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Everything changes... This may be one of the hardest lessons of life for beings who, by nature, resist change. In the virtual world, where people, places and things come and go in the blink of an eye, permanence truly is a fleeting concept.
The mighty light at Black Basalt Beach shines no more. For more than three years it stood tall as the distinctive landmark of one of Second Life's most beautiful and best loved places. Gone but not forgotten, the lost sims of SL live on in our hearts and minds. Like all things wonderful, the impact these places had on us becomes part of who we are. Few places in the virtual world have had as big an impact on as many residents as Black Basalt, and for this we should all be grateful and strive to carry this tradition forward, for it is what makes Second Life truly unique and special.
Thank you Rose, for the things you do in all the wonderful ways you do. ♥
Black Basalt Beach closes tomorrow October 16th .
There is a time in life that change can be good ...it can open new doors all you have to do is take a step forward.
Last day: Black Basalt Beach
Jökulsárgljúfur river canyon in Central-North Iceland is a magnificent example of the raw creatve powers of our planet. The entire canyon displays the most stunning structures of columnar basalt at an incredible expense of landscape. It was created by the joint work of Earth folding up an entiremountain range and the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river grinding its path through it. At one ramification of this canyon there is Dettifoss, supposedly Europe's most powerful waterfall and at another end is Selfoss, another superb example of Icelandic waterfalls.
Santiago Island has the biggest and longest lava flow, which is located in Sullivan Bay. Geologically speaking, this island is one of the most beautiful and unbelievable formations. The vast basaltic landscape performs smooth and unbroken surfaces with undulations and nods formed by the fluid lava that created the sculpture. It is located on the central west of the archipelago and is formed by two overlapping volcanoes. It is the 4th biggest of the Galapagos archipelago.
Basalt is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of all volcanic rock on Earth is basalt. Rapid-cooling, fine-grained basalt is chemically equivalent to slow-cooling, coarse-grained gabbro. The eruption of basalt lava is observed by geologists at about 20 volcanoes per year. Basalt is also an important rock type on other planetary bodies in the Solar System. For example, the bulk of the plains of Venus, which cover ~80% of the surface, are basaltic; the lunar maria are plains of flood-basaltic lava flows; and basalt is a common rock on the surface of Mars.
Molten basalt lava has a low viscosity due to its relatively low silica content (between 45% and 52%), resulting in rapidly moving lava flows that can spread over great areas before cooling and solidifying. Flood basalts are thick sequences of many such flows that can cover hundreds of thousands of square kilometres and constitute the most voluminous of all volcanic formations.
Basaltic magmas within Earth are thought to originate from the upper mantle. The chemistry of basalts thus provides clues to processes deep in Earth's interio.
The folklore explanation of Hvítserkur aside, the scientific community has another explanation for how Hvítserkur was formed. Erosion from the cascading sea water has carved three large holes through the basalt rock, sculpting and shaping it into what appears as some petrified, mythological animal.
The base of the stack has been reinforced with concrete to protect its foundations from the sea, but this has not stopped visitors interpreting the rock’s peculiar shape to suit their imagination.
Hvítserkur takes its name from the birdlife that nests on top of it. In Icelandic, the name translates to “white shirt”, a nod to the colour of the bird droppings that cover the rock.
The Giants causeway in County Antrim on the North coast of N.Ireland is a spectacular sight to behold always amazed to see it every time I go up to this World Heritage Site
Columnar Basalt is the result of cooling and cracking of an unusually thick basaltic lava flow.
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God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.
(Psalm 46:1-2)
A short walk from the coffee shop takes you to this view. Our city is built on an extinct volcano and in places the old lava flows are revealed. The rock is hard and the sea has taken millions of years to make two small caves.
Located on the Snaefellsnes peninsula, the small hamlet of Arnarstapi is the gateway to the magnificent Snaefellsnesjökull National Park. It's also an ideal place to watch the thousands of birds that live and nest on the impressive coastal cliffs that make up one of Iceland's most beautiful landscapes.
Basalt formations near Mt. Baker. This was taken with a 25 second exposure by the light of the moon. Finding the right focus was a challenge. There was not enough light for autofocus and not enough light for me to see clearly for manual focus. I shot a dozen and hoped for the best. The rest were deleted due to the focus issue.
