Portuguese Bend
The Portuguese Bend region is the largest area of natural vegetation remaining on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, in Los Angeles County, California.
[1][2] Though once slated for development including the projected route of Crenshaw Boulevard, the area is geologically unstable and is unsuitable for building.
[4] In 1874, Captain Frank Anderson (né Anasio) brought a crew from Port Harford in San Luis Obispo County.
During three winters (December–April) he obtained 2,166 barrels of oil from trying out the blubber flensed from gray whales he had caught on their annual migration along the California coast.
), Marineland of the Pacific, Portuguese Bend Riding Club (featured in the movie Chinatown), Marymount College, Palos Verdes and Chadwick School.
Back then there was a clubhouse, restaurant, paddle tennis courts, 50-foot swimming pool, a sandy beach, and a 485-foot long pier where boats could tie up.
Most of the movement along this fault is dip-slip, resulting in an uplift of about 1 km of the Palos Verdes Hills relative to the Los Angeles basin.
[9] Surficial deposits of the Palos Verdes Hills consists of stratigraphic layers, in order from oldest to youngest: The ground surface in the central and southern parts of the district is low and hummocky, reflecting the location of numerous late Quaternary landslides.
[11][22] During this construction, excavated sediment was dumped onto the upper slopes of the complex along with hundreds of thousands of gallons of water which lubricated a layer of bentonite clay formed by the subsurface weathering of volcanic rock called tuff.
[23] A successful lawsuit was filed by area homeowners in 1961; the plaintiffs won $10 million in compensation against Los Angeles County, the party responsible for the road construction.
[25][17] Residential sewage treatment facilities (cesspool or septic system), lawns, gardens, and others may contribute to ground shifts in the area.
It is expected that the homes that remained after the 1956 landslide and the ones built since then would have above ground water and sewage lines available to reduce property damage.
[12][14] Renewed movement occurred in 1979,[29] and a Geologic Hazard Abatement Districts was created to study the Klondike Canyon landslides in 1982.
[25] The city of Rancho Palos Verdes issued an evacuation warning for residents in response to landslides that are moving at a rate of three-fourths to one foot per week.
[19][25] On September 3, 2024, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in the City of Rancho Palos Verdes.
[25] The geographical location and geological history of the peninsula make the remaining habitat extremely valuable for ecological and other scientific reasons.
This feature makes the Portuguese Bend Landslide area a natural research laboratory for the study of island biogeography and evolutionary ecology.
A species of live-forever, Dudleya virens, which is native to the Channel Islands and the Palos Verdes Peninsula, is found near Point Vicente Lighthouse.
