Koizu Coast Washboard Rocks

 

After leaving Mitsu Shrine, the road carries on down the narrow valley into the fishing village of Mitsu itself.

As with all small fishing harbours, huge concrete seawalls and breakwaters create a safe harbour for a handful of small inshore boats...

The peninsula is part of a large Japanese Geopark and so there are plenty of signs about the geology of the area.

Not much of a geologist myself, though I do prefer land that is bare of vegetation and do enjoy geologic "features" even if I don't fully understand them....

I do know that 10,000 years ago this peninsula was an island off the coast of what is now Izumo.

The road now hugs the sea until the first named feature called Ichinose.... what we would describe as washboard rocks....

Around the headland and we arrive at the main feature of this part of the coast, Koizu Coast Clothes Washing Rocks, more washboard formations....

I do know that the alternating stripes of rock are sandstone and mudstone, with the mudstone the hollow and the sandstone the raised....

In the winter the rocks are off limits because of the seaweed that grows here and is harvested later by the locals....

From the official website.... "This alternating layer of sandstone and mudstone is part of the Ushikiri Formation from the Miocene epoch of the Neogene period. Most of the sandstone in this layer is turbidite. However, the absence of complete boomer sequences suggests that the turbidite was deposited closer to its source. Groove marks on the lower surface of the sandstone layers indicate a southwest-northeast flow, and these, along with changes in lithology, suggest that sediments in this area may have been transported eastward."

It may be uncool or even un-eco, but concrete does have an aesthetic at times....

The previous post in this series on day 42 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was on a couple of shrines just along the coast....

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