Geological history of Point Lobos than it is now (because more water was in the polar ice-caps and continental glaciers). Deep submarine canyons were cut in the Monterey Bay area, as an extension of the Salinas River. During late Cenozoic Era, because of sustained transpression of the Pacific Plate onto the American Plate along the nearby San Andreas Fault Zone, there was continued uplift of the entire coastline of California, so that erosive action of marine waves cut these terraces in the Monterey Bay area. Those Pleistocene marine terraces are composed of clay, silt, sand and gravel with a basal unconformity of gravel on top
Soil mechanics may be given the classification symbol "GW" (well-graded gravel), "GP" (poorly graded gravel), "GM" (gravel with a large amount of silt), or "GC" (gravel with a large amount of clay). Likewise sands may be classified as being "SW", "SP", "SM" or "SC". Sands and gravels with a small but non-negligible amount of fines (5–12%) may be given a dual classification such as "SW-SC". Clays and Silts, often called 'fine-grained soils', are classified according to their Atterberg limits; the most commonly used Atterberg limits are the Liquid Limit (denoted by "LL" or formula_39), Plastic Limit (denoted by "PL" or formula_40), and