VIRTUAL
TOUR OF NEWPORT Moolack Beach, Just North of Newport |
 |
Our own Guy DiTorrice answered these questions: “The shell conglomerates are just that – masses of dead sea life that ended up in a hole or hollow on the ocean bottom,” he tells us. “Scuba divers see this all the time, especially in late spring and early fall. “The ‘screws’ are somebody playing a game on the beach with flotsam or jetsam from the boats. I like stacking rocks in art-like piles. It really messes with people’s heads when beachcombing." “The gray ‘rock’ – or sandstone – you see exposed at Moolack is the top layer of Nye Mudstone (just below the Astoria Sandstone). A mixture of sand and ash, it’s more than 20 million years old. It’s very water-soluble and tends to get pretty soft when exposed. You often find petrified (carbonized) woods, Teredo wood and an assortment of clams and snails in the stuff – occasionally fish and mammal bone.” |
To
Previous Tour Spot | Next
Tour Spot (Continue South) |
||||