Pillow Talk

Ahh, quintessential New England.

Vinalhaven sits an hour offshore Maine by ferry and seemingly a century back in time. The small island houses a population of just over a thousand residents who live off the sea and the summertime migration of vacationers. It also holds an exceptional exposure of a solidfied magma chamber that has been uplifted, turned over and eroded to reveal an entire cross-section. I featured a photo from Vinalhaven last week, but couldn't leave it at just one...

Cross-section of pillow basalts intruded into magma

Usually pillow basalts form underwater. As lava erupts, the lava in direct contact with the water quenches, forming a hard pillow-shaped shell (here's a nice photo). The magma chamber on Vinalhaven, however, preserves pillows of a different sort. The pillows pictured above formed as fresh, hot magma intruded into an already cooled, but not yet solidified magma chamber. The cooler magma was still hot enough to deform, so these pillows ended up more like smooshed Hershey kisses. 

The dock at Hurricane Island

If you take a geologist to Vinalhaven, expect to be there a while. And if possible, try to stay overnight with the good folks of the Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership on the nearby Hurricane Island. The Hurricane Island Foundation renovated abandonded Outward Bound buildings and repurposed them to facilitate educational programs in a natural setting. In addition to their on-island educational program, they help organize geology field trips, providing boat transport, sleeping arrangements and awesome home cooked meals. Just bring your own pillows.