In the morning before we drove to Dyrholaey, where we photographed some puffins like the one in my last upload, we wanted to visit the famous black sand beach Reynisfjara with its famous sea stacks and basalt columns. Originally, we thought about getting there to sunrise, but being a bit worn out from our rush through all the sights in the south the previous days, we woke up a little late and decided to have some breakfast since we already missed the sunrise. However, we didn’t want to leave too late as we knew that busses full of people would probably arrive there soon. So we drove to the black sand beach our navigation system suggested, but this was the beach in Vík from which one can also see the famous sea stacks, but not the basalt columns we wanted to photograph, which were a 15-minute drive away around the corner of the huge cliff.
Fortunately, when we arrived at the Reynisfjara parking lot, we were early enough to find a parking spot right away, but there were already quite a few people there (and the buses arrived half an hour later). We first took some images of the famous basalt columns, including some pictures with ourselves in the frame to show the scale, and then walked along the beach towards the famous sea stacks. I really wanted to take some of the classic pictures, but the weather was once again - untypical for Iceland - beautiful with blue skies and harsh sunlight. So we continued our walk and noticed a large basalt column rock formation in front of the cliff. Most of the people were taking pictures of the beach or the cave, but we were both so fascinated by these basalt columns that we spent most of our time trying to find appealing compositions of these rock formations. This image turned out to be one of my favorites because it is very simple, has some nice textures that go pretty well with the dark editing I applied. Funnily enough, not too long ago we watched a video of Micheal Shainblum, who was also recently in Iceland, and it turns out that he shot quite a few images of exactly the same rock formation we also photographed. Even though I’m no Michael Shainblum, I really hope that you like my attempt at capturing this amazing rock formations! :)
Thank you in advance for your interest and comments on my photos. That is much appreciated.
Please view at the full size of 1600. It's also more pleasure for you.
(I hope so)
The Cuillin is a range of rocky mountains located on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The main Cuillin ridge is also known as the Black Cuillin to distinguish it from the Red Cuillin, which lie to the east of Glen Sligachan. The peaks of the Black Cuillin are mainly composed of gabbro, a very rough igneous rock which provides a superb grip for mountaineers; and basalt, which can be very slippery when wet.
Pāhoehoe (on the left) is basaltic lava that has a smooth, billowy, undulating, or ropy surface. These surface features are due to the movement of very fluid lava under a congealing surface crust.
ʻAʻā (on the right) is basaltic lava characterized by a rough or rubbly surface composed of broken lava blocks called clinker. The clinkery surface actually covers a massive dense core, which is the most active part of the flow. As pasty lava in the core travels downslope, the clinkers are carried along at the surface.
The Hawaiian words were introduced as technical terms in geology by Clarence Dutton, who was head of the division of volcanic geology at the United States Geological Survey in the 1880's.
I can confirm from personal experience that it is quite easy to walk on pāhoehoe, but the loose, broken, and sharp, spiny surface of an ʻaʻā flow makes hiking difficult, slow and very hard on both feet and shoes.
I hope your week ahead has more pāhoehoe than ʻaʻā. Thanks, as always, for stopping by and for all of your kind comments -- I appreciate them all.
© Melissa Post 2015
All rights reserved. Please respect my copyright and do not copy, modify or download this image to blogs or other websites without obtaining my explicit written permission.
Steps from basalt chunks (here a field stone) over crushed stone and gravel to basalt powder. Paving stones are laid on gravel, then fine gravel and the joints are filled with the finest grade of basalt flour.
At 2500 km², the Vogelsberg is the largest contiguous volcanic area in Central Europe. There are large basalt quarries here.
Stufen vom Basaltbrocken (hier ein Ackerstein) über Schotter und Kies bis zum Basaltmehl. Pflastersteine werden auf Schotter, dann feinem Kies verlegt und die Fugen werden mit der feinsten Stufe dem Basaltmehl verfüllt.
Der Vogelsberg ist mit 2500 km² das größte zusammenhängende Vulkangebiet Mitteleuropas. Es gibt hier große Basaltsteinbrüche.
Over a period of 20 million years, giant fissures would split open the earth in eastern Washington, time after time spewing molten lava over tens of thousands of square miles, creating multiple layers of now dried and cracked basalt rock. So many layers that, in some places, there are over 10,000 feet of them. Each layer is about 75 to 100 feet thick, a few of which can be seen above near the Potholes Reservoir. These lava beds extend over eastern Washington between 3 rivers, the Spokane, Columbia and the Snake, and into parts of Idaho and Oregon. Then, about 10,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, huge lakes of melt water were dammed up by arms of a glacier, which eventually melted, and this huge amount of water roared over the basalt beds, carving, tearing and gouging as it went, creating the Channeled Scablands visible today. The geology of eastern Washington is unique and well worth studying, and even better, visiting in person!