How the Southern California Coast Came to Be

The California coastline is some of the world's most valuable property. A walk on the beach provides a sense of eternal serenity. But if you speed up the process of geologic time, "the sea pops up and down, earthquakes crackle without letup, tsunamis wash ashore and islands lurch up from the sea." That's the story of a new book by Mira Costa College professor Keith Heyer Meldahl. It's Surf, Sand, and Stone: How Waves, Earthquakes and Other Forces Shape the Southern California Coast.