The La Brea Tar Pits (or Rancho La Brea Tar Pits) are a cluster of tar pits around which Hancock Park was formed, in urban Los Angeles. Asphaltum or tar (brea in Spanish) has seeped up from the ground in this area for tens of thousands of years. The tar is often covered with dust, leaves, or water. Over many centuries, animals that were trapped in the tar were preserved as bones. The George C. Page Museum is dedicated to researching the tar pits and displaying specimens from the animals that died there. The La Brea Tar Pits are now a registered National Natural Landmark.
Read more about La Brea Tar Pits: Location and Formation of The Pits, Early History, Scientific Resource, La Brea Animals and Plants, Further Information
Famous quotes containing the words tar and/or pits:
“A thorough tar is unfit for any thing else; and what is more, this fact is the best evidence of his being a true sailor.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“And the glory of character is in affronting the horrors of depravity to draw thence new nobilities of power: as Art lives and thrills in new use and combining of contrasts, and mining into the dark evermore for blacker pits of night.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)