Basalt Columns

  

Basalt columns are natural pillars made of hardened lava, caused by the contraction of volcanic rock as it cools. The columns are often shaped like hexagons, pentagons, or octagons due to the "rapid"-i.e., over the course of a century-cooling process, and they can often form as vertical cliffs or terraced steps, sometimes descending directly into the ocean.

Giant's Causeway

Giant's Causeway is perhaps the world's most extraordinary and well-known example of basalt columns. Some 50 to 60 million years ago, a volcanic plateau of molten basalt formed on the north coast of Northern Ireland, and as it cooled, the hardening lava cracked into tidy hexagonal, columnar tiles that now border and descend into the sea. Now a UNESCO World Heritage site and national nature preserve (serving as a safe haven for marine life and seabirds), Giant's Causeway is visited by about a million people per year. Its name hails from ancient folklore: Before humans knew much about geology, it was believed that the geometric cracks were formed by the footsteps of giants.

Basaltic Prisms of Santa María Regla

The water rushing over the Basaltic Prisms of Santa María Regla make the ancient pillars look especially surreal. The columns are polygonal and vary in height from 100 to more than 150 feet tall. They contain a ravine whose water flows from the San Antonio Dam, often times causing a rainbow to form at the base of two waterfalls. The tourist attraction is located in Hildago, Mexico, and can be enjoyed via walkways and hanging bridges.

Devils Postpile National Monument

One of the most fantastic displays of basalt columns in the U.S. is that near Mammoth Mountain in California. Apart from Devils Postpile's regal appearance-a vertical, tree-topped cliff composed of long and symmetrical, interlocking pillars thought to be between 400 and 600 feet in thickness-the formation has had a whirlwind history. It was once included in Yosemite National Park, then removed due to the discovery of gold in the area, then almost demolished for the purpose of a hydroelectric dam, saved by the legendary John Muir, then-finally-protected as its own national monument. The formation of Devils Postpile is believed to be relatively recent, within the past 100,000 years.

Fingal's Cave

Scotland's Fingal's Cave and Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway were caused by the same Paleocene-era volcanic event. However, the former offers a unique viewing experience. Here, on the uninhabited island of Staffa, the basalt columns line the walls of a sea cave like blocky stalactites made of hardened lava. The cave is 72 feet tall, 270 feet deep, and known particularly for its natural acoustics, which once inspired 19th century composer Felix Mendelssohn to write an overture in its name. Visitors can experience the bizarre echoing and explore the otherworldly scene by walking on footpaths along the columns.

Svartifoss 

Another basalt-column cliff decorated by falling water, Svartifoss in southern Iceland's Vatnajökull National Park is called "black waterfall" in Icelandic due to the dark color of the volcanic rock. The basalt formation, surrounded by Iceland's signature lush greenery, has inspired such architectural works as the National Theatre in Reykjavik and was featured in Bon Iver's music video for the song "Holocene." It can be reached via a short hiking track, but visitors are warned against swimming as some of the basalt has cracked off from the cliff and created quite a sharp surface under the water.

Takachiho Gorge

The basalt columns at Takachiho Gorge were formed some 270,000 years ago as a result of four eruptions of the Mount Aso volcano. Since, the Gokase River has cut through the columns, creating a narrow, V-shaped chasm through which beautiful blue-green water flows. Boats float down the four-mile gorge in the shadow of these 300-foot, red-tinted cliffs. The site has been protected as a National Scenic Spot and Natural Monument in Japan since 1934.

Cape Stolbchaty

Quite similar to Giant's Causeway are the cliffs at Cape Stolbchaty on Kunashir Island, between Russia and Japan. The rocks crack in the same hexagonal shape as the UK country's star attraction, and they create precipitous, 150-foot-tall seaside cliffs three times the height of Giant's Causeway. In places, the gray basalt columns descend diagonally like steps into the ocean and crop up offshore as rocky islands. The formations were created by an eruption of the nearby Mendeleev Volcano and are named after the Russian word for “columnar."

Organ Pipes

Named for the way they resemble the actual pipes of an organ, these Namibian rocks-some of them more than 15 feet tall-are about 150 million years old. They are located near another volcanic feature, Burnt Mountain, whose solidified lava flow is a popular subject for photographers. Both the formations have an extraordinary red tint that makes them appear fiery when the sun hits them right.

Cape Raoul

Originally dubbed Basaltic Cape by its founders, the towering columns and shrubby cliffs on the southeast coast of Tasmania, Australia, were renamed Raoul by French explorers in the early 19th century. The formations were caused by a Jurassic-era volcanic event (about 185 million years ago) that is believed to have covered a third of the island. Erosion from the wind and sea has created a sort of noncohesive, craggy aesthetic.

Hexagon Pool

Swimming in a pool surrounded by steep, 15-foot basalt cliffs is a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be had in Israel's Yehudiya Forest Nature Reserve. Most of the columns that contain the 65-by-100-foot Hexagon Pool-a scenic swimming hole formed by the Meshushim Stream rushing grandly over the formations-are greater than a foot in diameter. This is the most spectacular of many basalt formations within the reserve, all caused by activity in the Golan Heights volcanic field.

Da Dia Cliff

Da Dia Cliff is a seashore area of uniformly interlocking basalt rock columns located along the coast in An Ninh Dong Commune, Tuy An District, Phu Yen Province, Vietnam. The area is about 100 meters wide and 250 meters long, composed of an estimated 35,000 columns of basalt rocks. The rocks are dark lava columns with roughly flat surfaces of different shapes - round, pentagon, hexagon, polygon etc. Ghenh Da Dia looks like a gigantic beehive or a pile of dinner plates, hence the name - Ghenh Da Dia (The Sea Cliff of Stone Plates). These rock columns were created from volcanic eruptions millions of years ago; when the molten basalt flows met cold water, they solidified and shaped these rare polygonal formations due to thermal contraction effects.