Shocking video shows the moments when a huge cliff collapses on the beach in San Diego

Stunning video captured the moment a massive section of a cliff broke off and crashed onto a San Diego-area beach.

The incident occurred on Friday around 2:45 p.m., when local law enforcement was called about a 10-minute landslide involving most of the cliff.

According to a geology professor who spoke to local media, the collapse is the most notable and significant cliff collapse in 40 years. It’s unclear what caused the collapse, but recent rains and other weather concerns could contribute.

Estimates say the volume of the collapse is around 150,000 cubic yards.

The cliff collapse at Black’s Beach in La Jolla, a small beach town north of downtown San Diego, forced authorities to close several trails in the area.

Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident, according to the San Diego Fire and Rescue Department.

The video, taken by Phinney Cole, shows the moments when huge chunks of rock and cliff break off and tumble down the cliff onto the beach.

Another angle of the collapse showed the break hitting the beach from the front.

Witnesses told local media that the force of the landslide was so powerful that it cratered part of the beach and exploded upwards.

They also said it happened relatively slowly, giving beachgoers time to move out of the way during the collapse.

In total, the collapse is estimated to be 250 feet wide and 25 feet high.

“This is the biggest landslide we’ve seen around here in years, but it’s really a piece of an old one that didn’t quite slide,” said geologist Pat Abbott, a San Diego State University professor.

Abbott said he believes the collapse is a continuation of one that occurred nearly 41 years ago in the exact same location.

He also said that this is not the first cliff in the area to experience a major incident.

“Five times since 1995, we’ve had sea cliff failures in San Diego County that have killed one to three people each time,” Abbott said.

Scroll down for a video of a collapse at Torrey Pines from two years ago:

The professor said that the landslides are more common from December to January and can be caused by a large number of problems that affect the beaches and coasts.

“High cliffs in the sea, waves eating into the bay, gravity constantly pulling on it, less sand on the beach in the winter, higher tides – all of those things increase the probability of cliff failures,” he said.

California’s recent rainfall totals, triggered by a series of atmospheric rivers, could also have played a factor in the collapse.

It is a fact that worries some residents who live nearby and enjoy going to the beaches for fear of a repeat of the incident.

“It’s a bit worrying, I’m still scared to go there,” said a woman who spoke to NBC 7 about the collapse.

The cliff collapse came just days after another terrifying incident in the same area when a vehicle left the road and was left dangling from a cliff.

The San Diego Fire and Rescue Department was called to

“Very crazy scene,” said Tyler Mitchell, a witness working nearby.

mitchell told him Fox 5 San Diego he saw the whole thing and called it ‘distressing’.

“It was very concerning at first because you just want to know,” Mitchell said.

‘I didn’t know how far I was from the edge, then I came down here and both front tires were blown. It was much more stressful from this view than from my angle.

A San Diego Fire and Rescue team chief said crews worked quickly to recover the passenger with the imminent threat of high waves just below the car.

The chief said the driver was lucky to land where he did and the situation could have ended very differently.

“By sheer luck, the car landed where it was,” battalion chief Dave Seneviratne told Fox 5.

The man inside the car suffered minor injuries in that incident.