Newport Cliff Walk
Trail Information
A 7.0 mile out-and-back walk along the city's coast, Newport's Cliff Walk provides hikers with beautiful views of the bay, as well as exposing them to unique metamorphic, sedimentary, and igneous rocks. For someone eager to spend a summer day in the field exploring New England Geology, there exists no better place than this! See the map on the left from Discover Newport for more information.
There are two places to park: either on Memorial Boulevard (41.487731, -71.293060) or at the end of Narragansett Avenue at the Forty Steps (41.475805, -71.297471). We recommend the former, since it also allows you to walk along beautiful Easton's Beach. Both locations offer cheap metered parking. However, if the spots along the beach are taken, you can also park in the Easton's Beach lot and pay more to support the wonderful town of Newport. If you park at the Forty Steps, this puts you 0.6 miles along the Cliff Walk trail.
Our Findings - June 1, 2021
For the first 1.3 miles of the Cliff Walk, you can find rock that part of the Narragansett Bay Group (1). According to the US Geological Survey, this rock includes "meta-sandstone, meta-conglomerate, schist, carbonaceous schist, and graphite" (1). Meta-sandstone, meta-conglomerate, and schist are all sedimentary rocks that have been metamorphosed (changed due to subjection to heat and pressure) (2). We observed Narragansett Bay Group rocks on our trip to the Cliff Walk as shown below.
Here, we observe what we think is a kind of schist (metamorphosed shale or mudstone) that has taken a beating from the ocean spray along the cliffs (3). The sample was soft and broke off easily. Aviators for scale.
Below the schist, we observed a metamorphosed conglomerate (known as a meta-conglomerate). Many of the larger clasts (round rock fragments) are visible within the metamorphosed finer-grained matrix material (4).
In this picture of Christian, you can see the schist above the meta-conglomerate. According to the relative age dating law of superposition, this means the schist is younger than the conglomerate.
"Often, bumpy roads lead to beautiful places." —Dave Martinez
Over the final 2.2 miles along the Cliff Walk, more rock types show up along the Cliff Walk. In addition to the Narragansett Bay Group, there are granites of southeastern Rhode Island, as well as Newport Group - Price Neck Formation (5). The granites (igneous rock) vary in color and have very coarse mineral grains (6), while the Price Neck Formation is made up of feldspar-rich siltstone and sandstone, both of which are sedimentary rocks (7).
Wilder exploring an outcropping of granites of southeastern Rhode Island. The white lines are quartz, a common mineral found in this type of rock. We predict that, since this outcropping has been exposed to waves and winds, the rest of the minerals have eroded while the quartz --due to its hardness-- is still quite prevalent.
A challenge for you, dear reader: According to the USGS, there are many fossils within rocks of the Narragansett Bay Group (1). Though we scoured for hours, we could not find these fossils. We encourage you to head to the Cliff Walk to try to spot one! No promises, though, as we do not know if they are actually visible on outcroppings.