An early start on Sunday morning, driven by the need for low tide. We return to Narooma Beach, in search of pillow lava. We go armed with a photo from the website about the Narooma Accretionary Complex, a quick look at Google pillow lava images, and a determination to track it down. The day is splendid, and the rock lilies are flowering on the Two Sisters just off the highway. We poke around the beach, creating hypotheses and asking endless questions of each other's ignorance: “What do you reckon?” ” Is this it?” and noticing all sorts of other rocky things, that raise more questions. Finally we decide that we have it nailed.
What's the story of pillow lava? Mounds of elongated lava “pillows” form as hot basalt oozes thousands of feet below the ocean and is cooled quickly by sea water. A glassy crust forms over the lava, pressure builds up, the crust breaks, and new basalt extrudes like toothpaste, forming another pillow. So the land we were walking along, with the sea curling lazily in, was once far under water.
It's T-shirt warm, and we continue exploring, clambering around the rocks below the cemetery, me deigning to use J's supporting hand once or twice. I learn again that taking cautious steps causes more wobble than maintaining forward momentum.
Baranguba on the horizon, the tide on the turn, daisies spilling down the cliff, the waves rolling in, we look up at ancient sea floor rising black above us. We are in a subduction zone, where once upon a time a Pacific plate caused upheaval when it thrust itself under the edge of the Gondwana plate, so geologists say. Here we think we see more pillow lava on the rock platform.
A reminder of our First Peoples appears on the rocks below the cliff, a small painting, confidently executed.
What a perfect place for that artwork, do you think so too?
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It was indeed. Unobtrusive, but spectacularly present. I was glad of J’s eyes in spotting it. He’s a more confident rock-hopper than I am, and has eyes to spare from watching his feet!
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You are extending my geology education Meg. How interesting to think of all that upheaval millions of years ago under the ocean. Lovely art. It looks quite recent. No photos of the rock orchids this time?
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They’re on high unreachable rocks, fenced, just off the highway, and the light is always wrong. However they did their job, alerting us to blooming and hence the walk up Nerrigundah Ridge. The art is definitely recent – done by a descendent of the Ancient People. Please don’t rely on me as a geology educator!
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Your posts have got me looking at the rocks with a different perspective.
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Hi Meg 🙂 I’ve got my tired head on this evening so I’m not going to do much more than nod and smile appreciation as I pass through. I may find intelligent conversation later 🙂
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How was the wedding? Catch your breath my dear, or are you desperate for communication in English??
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A really lovely wedding, Meg. I’ve just been sending photos to a few family members who couldn’t be there. My Polish is much better when I come home. I mutter little snippets to myself all the time. But I think the new baby understood me. 🙂
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I just thank heaven for bilingual grandkids!
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I like your pillow lava. And I love that painting on the rocks.
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I like the idea of it being MY pillow lava – such a gift from the far-distant past. The painting was a reminder of another Australian ancientness. I desperately need J’s eyes for this geological caper, as I did for the botanical one. I’m manically labelling flowers to prove that progress can be made in new learning – and trying not to think “But that was fifteen years ago!”
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How interesting. I didn’t know about pillow lava before this. The lava down here all flowed to the coast from inland volcanoes. The rocks on the beaches near here are part of the volcanic flow from a volcano some 70 k away.
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We’re plotting a volcano / geology trip into Victoria when we can tear ourselves away from here, thanks to your influence! I had no idea about the origins of pillow lava till the other day.
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I am sure you would find western Victoria very interesting but the weather is still very unpredictable and very cold by NSW standards. When you want to come do a google search on Kanawinka Geo Park – it was an idea that never got Government support but there should be some websites out there that give an overview of the volcanic activity that has shaped the landscape here. (also let me know if you want to meet for a coffee when you are in my neck of the woods)
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Won’t be till November, and then only maybe. I’ll check out Kanawinka, and it would be lovely to meet you over coffee.
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Kanawinka fact sheets are a superb start. Thanks so much.
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I have based many of my explorations on them. Glad you found them and that they are a help.
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