Cape Mendocino

[2] The South Cape Mendocino State Marine Reserve and Sugarloaf Island are immediately offshore, although closed to public access due to their protected status.

The Cape Mendocino Light was lit on December 1, 1868, standing on eight prefabricated panels sent from San Francisco.

Three earthquakes with epicenters nearby at the town of Petrolia and offshore west of Cape Mendocino, 25–26 April 1992, were outstanding, one reaching 7.2 Mw;[8] shaking the town so badly, fires broke out and burned down historic buildings, including the 100-year old general store and the original post office.

[9] The quakes demonstrated that the Cascadia subduction zone is both capable of producing large earthquakes and generating tsunamis.

Many geologists and seismologists believe that the main shock in the 1992 sequence may be a forerunner of a much more powerful earthquake in the Pacific Northwest.