El Niño goes artistic on Sunset Cliffs

The northern parking lot on the boulevard in Sunset Cliffs Natural Park has a beautiful new sea stack.

The sandstone pillar was formed overnight on February 24th. The night's high tide was 4.42 feet at 10:16 p.m. The Point Loma buoy recorded swells of 8.2 feet at 16.7 second intervals at the same time. Six hours earlier, the swells were only 3.3 feet, and 16.7-second periods indicate a powerful ground swell. These factors combined with a weakened bluff face to create the new pillar.

About a month ago, around January 23–25 San Diego city street crews had fenced off the same parking lot because of the appearance of cracks in the paved surface and also in the cliff face.

On February 24th, city crews were seen observing the area and public access was restricted. The wave action at the base of the bluffs had already scoured away 60 to 75 percent of the collapsed material from the beach as of 10 a.m. this morning.