44 



Areal Distribution of Sediment Types 



The least common sand sediment sub-type in Santa Monica 

 Bay is red sand (Fig. 13). This sediment is characterized by 

 an iron oxide staining of all organic (shells) and detrital 

 constituents. Red sand occurs in three small patches near 

 Hyperion, and in a narrow band off Palos Verdes Hills. The 

 sand at the latter location is coarse and contains abundant 

 shell fragments, whereas adjacent to Hyperion it is finer 

 and shell detritus are absent or rare. Similar sands have 

 been reported from many other locations off this coast and 

 Baja California, including: San Pedro Shelf (Moore, 1951), 

 San Diego (Emery, Butcher, Gould, and Shepard, 1952), near 

 San Nicolas Island (Norris, 1951), in Todos Santos Bay (Uchupi, 

 1956), San Francisco (Bache, 1852, 1856; Alden, 1956), and 

 south of Palos Verdes Hills in the vicinity of the Orange 

 County, and Whites Point outfalls during the present survey. 

 Additional data on the characteristics of the red sand will 

 be found in the section on "Coarse Fractions**. 



Olive green sand occurs in three small patches in the 

 southern part of the bay near Redondo Canyon; in a small area 

 near the Ballona Creek Outlet; and to a larger extent at the 

 head of Santa Monica Canyon, The sand at the head of Santa 

 Monica Canyon is distinguished from the other olive green 

 sand by the abundance of rock fragments, v\rtiich are rare or 

 absent in the other areas. The greatest areal distribution 

 of olive green sand is in a zone extending from Palos Verdes 

 Hills to Malibu. This deposit is widest near Hyperion and 

 narrows to the south and north. The large deposit near shore 



