A cliff collapse. Three deaths. More bluff failures expected with rising seas
LOS ANGELES - When we go hiking in California's rugged mountains, we know to look out for bears and lions.
When we set off into the vast, bone-dry high desert of Joshua Tree, who doesn't bring extra water?
When we stand too close to the edge of a coastal bluff, everyone yells to step back.
But resting under the shade of these cliffs in view of the ocean, it's easy to forget what could come crashing down from above.
People often think about the beach as a place to swim, to read, to relax. In reality, it's the tip of a wild, dynamic system that is constantly moving and succumbing to the forces of nature. These sweeping cliffs that make California's coast so iconic were themselves formed by tectonic shifts and landslides over the centuries. And from the rubble of every collapse, more sand is made for beaches.
On a popular surf beach north of San Diego on Aug. 1, tons upon tons of sandstone crashed down on Anne Clave,
