Seacliff at Garrapata Beach, California by ahochstaedter

The seacliff at Garrapata Beach exposes granite on the left (north) and Cretaceous sedimentary rocks on the right (south). The contact between the two is the Palo Colorado Fault, which is exposed beneath the stairs. The granite is Cretaceous in age (~!00 Ma), as are the sedimentary rocks. The sedimentary rocks are comprised of turbidites, deposited on a submarine fan. Closer inspection of these sedimentary rocks reveals nice graded bedding structures.

The Palo Colorado Fault is the on-shore continuation of the San Gregario Fault which lies offshore, trending along the submarine Carmel Canyobn, across Monterey Bay, and eventually joining the San Andreas Fault offshore of the Goldent Gate. The fault zone here is brecciated melange. The granites are highly fractured and disply horizontal slickensides near the fault. The rocks in the seacliff here are often wet, indicating the presence of ground water flowing through fractures associated with the faulting.

A nice example of tafoni occurs in the sedimentary rock to the right of the stairs. the tafoni is best developed on layers closest to beach level.

A closer view of the fault is here:
www.gigapan.org/gigapans/96696
And an even closer view here:
zoom.it/WLV5