California road buckles, rises from the ground -- but why?
LOS ANGELES -- Vasquez Canyon Road in Santa Clarita has become quite the sight over the past three days.
The road has buckled, which caused deformation in just a couple of hours, reports CBS Los Angeles.
#UPDATE: Vasquez Canyon Rd still rising. Road now closed between Lost Creek Rd & Vasquez Way https://t.co/gcHQaXtLJI pic.twitter.com/LjadTSgJeE
— LA Co Public Works (@LAPublicWorks) November 20, 2015
And while the road may look like a mess, it has left a group of UCLA geology students mystified.
CBS LA reports that on Sunday morning, UCLA professor Jeremy Boyce brought his class to see what he calls a geological phenomenon.
"There was no big rainstorm that triggered this. There was no big earthquake that triggered this," Boyce said.
Drivers started calling California Highway Patrol about the road coming up on Thursday. Since then it has kept rising into a 200-foot stretch. That stretch has grown by more than 15 feet in three days, stumping local engineers and geologists.
"When we think about geology, we think about processes that happen over millions and billions of years, so the opportunity to bring students out and see something happening over a scale of hours gives them the idea that not only does geology take forever, it can also happen almost instantaneously," Professor Boyce added to CBS LA.
Students were impressed.
"It's a completely different experience hearing about it in a class and then coming here and seeing it in real life, kind of watching it come to life," UCLA student Sarah Casey said.
"We can build all these buildings, but the earth does what it does, so it kind of puts into perspective our place in the world," UCLA student Brittany Miles added to CBS LA.
Vasquez Canyon Road between Lost Creek Road and Vasquez Way is closed until further notice.