The first scientists investigating the geology of the Marin Headlands were fascinated and awed by what they saw, and were unable to explain the fantastic rock formations revealed in the wave-cut cliffs along the shore of the straight.

To explore the rocks in the Marin Headlands is to peer into eons of the Earth's history and see the results of some of the planetary processes that shaped the seas and continents. The reddish rock in which fossils appear is radiolarian chert.  Chert originally formed in level layers on the floor of the Pacific, one to five inches thick, but later contorted so they now resemble not so much crumpled pages in a book (as some of the early scientists noted) as intricate sculpturings by some artists in abstract designs-arches, domes, chevrons, and parabolas in innumerable variations of form and texture.

For more information on the geology of the Marin Headlands, visit these sites.
http://courses.ma.org/Geo/GeoWalk.html

http://virtual.yosemite.cc.ca.us/ghayes/Marin%20Headlands.htm

http://www.nps.gov/archive/prsf/geology/mhland.htm

http://www.marin.cc.ca.us/~jim/ring/rchert.html

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Marin Headlands Index: Page Three, Two, One

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