Most People Have No Idea That Maine S Volcanoes Were The Biggest In The World

Maine has lots of rocky coastline and gorgeous coastal islands. But, would you ever guess that some of the land we love is actually the result of volcanoes? It seems hard to believe, but the truth is that Maine was the site of some seriously large eruptions! Eruptions of this size haven’t been seen in a very long time. In fact, the most famous example was 2.5 million years ago (that’s actually considered “recent”!) and it blew up an entire island in Indonesia. To think that Maine experienced this type of seismic activity is pretty crazy!

Maine’s volcanic activity took place about 420 million years ago.

bnpositive / Flickr

Super-eruptions created huge piles of ash and lava fragments along what later became known as the East Coast.

rpphotos / Flickr

And today, scientists have found at least 4 volcanoes along 100 miles of the Maine coast.

Heather Paul / Flickr

Can you guess one of the most notable volcanic locations?

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Calm and quiet, Isle au Haut actually exposes the heart of a caldera-forming volcano.

Mark Donahue / Flickr

A caldera forming eruption causes the earth to spew the lava contents of a volcano’s magma chamber, leaving a huge hole in the earth.

Ajay Goyal / Flickr

Evidence of eruptions can even be found in the rocks at Portland Head Light.

Heather Paul / Flickr The rocks pictured here are from the Cushing Formation, which was formed about 471 million years ago as the result of many different explosions.

The Maine volcanic eruptions creating the Cushing Formation happened before the existence of the Himalayas, Alps and even dinosaurs!

Jimmy McIntyre / Flickr

The volcanoes are now eroded and gone, but visitors can still see things like rocks joined together around the edges of the Maine islands.

peterhartree / Flickr

Cranberry Island also shows signs of volcanic activity in the form of a 2,300-foot-thick layer of “welded tuff,” which is a rock formed from volcanic ash.

Peter Rintels / Flickr

Scientists believe all of Maine’s super-eruptions took place around 424 million to 419 million years ago. Thanks, specifically, to geoscientist Sheila Seaman, who originally spoke on this topic at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting in 2013.