a very short amount of time(Seals-World, 2014).

Ground

Squirrels

These little brown animals live all over the cliffs in La Jolla. They snack on roots and ice plants, but will hide in their burrows if anyone or anything gets too close (Stewart, 2012) .

They have a network of burrows within their colony, but do not travel far from home(Stewart, 2012) .

The squirrels brain is the size of a walnut(The Squirrel Place, 1995-2014).

On average, adult squirrels will eat a pound of food a week (The Squirrel Place, 1995-2014).

Evolution of Ground Squirrels Ground squirrels are related to chipmunks, groundhogs, and prairie

dogs (Stewart, 2012).

The squirrels of La Jolla are fairly tamed because they are most likely

fed by people (this is very discouraged). It is common for squirrels to

have adapted to living with humans.

Ground squirrels are apart of the Rodentia order which includes 1,650

different species; the largest group of living mammals. It has 7 different

families, including the ground squirrel; each of which have 365 species.

Squirrels evolved around 36 million years ago from another primitive

rodents. At this time the Earth was much warmer than it is now.

Because they are constantly snacking, squirrels have adapted teeth

that constantly grow. They grow about 6 inches each year, but will stay

about the same length because of the constant wear they receive.

(The Squirrel Place, 1995-2014).

Purple Shore Crabs

The Purple Shore Crabs are also

known as the Naked Shore

Crabs. You can see the tiny black,

hairy shore crabs mostly in

between the rocks of the cave

grounds, but sometimes are

rested on the top of the purple

iodine rocks.

They can be as small as a

fingertip and as big as the size of

a half-dollar. Most of the time you

will find these small creatures

feeding on the tide pools inside

the cave.

(Washington Department of

Fish and Wildlife, 2014).

Evolution of Purple

Shore Crabs Shore crabs are formally apart of the Hemigrapsus nudus species.

A similar species is the Hemigrapsus oregonensis (H. nudus do

not have olive-colored hairs on the legs like the H. oregonensis).

The evolution of crabs in general is a mystery for scientists, but

there are other details on their preferred habitats. They are found

along the Pacific coast from Alaska to Baja California. They are

generally less common in southern California because they live

near rocky shores. Their chelae allows them to scrape from the

rocks diatoms, desmids, and green algae.

Between November and April female crabs will , on average, lay

13,000 eggs a year; depends on the size of the females carapace.

(Oliver & Schmelter, N/A).

References Monroe ,J. & Wicander, R. (2012). The changing earth: Exploring

geology and evolution. Belmont, Ca: Brooks/Cole, CengageLearning.

La Jolla Village Merchants Association.(2013). Weather. Retrieved from http://www.lajollabythesea.com/visitor-resources/weather

Gore, P. J. W. (2004). Relative dating: Laboratory. Clarkston, GA: Pamela J.W. Gore.

Newell, R. ( 2012, April). La jolla sea caves. Retrieved from http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2012/apr/18/travel-la-jolla- sea-

caves-history/#

Cave Store. (N/A). Sunny jim cave store. Retrieved from http://www.cavestore.com/about.php

Bunnell, D. (2013). Sea caves. Retrieved from http://www.goodearthgraphics.com/virtcave/seacaves/seacaves.html

References StoneForensics.com(2004-2014). Geology and stone identification.

Retrieved from http://www.marble.com/articles/geology- and-

stone-identification/

Wikipedia. (2014). Iodine. Retrieved from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. (2014). Crab

identification and biology. Retrieved from http://wdfw.wa.gov/

fishing/shellfish/crab/identification.html

Oliver, J. & Schmelter, A. ( N/A). Life history of hemigrapsus

oregonensis and hemigrapsus nudus. Retrieved from

http://people.oregonstate.edu/~yamadas/crab/ ch5.htm

The Marine Mammal Center (2000). Pacific harbor seal. Retrieved

from http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/education/ marine-

mammal-information/pinnipeds/pacific-harbor-seal/

References Seals-World. (2014). Seal evolution. Retrieved from

http://www.seals-world.com/seal-evolution/

Stewart, K. (2012). Ground squirrels become more active on

the coastal bluffs. Retrieved from http://

www.lajollalight.com/2012/03/14/ground-squirrels-

become-more-active-on-the-coastal-bluffs/

The Squirrel Place. (1995-2014). History. Retrieved from

http://www.squirrels.org/history.html