Tar Blobs on Southern California Beaches

[Rocky_Shorz]

I haven't heard of any recent oil spills, but Southern California have these little gooey tar blobs everywhere, buried under the sand...

[Blacklight43]

We have them here on the beach at Morro Bay too...along with dead baby seals.

[DeDukshyn]

Oh, you found BP's oil ... they lost a few gallons a couple years back. Don't worry though, they sprayed enough toxic corexit on it that it that the vast majority of it should stay coating the bottom of the Ocean, where no one will complain about it or know really how much is there. That's the "Big Oil" fix.

I guess by location, that may not be BP's but perhaps Exxon's. Who knows and who cares -- all the same story.

[1 flew over]

They have been there for many many years. It is oozed up all around there. Some friends and I kayaked a tributary to the Ventura River years ago and when we finished our boats as well as our selves were coated. It is actually rough grade crude oil.
Be Well
1 Flew Over

[Lifebringer]

Thank you, I needed something to focus on for the good. I now have a calming meditation to do. I like CA.

[Selkie]

They show up on east coast beaches, too. I don't know what the ones you found were caused by, but the earth naturally seeps oil all the time, and sometimes they come from that. I am not minimizing the damage from all the various oil spills or excusing the damage the oil companies have caused the environment. I am simply pointing out that tar balls can be of natural origin, and are not always man-caused.

p.s. The Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels by Thomas Gold is a marvelous read.

[sunflower]

I remember seeing and stepping on oily tar deposits on a beach in Nice years ago.

[Shadowself]

Where Beach Tar Comes From....


Quote from an article:

Natural Origins of Beach Tar in California

Scientists agree that tar is found in shale, sandstone, limestone and other porous rocks. While these rock types are found all over the world, on land and in the sea, they only contain hydrocarbons (a constituent in petroleum) in some locations. Much of the ocean floor near California is made of rocks holding hydrocarbons inside their pores, much like a sponge holds water. These ocean rocks naturally release petroleum that floats to the surface of the water and is transported by wind, tides and currents onto the shore. The oil becomes more tar-like as it degrades in the salt water. Eventually, the tar settles on the sand, where it sticks to things, including people's feet.

Oil Spills Versus Natural Seepage

The Western States Petroleum Association, the oldest petroleum trade association in the United States, maintains that not only do they make some of the cleanest burning fuels but “[t]he number of oil spills into oceans and bays in the United States has declined dramatically in the past 18 years” and is of little consequence in comparison to the amounts of natural oil seepage.

https://suite.io/gretchen-martin/1rb62dr

Least we not forget that the California Beach is not far from the Le Brea Tar Pits and there is over all plenty of TAR in Southern California.



http://www.city-data.com/picfilesc/picc23228.php

Note: I've seen the surrounding streets to the Lebra Tar Pits which are always seeping holes of tar and in the state of repair:

In February 18, 2009, George C. Page Museum formally announced the 2006 discovery of 16 fossil deposits which had been removed from the ground during the construction of an underground parking garage for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art next to the tar pits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Brea_Tar_Pits

[Selkie]

Because it is so beautiful, it is easy to forget that the earth is really quite an inhospitable place.

[thunder24]

Posted by Rocky_Shorz (here)
I haven't heard of any recent oil spills, but Southern California have these little gooey tar blobs everywhere, buried under the sand...

http://finance.yahoo.com/photos/offs...308933659.html possible cause,, mother frackers

[Rocky_Shorz]

I was thinking with no spills it was an underwater blowout of a fracking operation...

they had a cleanup "training mission" just before it showed up on our beaches, so maybe it wasn't training, it was a blowout disaster recovery...

[Heartsong]

I've been going to the Oregon beaches since the '50's and there have been tar blobs since that time at least. It depended on the tides. As kids we were always reminded to take off our shoes before going inside. The motels frequently had signs and hoses to clean off the whatever a person tracked in.

