Basalt columns

Giant's Causeway

A plane of columns

The Giants Boot

The Giant's Causeway is an area of 40,000 tightly packed basalt columns resulting from a volcanic eruption 60 million years ago¹. It is located along the north-east coast of Ireland about 3km north of the town of Bushmills in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, and a National Nature Reserve in 1987 (by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland). Close up of Giants Causeway. ... Close up of Giants Causeway. ... Giants Causeway 2003-09-10, Copyright 2003 Kaihsu Tai File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Giants Causeway 2003-09-10, Copyright 2003 Kaihsu Tai File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Giants Causeway 2003-09-10, Copyright 2003 Kaihsu Tai File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Giants Causeway 2003-09-10, Copyright 2003 Kaihsu Tai File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Download high resolution version (1024x768, 115 KB)This is a photo that I took myself with a Canon digital camcorder. ... Download high resolution version (1024x768, 115 KB)This is a photo that I took myself with a Canon digital camcorder. ... Basalt Basalt is an extrusive igneous rock, sometimes porphyritic, and is often both fine-grained and dense. ... A volcano is a geological landform (usually a mountain) where magma (rock of the earths interior made molten or liquid by high pressure and temperature) erupts through the surface of the planet. ... Bushmills is a town on the north coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland. ... County Antrim (Aontroim in Irish) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland. ... Northern Ireland is one of four constituent parts of the United Kingdom. ... Elabana Falls is in Lamington National Park, part of the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves World Heritage site in Queensland, Australia. ... UNESCO logo The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, commonly known as UNESCO, is a specialized agency of the United Nations system established in 1946. ... 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal, however there are some with four, five, seven and eight sides.² The tallest are about 12 metres high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 metres thick in places.

Formation

While recent scientific research suggests the columns were formed as a natural consequence of lava cooling,³ legend has it that the giant Finn MacCumhaill (Finn McCool) built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish equivalent Benandonner. One version of the legend tells that Finn McCool fell asleep before he got to Scotland so when Benandonner came looking for him, Finn's wife Oonagh laid a blanket over Finn and pretended he was actually Finn's baby son. Benandonner worried about how big Finn would be and ran back to Scotland, destroying the causeway and leaving a boot behind in his rush. Other versions of the legend name the Scottish Giant 'Fingal'. At the Scottish side of the causeway at Staffa there is reference to this in the naming of Fingal's Cave,⁴ although this has also been said to derive its name from Fingal, a legendary 3rd century Scottish king. Lava is molten rock that a volcano expels during an eruption. ... A legend (Latin, legenda, things to be read) is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude. ... Fionn mac Cumhail was a legendary warrior of Irish mythology. ... Scotland (Alba in Scottish Gaelic) is a country in northwest Europe, occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain. ... Fingals Cave around 1900 View from West to East Staffa (Norse for staff, column, or pillar island), an island of the Inner Hebrides in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. ... Entrance to Fingals cave, 2004 Entrance to Fingals cave, 1900 Fingals Cave is a sea-cave on the uninhabited island of Staffa, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. ...

Other examples

Although the basaltic columns of the Giant's Causeway are impressive, they are not truly unique. Similar — if less impressive — structures exist in several parts of the world, including in the Garni gorge in Armenia, the Cyclopean Isles near Sicily, Devils Postpile National Monument in California, Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming, and the "Organ Pipes" formation on Mount Cargill in New Zealand. The Cyclopean Isles, noted for their rows of basaltic columns piled one above another, lie off the eastern coast of Sicily, not far from Mount Etna. ... Sicily (Sicilia in Italian) is an autonomous region of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,700 sq. ... The longer fragments of basalt at the base of the cliff can be larger than a person. ... State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd)  - Land 404,298 km²  - Water 20,047 km² (4. ... Devils Tower is a monolith (more technically, an igneous intrusion) located near Hulett and Sundance in eastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. ... State nickname: Equality State Other U.S. States Capital Cheyenne Largest city Cheyenne Governor Dave Freudenthal (D) Official languages English Area 253,554 km² (10th)  - Land 251,706 km²  - Water 1,851 km² (0. ... Mount Cargill and Buttars Peak seen from above North East Valley, Dunedin Mount Cargill is a 680 metre high volcanic outcrop which dominates the skyline of northern Dunedin, New Zealand. ...

See also

• Geology of the United Kingdom
• UK topics

Geological map of Great Britain. ... Shortcut: UK topics This is a list of topics related to the United Kingdom. ...

External links

• Official Causeway Guide

References

• Note 1: Official Causeway Guide: Geology page
• Note 2: Note 4: Philip S. Watson (2000). The Giant's Causeway. O'Brien: Printing Press. ISBN 0-86278-675-4.
• Note 3: Jagla, E. A., Rojo, A. G. Sequential fragmentation: the origin of columnar quasihexagonal patterns. Physical Review E, 65, 026203, (2002) (webpage)