Sea level rose and fell often during this period of the Eocene Epoch in geologic history. About 42 million years ago, sea level rose again and more sand was deposited. Compressed and cemented, it makes the rock known as the Scripps Formation. This rock holds up the sea bluffs north of Moonlight Beach. Because the mudstone and siltstone of the Ardath Formation are softer and weaker layers, waves erode it and undermine the stronger Scripps Formation sandstone above it, as happens with the Del Mar Formations below Torrey Formations.[1][3]
Fossil content
Fossils are present but are less common in the Scripps Formation than in the underlying Ardath Shale.[2] Those it preserves date back to the Eocene Epoch of the Paleogeneperiod, during the Cenozoic Era.[4]
