La Brea Tar Pits Facts
- The La Brea Tar Pits ranks as an extraordinary and unique geological feature. Incredible as it may sound, they lie within a major metropolitan area in the United States.
- The ancient Native American tribes indigenous to the area knew these well. The Chumash and Tongva tribes used the naturally occurring tar to seal their canoes.
- Over time, countless animals fell prey to the La Brea Tar Pits. Humans subsequently excavated many of those remains, along with preserved specimens of numerous plants and insects. This incredible site, therefore, provides an unparalleled sample of prehistoric life.
- The oldest remains thus far excavated here date back more than 38,000 years. This location indeed serves as a naturally occurring time capsule.
La Brea Tar Pits Composition and Formation
Even though it remains impossible to determine the exact age of the La Brea Tar Pits, evidence shows their age to be at least 40,000 years.
The pits primarily formed from a heavy fraction of oil, and gilsonite. As it seeps to the surface, it cools into variously sized mounds. In many sites, the viscous liquid is quite often (in a seemingly other-worldly manner) bubbling. In fact, this impressively results from naturally occurring methane rising to the surface.
Bacteria living deep within the oil actually generate the methane. Perhaps at least 300 forms of these live within the pits and many of them exist nowhere else on Earth.
Photographer: Leviclancy
Public Domain Image
La Brea Tar Pits Today
Today, the La Brea Tar Pits serve as both a tourist attraction and a source of ongoing scientific research. They sit within the confines of Hancock Park, which is itself located within the city of Los Angeles.
Today we took the grand-daughters to the Tar Pits.
Fasinating.
Dire wolves 🐺. Hundreds of them.
I thought Dire Wolves were just in the Game of Thrones.
150 lbs of muscle; hunting in packs.
Big & nasty, but no match for a 900 pound sabre tooth tiger.
Just think; 10 to 50 thousand years ago, during the last ice age, mastodons, sabre tooth tigers 🐅 and dire wolves🐺 hung out at Wilshire & Highland.
-m. salcido-
Hello Mike,
Thank you for your comments. I know, it’s fascinating to realize these things! There is still so much to learn about the past! We hope you find more articles of interest within our pages.
Sincerely,
OBP
My partner and I are coming in December. Can you please give me the times the Tar Pits will be open please? And is the any info you could send us! I am very excited to see y’all!!
Thank you!
7407 W Jeffcoat Rd
Pine Bluff, Ar. 71603
Hello Susan,
We are pleased to hear that you are excited to see this natural marvel. Here is a link to the official website for the La Brea Tar Pits. It has all the information you need.
https://tarpits.org/
Sincerely,
Todd
OMG its soooo cool I can’t believe that I’m doing a project about the La Brea Rancho! It’s so astonishing that so many animals got stuck there and especially, that I like dinosaurs and the prehistoric life of animals.