Storm of January 3 and 4, 2008 (D. Smith)

Click figures to enlarge

A severe storm hit Monterey Bay early in 2008 with local winds gusting to 80 km/h (50 mph) and driving rain. My rain gage in Marina recorded about 6.35 cm (2.5 in) for the storm.

Oceanic Buoy 46059 registered 12 m (40 ft) swells and the Monterey buoy (46046) registered 10 m (33 ft) swells. Wave forecast models predicted that swells near 30 ft would reach the coast near Fort Ord Dunes State Park (white arrow in figure below.)

I took a series of photographs of the seacliff along the park before the storm hit (Jan. 3) and after the storm had passed (Jan. 6). I also shot some stills and short digital movies at the peak surf and tide combination (8:00a Jan 5). I hope to add images shot by Steve Moore, Suzy Worcester, and Bruce Delgado, who were with me for the excitment on Jan 5.

JAN. 5
Below are stills and short movies showing slope failure near the Eighth St. parking lot on the morning of Jan. 5. Swells were probably close to 30 ft, so the faces might have been closer to 35...or more. The tide was peaking at 5.7 ft, so the wave swash was crashing against the base of the seacliff. Some of the files are large. I advise downloading to your computer before viewing.

1 ) 30 ft swells breaking 1 to 1.5 km offshore from Dunes Park parkinglot (15 Mb-mpg).
2 ) Entire sea-cliff failing, enlarging toe of existing slide. Side_view (11 Mb-mpg).
3 ) Head of the slide that failed in above footage (3 Mb-mpg).
4 ) A minor slip following swash attack on slide toe (11 Mb-mpg).
5 ) slide enlarges with moderate slope failure (9 Mb-mpg).
6 ) Minor adjustment on new slide (5 Mb-mpg).
7) Observation crew (Suzy, Steve, Kyle, Doug, photo Bruce Delgado) .
8) Summary clip of several scenes edited by Paul Heller (3.7 Mb-mov)

JAN. 3 compared to JAN. 6
Below are pairs of before-after photo pairs showing the seacliff from the beach. The storm changed the beach profile in curious ways. Slope failure of all dimensions are present. In the after pictures...
1) the seacliff slope surfaces have slid downward,
2) the intersection fo the inner berm with the seacliff gained considerable elevation,
3) the seaward beach slope increased markedly, and
4) sand was removed from low in the swash zone, exhuming old pilings (1.5 m) that had been buried.

click on the photos to enlarge (a little)...higher resolution images available from Smith.