Sea Serpents of the Panoche Hills

Abstract

Many changes have taken place in this region in the geologic ages which followed the Cretaceous. Subsequent to this period, hundreds and thousands of feet of sands, muds, boulder beds and volcanic debris accumulated, principally in ocean waters, and formed a substantial cover to the Cretaceous rocks. Intermittent earth movements occurred. Much later the Coast Ranges were formed, and wind and water began the removal of strata, ultimately cutting into and exposing the older geological formations like the Cretaceous rocks. In the course of this wearing away of the land, fossil organisms once deeply buried, come to view. Unless chance discovery is made too late by either a few years or a few million years, such a find may turn out to be an extraordinarily well preserved specimen.