Neuwerk, containing some marshland protected by dikes, has two lighthouses and a lifeboat station.
The shore and the entrance to the canal are strengthened by huge dikes.
A few hornblendeschists are metamorphosed gabbros; others have developed from dikes or sills of lamprophyre.
Most of the island is occupied by the band of the old rocks, which include mica, glaucophane and sericite-schists and slates; there are small intrusions of granite, and numerous dikes and masses of basic eruptive rocks.
Many vitreous rocks show alteration of this type in certain parts where either the glass has been of unstable nature or where agencies of change such as percolating water have had easiest access (as along joints, perlitic cracks and the margins of dikes and sills).