Dr. Rob West, Ph.D. - professor emeritus of geology at East Los Angeles College:
Shore platforms are erosional surfaces in bedrock that form at the base of sea-cliffs. Two types are recognized around the world that form as the consequence of the processes of wave abrasion and excavation. The prominent shore platform at Goleta Point has been interpreted as evidence of co-seismic uplift of an abrasion surface. Whereas an alternate hypothesis considers that same surface to have been formed in place by the process of wave excavation. This presentation will evaluate evidence for both possibilities and settle the controversy once and for all. Examples of other shore platforms from a variety of global locales will illustrate and support the conclusions drawn from the analysis of the shoreline angle forms along the sea cliff stretch between Fish Rock at Goleta Beach and Goleta (Campus) Point at UCSB. If you are curious to view the stretch of coast where this analysis is focused, then take advantage of the afternoon low tides this last week of January and the second week of February, 2025.
Robert “Rob” West, PhD, is professor emeritus of geology at East Los Angeles College with a long record of collaborative research with both public and private institutions. He firmly established his love for geology and fieldwork while an undergraduate at Rio Hondo Community College, then transferred to San Diego State University where he worked as a field assistant and soils lab tech. His 1987 senior thesis “Tectonic Geomorphology of the Rose Canyon Fault” provided the first accurate slip-rate estimate that would subsequently be validated by trenching. After a year of post-baccalaureate studies at UCLA, he joined the Quaternary Lab of the UCSB Geology Department where he eventually earned a Masters (1991) and PhD (2004) in Geology. While studying piedmont surfaces of the Tejon Embayment of the Southernmost San Joaquin Valley with Ed Keller he had an epiphany regarding the roll of tectonic tilt in modifying a flight of alluvial fan terraces exposed along the northern margin of the Tehachapi Mountains. His second public presentation of this inchoate concept was to the Coast Geologic Society in 1990. His subsequent dissertation focused on developing and validating a landform model of alluvial fan surfaces for gauging tectonic deformation.
Rob has an interest in the study of active surficial processes that has taken him around the country and across the globe to witness the characteristics and forms of alluvial fans, landslides, and rocky shorelines. After joining the faculty of East Los Angeles College in 2001, he developed dozens of field trip inquiries to share these interests with his students. One of his most recent areas of inquiry is the origin of the Saugus Formation and the distribution and tectonic dismemberment of its alluvial facies. His association with the Gold Creek Ecologic Field Station, located in a tributary basin of Little Tujunga River, gives him access to segments of the San Gabriel fault that few others have walked. He led field trips there for the NAGT in their first post-Covid field conference and just last year for Earth Sciences Faculty across the LA Community College District. In his retirement he is actively recruiting collaborators to further his inquiry into the Saugus.
