Geology Project 002 - Cappadocia Fairy Chimneys
Millions of years ago in the high plateau of Central Anatolia in Turkey a chain of volcanos erupted and rained ash across what would eventually become Turkey. The ash hardened into “tuff”, a porous rock. The tuff was subsequently covered by a layer of harder basaltic magma.
As millennia passed, cracks opened on the basaltic surface, allowing the forces of water and wind erosion to act on the softer tuff sub-layers. This erosion process progressed until all that was left in many areas were pillars of tuff capped with a “cap” of harder basaltic rock. The harder basalt eroded more slowly, forming a protective, mushroom-shaped cap over each tower.
Eventually the pillars, or “chimneys”, will collapse and the caps will fall to the ground until they too erode away.
Geology Project 002 - Cappadocia Fairy Chimneys
Millions of years ago in the high plateau of Central Anatolia in Turkey a chain of volcanos erupted and rained ash across what would eventually become Turkey. The ash hardened into “tuff”, a porous rock. The tuff was subsequently covered by a layer of harder basaltic magma.
As millennia passed, cracks opened on the basaltic surface, allowing the forces of water and wind erosion to act on the softer tuff sub-layers. This erosion process progressed until all that was left in many areas were pillars of tuff capped with a “cap” of harder basaltic rock. The harder basalt eroded more slowly, forming a protective, mushroom-shaped cap over each tower.
Eventually the pillars, or “chimneys”, will collapse and the caps will fall to the ground until they too erode away.