In every place I have lived or spent time, I am intrigued by the variations in the underlying geologic structure and deeper geologic history of the earth. The metamorphic rock in Vermont and New Jersey reveal a history of repeated cycles of tectonic plates colliding, separating, colliding, and separating again with a vertical intrusion of magma during the most recent separation. The triangular shaped reddish-brown sediment-filled units in Newark Basin, reveal faults where blocks of crust dropped while the supercontinent Pangea broke apart and the Atlantic Ocean opened a short distance to the east.

The metamorphic rock below New York City is hard and durable; the layers of volcanic and sedimentary rock contained within Boston’s granite basin record a different history of volcanic eruptions, mountain building and erosion. Shallow almost horizontal layers beneath Minneapolis/St. Paul reflect a former inland sea environment, that cover a deeper layer infilling a failed rift that could have split the continent in two. The steeply dipping layers below San Francisco represent a volatile event on the western shore of North America – the collision and subduction of the Pacific Plate.

Together as a continuing series, these images act as a reminder that our foundations are far deeper than the basement floor in our home and that the history of our local region is far greater than thousands of years of human history.