Seal Rocks, Rocky formations in Lands End, San Francisco, United States.
Seal Rocks is a group of small rock formation islands in the Lands End area of the Outer Richmond District, just offshore in the Pacific Ocean at the north end of Ocean Beach, near the Cliff House and Sutro Baths ruins. The rocks are part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
Seal Rocks lie off a coastline shaped by waves, wind and moving sand, not by sandstone deposition. Near the end of the last ice age this shoreline stood roughly eight to twenty-five miles west of its present position; about five thousand years ago rising sea levels brought it to today's line. The first known map, made by the United States Coast Survey in 1852, shows a coast entirely unaltered by humans.
The name comes from the Steller's sea lions and California sea lions that haul out on the rocks; both species are commonly called "seals." The formations and their wildlife lie within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, so the animals are protected and can be watched from shore.
Seal Rocks lie just offshore at the north end of Ocean Beach, below the Cliff House and the Sutro Baths ruins, and are best viewed from the beach or the coastal trail above. The rocks and their sea lions are protected within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, so visitors watch from a distance. Fog often hides the rocks in summer; clearer views come in the afternoon or early autumn.
The rock formations are not made of sandstone; the layers beneath Ocean Beach, from top down, are placed fill, dune sands, the Colma Formation, the Merced Formation and bedrock, the last lying 350 to 400 feet (110 to 120 m) down. The fill was estimated in 1985 at 7 to 16 feet (2.1 to 4.9 m) deep.
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