La Brea Tar Pits - Los Angeles, CA
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Go Boilers!
N 34° 03.769 W 118° 21.310
11S E 374941 N 3769949
One of the world's most famous fossil sites with more than 3 million fossils where huge mammoths, fierce saber toothed cats, and giant ground sloths became trapped and entombed in the asphalt.
Waymark Code: WMDW3F
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 02/29/2012
Views: 18
Visitors can see several large and small tar pits and a couple of observation points to watch scientists in action. There is also an original habitat called the Pleistocene Garden, a prehistorical landscape in Hancock Park representing the native vegetation of the Los Angeles Basin 10,000 to 40,000 years ago.
There is plenty to see in the park, but the Page Museum offers more. The museum has an admission charge. There is a parking lot, but street parking is available.
More details on the site:
Tar pits are composed of heavy oil fractions which seeped from the earth as oil. In Hancock Park, crude oil seeps up along the 6th Street Fault from the Salt Lake Oil Field, which underlies much of the Fairfax District north of the park. The oil reaches the surface and forms pools at several locations in the park, becoming asphalt.
This seepage has been happening for tens of thousands of years. From time to time, the asphalt would form a deposit thick enough to trap animals, and the surface would be covered with layers of water, dust, or leaves. Animals would wander in, become trapped, and eventually die. Predators would also enter to eat the trapped animals and become stuck.
The tar pits visible today are actually from human excavation. The lake pit was originally an asphalt mine. The other pits visible today were produced during the 1913–1915 excavations, when over 100 pits were excavated in search of large mammal bones. Various combinations of tar and water have since filled in these holes. Normally, the asphalt appears in vents, hardening as it oozes out, to form stubby mounds. These can be seen in several areas of the park as well.
On the grounds of the park are life-size models of prehistoric animals in or near the tar pits. Of more than a hundred pits, only Pit 91 is still regularly excavated by researchers, and can be seen at the Pit 91 viewing station, which is outside the museum, and free to enter. Currently, Pit 91 excavations have been put on hiatus so that excavators can operate year-round on material from Project 23.
On February 18, 2009, George C. Page Museum formally announced the 2006 discovery of 16 fossil deposits which had been removed from the ground during the construction of an underground parking garage for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art next to the tar pits. Among the finds are remains of a saber-toothed cat, six dire wolves, bison, horses, a giant ground sloth, turtles, snails, clams, millipedes, fish, gophers, and an American lion.
These fossils were packaged in tree boxes at the construction site and moved to a compound behind Pit 91, on Page museum property so that construction could continue. Twenty-three large accumulations of tar and specimens were taken to the Page Museum. These 23 deposits are worked on under the name "Project 23."
The "Official Tourism" URL link to the attraction: [Web Link]
The attraction’s own URL: [Web Link]
Hours of Operation:
daylight hours
Admission Prices:
free
Approximate amount of time needed to fully experience the attraction: Up to 1 hour
Transportation options to the attraction: Personal Vehicle or Public Transportation
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