Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Molten lava in the Bay of Fundy


Basalt is the most common type of solidified lava on earth; it actually makes up most of the ocean floor. The Bay of Fundy tides, our constant erosion and our complicated geological history result in a good deal of basalt available here to be 'seen'. Previous readers of my blog will recall references to 'basalt headlands' such as the one over my shoulder at Cape Sharp in Sunday's post two days ago. That's is basalt in its craigy, scarpy form. Basalt also presents here in two other ways: as obvious columns and as rock faces smoothed by the tides. I always think that the smooth basalt looks close to its original molten lava form. I snapped this photo at Cape Sharp beach.

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