Alexa Erickson Gage, a native New Englander, has visited Nantucket for the last three summers.

Maria Finch Chandler spent two years on a delicious mission: exploring Cape Cod and the Islands, logging more than 1,000 miles and consuming about 20 quarts of ice cream — all in the name of research.

During the last Ice Age, the Laurentide Ice Sheet pushed a bunch of rocks as far south as Long Island. As the ice melted and ...