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This photo of me, by my lovely and talented wife, Cindy, was taken at Pemaquid Point, Maine, just south of the lighthouse, in June, 2001.
Here the wave action of the ocean has sculpted the rocks to enhance their dramatically contorted nature. The rocks are part of the Bucksport formation, and are the result of sedimentation during the Silurian period (~425 million years ago), and metamorphism and igneous activity in the Devonian period, 365-405 million years ago. The dark layers are formed from muds and sands deposited as sediments on the ocean floor. These were initially compressed into rock under the weight of subsequent deposition, and then further compressed and heated (metamorphosed) into a rock that is dominated by small shiny flakes of mica and is commonly known as schist. The light colored rock is called pegmatite granite, and it is composed of much larger crystals, largely feldspar and quartz. These are the solidified products of igneous liquids that were injected along planes of weakness in the schist. The complex stresses on this system during the injection of the granite developed the contortions seen in this outcrop. Geological information from: |