Whites point-San Pedro Ca

[Surfdog]

This tread is a question to the geologist Robert (rmedina0811) but I thought it might be of interest to the forum. I've been hanging out at White's Point in San Pedro alot, It's a cool place to dive and fish and during the winter when the big swells arrive its a fun place to surf, it can handle a really big swell when everything else is closing out. Well here's the question. Fifty yards off the rocks there's these underwater vents that have hot water coming out of them. They are everywhere. Well Robert, what are these things all about and how did they get there.

[rmedina0811]

A hydrothermal vents is basically a geyser (like old faithful at yellowstone) located beneath the ocean. They are usually found at depths in excess of 1,000 feet and are associated with tectonic spreading of the seafloor. In those places, magma is relatively close to the surface and superheated water laden with minerals comes to the surface The minerals are deposited and slowly build these stacks that can reach pretty amazing heights. What I can't tell you is why the ones at White's Point are so close to shore...

[cappo5150]

Originally Posted by rmedina0811

A hydrothermal vents is basically a geyser (like old faithful at yellowstone) located beneath the ocean. They are usually found at depths in excess of 1,000 feet and are associated with tectonic spreading of the seafloor. In those places, magma is relatively close to the surface and superheated water laden with minerals comes to the surface The minerals are deposited and slowly build these stacks that can reach pretty amazing heights. What I can't tell you is why the ones at White's Point are so close to shore...

ya what he said

[martin]

Daaang what a newb question, everyone knows that those are hydrothermal vents .

[SoCalSteve]

Originally Posted by cappo5150

ya what he said

lol

[chance]

hey surfdog i completly forgot about whites point it was our second choice during the winter it was like the p--hole over in sealbeach alway warm water especially back in the 60's when we were lucky to own a surfboard let alone a wetsuit and the wetsuits back then were so bulky is it still good fishing with a lot of sharks and batrays

[Surfdog]

Thanks Robert for the info, yes I knew they where Hydro thermal vents. But what I was serching for is why so close in to the shore. I know up the road at Porteguese Bend there is alot of land movement everyday, you can see that by driving on Palo Verdes south Rd. Theres so much geological stuff going on in that area that you can see it on a day by day base's instead of reading about it between every million years. Ya. Chance thats another of the spots from our childhood. Remember there were no house's or roads up there just farm fields and albalone diving was legal all year with no limits. From the sound of the replys, the guy from Bakerfield knows all about the ocean hydothermal vents.

[chance]

yeah remmber riding dirt bikes all over what is now rancho palos verdes and palos verdes estates only thing that was up there was marineland and fort macarther

[Surfdog]

Right Chance forgot about the dirt bikes, if I recall you had to make your own dirt bike in those days- no dirt bike stores yet, oh well, we missed out on the skate boards to.

[chance]

i dont know if you remmber seeing the stakeboards around poly that were 6 1/2 to 7 in wide 28 to 30 in long with stringers and spoke plane spoons in them around the school with rink plates cut in half so they had precision bearing and double action trucks those were made by me. i was the down hill maniac that lived in signal hill i was the first one to ride a skate board down shell hill