Near Depoe Bay, Fogarty Beach Has Some of the Oregon Coast's Strangest Shapes

Published 8/06/24 at 5:35 a.m.
By Andre' GW Hagestedt, Oregon Coast Beach Connection

(Depoe Bay, Oregon) – You're walking on some of the weirdest shapes on the coastline and you don't even know it. Lurking beneath the central Oregon coast's Fogarty Beach are some astounding features you only get to see on rare occasions. (Above: all photos Oregon Coast Beach Connection - explanation near bottom)

The geology of Fogarty Beach is a wild one beneath, it seems. Fogarty Beach State Recreation Area: a Stunning Oregon Coast Spot of Subtleties

The place is known for its freakishly large granules of sand, a landscape that is nothing short of ouchy to talk on with bare feet – or even open shoes, for that matter. They scrape and they hurt. This popular beach is also famous for its rocky oddities, and some of that is visible under normal conditions. Yet on rare occasions, when winter's sand levels get extremely low, sometimes you can see bedrock just south around Newport. It's a good possibility it's showing at Fogarty Beach as well.

That's when things get amazing.

In early 2007, the Oregon coast had a somewhat unprecedented heavy winter storm action on the beaches, one which really pulled a number on Fogarty Beach near Depoe Bay (like the 150-year-old cannon that were found at Arch Cape). All sorts of bedrock and other objects under the sands were exposed by extremely low sand levels. During that winter – and the following one – sand levels got so low that all kinds of things were uncovered.

Among them were these freaky-deaky objects at Fogarty Beach.

These have an interesting explanation, according to local experts, including geologist Jonathan Allan, Ph.D with the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries on the central coast.

As shown in the photo above, these are the massive grooves in the bedrock of Fogarty Beach, as seen in early 2007. During that winter – and the following one – sand levels got so low that all kinds of things were uncovered.

Allan told Oregon Coast Beach Connection the ground floor here – or bedrock - is part of the Astoria formation, which is about 15 to 20 million years old. This part of it is mudstone – what Allan called Tertiary mudstone, and the grooves are what geologists term “rills” which have been eroded into this rock.

You can see more of this in the eroded cliffs of Fogarty - all photos Oregon Coast Beach Connection.

“This occurs through a variety of approaches, including wave action (oscillatory currents), abrasion (especially when sand levels that periodically cover the platforms fall below 30 cm, the sand begins to act as an abrasive), cavitation (hydraulic effects), and wetting/drying cycles (exposure to sun),” Allan said. “Biological effects can also contribute to some of this.”

Other oddities at Fogarty

In other words, it's a combo of waves digging at it, the sand grinding into it, and changes in how dry or wet the rock is.

One of the wildest objects seen in one of these low-sand event is this thing that looks like an egg (at top). Allan said it's a “concretion,” something built up very slowly over time.

The lighter colored area is the concretion in this case, and the darker rock part of the foundation rock. Since all this area was underwater at various times in the distant past, this was an ocean floor at one point. Dead things floated down here and became part of this concretion. Sometimes there are fossils in this objects.

Allan said concretions form through various chemical reactions, forming right on the spot and staying there.

“Essentially they form by the precipitation of mineral cement within the spaces between particles,” Allan said.

These can be found in sedimentary rock or soil.

There are chunks of Fogarty that look downright Jurassic just in the walls and structures coming out of them. Some resemble dino bones or a dino tail. Yet there are actual dino-era things beneath these sands (and all those bedrock around Newport). In this case, there's the fossil of a large scallop called a petcin. It, like many of the other fossils are here, are around 15 to 20 million years old, Allan said. They are the ancient relatives of the sea scallops we know today.

Another intruiging set of structures below:

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