How Does Virtual Field Trip: Pillow lava in the Marin Headlands Work?

A virtual field trip lets you explore pillow lava in the Marin Headlands like you're there, even if you're at home.

Imagine you're playing with clay. When you squish it into water, it makes round, bubbly shapes, kind of like when you drop a ball into a puddle and watch it splash around. That’s what happens with pillow lava. Deep under the ocean, hot lava meets cold seawater, and instead of making sharp edges, it makes soft, rounded blobs, just like your clay in the water.

Now imagine you're wearing a special pair of glasses that lets you see underwater volcanoes far away. That's what a virtual field trip feels like. You get to zoom in on those pillow lava shapes and watch how they stack up, one after another, like layers of cake.

You sit at your computer or tablet and click through pictures and videos of the Marin Headlands, a real place where these cool pillow lava blobs are found. You can even see how scientists study them, like using special tools that act like underwater flashlights.

It's like having a window to another world, but you don’t need to go there, just click, and you're exploring!