Boston Basin

In Boston, I wanted to better understand the basin beneath the city. As I studied the bedrock below its streets and neighborhoods, I became interested in seeing the outer edges of the structure that holds the city in place. I stepped back—geologically—until I could view the entire basin at once. The result is this image, representing approximately sixteen miles in width and four-and-a-half miles in depth, looking west from Quincy and Milton on the left through Dorchester and South Boston to downtown and the inner harbor near the center, then north through Charlestown, Everett, and Malden, ending in Stoneham.

The subsurface structure is based on regional geologic cross sections and field investigation throughout the Greater Boston area. Representative rock exposures were located and photographed using bedrock maps and field guides to understand the basin’s architecture and history.

These photographs were digitally sequenced to reflect the interpreted subsurface structure. The surface features are intentionally enlarged in scale relative to the underlying rock so that we can see them clearly and consider the relationship between the everyday city above and the geologic foundation below.

Photo-geologic composite created through field photography, geologic interpretation, and digital compositing.