[Rocky_Shorz]

Posted by thunder24 (here)

Posted by Rocky_Shorz (here)
I haven't heard of any recent oil spills, but Southern California have these little gooey tar blobs everywhere, buried under the sand...

http://finance.yahoo.com/photos/offs...308933659.html possible cause,, mother frackers

"´The sun rises over Freeman Island, one of the four artificial THUMS islands in San Pedro Bay off the coast of Long Beach used for oil drilling in Long Beech, Calif. In waters off Long Beach, Seal Beach and Huntington Beach — some of the region's most popular surfing strands and tourist attractions — oil companies have used fracking at least 203 times at six sites in the past two decades, according to interviews and drilling records obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request. "

[1 flew over]

It was about 35 years ago when I boated the tributary to the Ventura River and we were miles from the ocean so I am moderately sure that it was not a costal oil spill. Just nature doing what nature has been doing for a long time before man. Below is an article talking about the tar balls.

Be Well
1 Flew Over

Tar on Your Foot: Oil in Ventura County

The down and dirty about Ventura County’s oil legacy (cover of the VCReporter)

Anyone who has ever lived in the Ventura County area and walked barefoot on the beach has probably at some point felt something sticky on his or her foot and found a black substance commonly known as “tar” on his or her sole.

This “tar” is actually a globule of crude oil, probably emitted from the Coal Oil Point area north of Santa Barbara near UCSB, which according to peer-reviewed geographical surveys, is one of the most active oil seeps on the planet.

Since the Coal Oil Point oil seep in the Santa Barbara Channel emits over 4,000 gallons of crude oil a day, and has been doing so for at least half a million years, one would think these seeps would be uncontroversial.

Not so. Both sides of the environmental debate over oil in our area point fingers at the other over what these seeps mean for California’s central coast.

[Selkie]

Posted by 1 flew over (here)
It was about 35 years ago when I boated the tributary to the Ventura River and we were miles from the ocean so I am moderately sure that it was not a costal oil spill. Just nature doing what nature has been doing for a long time before man. Below is an article talking about the tar balls.

Be Well
1 Flew Over

With all the spills and fracking, I don't think its possible to tell where the tar balls come from without testing. But it is important to know that the earth seeps oil naturally, all the time. Helps to keep things in perspective

[cursichella1]

Posted by Rocky_Shorz (here)
I haven't heard of any recent oil spills, but Southern California have these little gooey tar blobs everywhere, buried under the sand...

I lived in the South Bay for most of my life. The beaches there have always been tarry. As a kid in the seventies we'd use the tar to decorate our sand castles. We'd be covered with it by the end of the day. In the 80s I must have gone through a dozen bikinis before I gave up and bought black.

I'm not saying it is a good thing, just that it isn't a recent phenomenon. There are many oil wells under L.A., La Brea Tar Pits, the oil fields (and sinking land) on either side of La Cienega, north of Baldwin Hills.

[1 flew over]

Posted by Silkie (here)

With all the spills and fracking, I don't think its possible to tell where the tar balls come from without testing. But it is important to know that the earth seeps oil naturally, all the time. Helps to keep things in perspective

Okie Dokie. I guess it is possable that an oil spill may have backed about 10 miles up the Ventura River and a few miles into a small tributary but I am not going to put much money on the odds of that happening.

Be Well
1 Flew Over

[Selkie]

Posted by 1 flew over (here)

Posted by Silkie (here)

With all the spills and fracking, I don't think its possible to tell where the tar balls come from without testing. But it is important to know that the earth seeps oil naturally, all the time. Helps to keep things in perspective

Okie Dokie. I guess it is possable that an oil spill may have backed about 10 miles up the Ventura River and a few miles into a small tributary but I am not going to put much money on the odds of that happening.

Be Well
1 Flew Over

In the first sentence, "With all the spills and fracking, I don't think its possible to tell where the tar balls come from without testing.", I was thinking about the OP, which does not state where the tar balls were found. In the second sentence, "But it is important to know that the earth seeps oil naturally, all the time.", I was thinking about the tar balls that you found. I was tired when I wrote that post, sorry if I did not make myself clear.

[1 flew over]

Silkie

No problem at all. I was tired also and should have waited until morning to resond. I just knew that we were all coated with the goo and had a good yuck about it so it really stuck in my memory.

Be Well
1 Flew Over

[Rocky_Shorz]

we have oil operations in Mexico just 40 miles south of these beaches, it might not be coming from Long Beach...

but I was also thinking of the magma super chamber from Nevada through Yellowstone

if it started expanding, could it push oil out towards the sea where the crust is softer?

it's not normally on our beaches, that's why the surprise...