The great processes of nature seem accelerated and condensed on the Oregon Coast, giving the region it's striking beauty and fascinating diversity.

geology

Oregon is situated on the leading edge of North America as the continent moves westward:  that movement has been the ultimate power behind the formation of the state.  First through scraping over the top of the ocean floor, then through riding over it, most of the state built up in stages over the last 300 million years.

On a more recent scale, our shoreline has been bobbing up and down as we progress west.   In addition, the sea level has changed dramatically with each Ice Age (the last two million years, or so).  The changes in sea level drives the boundary between sea and land up and down...or inland and out to sea, by today's standard.

The combination of these processes has given the Oregon Coast a fascinating--and beautiful--geologic history, with sedimentary and volcanic rocks on the central and north coasts and metamorphic and sedimentary rocks on the south coast.  The more recent changes in relative sea level has etched the shoreline to produce the dramatic headlands and intimate beaches the coast is so well known for.

Most of today's coast in Oregon is characterized by "pocket beaches" (rocky headlands with beaches between them) with various proportions of rocky shore and sandy beach.  The southern reaches of the coast, where the metamorphic Klamath Mountains reach the sea, is noted for more rock and less sand; and there's a 45 mile stretch of beach just north of the Klamath Mountains that is all sand--the Oregon Dunes.  Coos County connects the Klamath Mountains in the south with the Dunes in the north.

The mountains of western Oregon run mostly north and south, accentuating the influence of the nearby sea.  Because of the building elevation--and the increasing distance from the sea, the climate on Oregon's shoreline changes more traveling ten miles to the east of a given beach location than it does a hundred miles north or south.  Therefore, the plant and animal communities vary greatly as you travel east and west, as well.