View allAll Photos Tagged BasaltColumns
Glass windows in Reykjaviks Harpa concert hall. Inspired by the geological basalt columns commonly seen around Iceland.
UNESCO World Heritage Site seen on a rather vicious day. There are said to be approx. 40,000 interlocking basalt columns here, but my guess is that many are hidden within the cliffs.
It is of course linked the the legend of Fionn mac Cumhaill, and Fingal's Cave on Staffa in Scotland, but I won't explore the feasibility here.
I suspect it is also the site of many accidents, with people climbing all over it in wet and slippery conditions. Basalt is not a soft landing.
14Apr2026
Kirkjugolfid, The Church Floor; east of Kirkjubaejarklaustur village, Iceland
The basalt columns were formed when lava cooled and contracted, cracking the rock. When this happened, the lava broke apart evenly, creating the distinctive hexagonal shape.
After all the tourists from the bus tour left, it cleared up. On the right-hand side of the cave-like formation is the basalt columns that Reynisdrangar is famous for. I wasn't able to get a better picture of the basalt columns due to the high tide.
The beach at Vik was chosen by a magazine as one of the ten most beautiful beaches in the world. And also he is the only one of the top ten which is not near the equator. No wonder: - The black endless lava beach - The Reynisfjall (In the photo to see in the foreground) with its regular six-sided basalt columns - On the one hand, the Reynisdrangar (In the background of the image), pinnacles that rise from the water - On the other hand Dyrholaey, a silted island with a stone bridge - And if you're lucky, puffins, which nest on the cliffs.
Iceland Holiday Day Seven (Reyinsfjara, nr Vik, South Iceland) Just outside Vik was another black sand beach, and even more basalt columns, as well as a nice cave which you can't see in this picture.
The entrance to Fingals Cave is a wonder, with its many basalt columns and rocks, formed 50M years ago. The gave was made famous by Felix Mendelssohn when he titled the Overture to his Hebrides score by the same name after his visit there.
UNESCO World Heritage Site seen on a rather vicious day. There are said to be approx. 40,000 interlocking basalt columns here, but my guess is that many are hidden within the cliffs.
It is of course linked the the legend of Fionn mac Cumhaill, and Fingal's Cave on Staffa in Scotland, but I won't explore the feasibility here.
I suspect it is also the site of many accidents, with people climbing all over it in wet and slippery conditions. Basalt is not a soft landing.
14Apr2026
Snowy Footprints along Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach, with Dyrholaey natural arch distant, in Iceland [No model releases; available for editorial licensing only]
Remains of the “Hara Foga” (Upper Village), the Ottoman settlement that grew up amongst the Roman ruins of the Decapolis city of Gadara, in Umm Qais, northern Jordan, with the black basalt columns of the 5th/6th century Byzantine church at the Basilica terrace and the Sea of Galilee at the background.
We had a perfect day for this trip - although it looked like it was going to rain in the morning it didn't and cleared up to be a gorgeous sunny day. We got sunburnt as we didn't take the suncream with us!
I really didn’t get to explore and photograph the basalt as much as I would have liked because the skua kept attacking me with a vengeance. I covered my head with my fleece jacket and cursed myself for leaving my umbrella in the car. They sliced across my head more times than I can count but as far as I can tell, they didn’t actually cut me open. It hurt, though, and it was unnerving, so I finally yelled, “Okay, okay! I’m leaving! Jesus Christ!” and stomped back to the car.
Basalt is een stollingsgesteente, ontstaan toen gedurende een vulkanische uitbarsting lava naar buiten trad. Tijdens de snelle afkoeling aan het aardoppervlak splijt basalt vaak in veelhoekige zuilen. Inmiddels heeft de branding een deel van de kust weg geslagen waardoor er natuurlijke basalt bruggen ontstonden.
UNESCO World Heritage Site seen on a rather vicious day. There are said to be approx. 40,000 interlocking basalt columns here, but my guess is that many are hidden within the cliffs.
It is of course linked the the legend of Fionn mac Cumhaill, and Fingal's Cave on Staffa in Scotland, but I won't explore the feasibility here.
I suspect it is also the site of many accidents, with people climbing all over it in wet and slippery conditions. Basalt is not a soft landing.
14Apr2026
This is a basalt column cliff that I would have loved to have explored in depth. However, skua began attacking me and, coupled with the rain and my looming ferry departure time, I wasn't able to stay here very long.
Grímsey, the "Pearl of the Arctic Circle," is home to only 100 people--and more than one million seabirds.
The Giant's Causeway (known as Clochán an Aifir or Clochán na bhFomhórach in Irish and tha Giant's Causey in Ulster-Scots) is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption.
It is located in County Antrim on the northeast coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (4.8 km) northeast of the town of Bushmills.
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.
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, although there are also some with four, five, seven or eight sides. The tallest are about 12 metres (39 ft) high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 metres (92 ft) thick in places.
Much of the Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast World Heritage Site is today owned and managed by the National Trust and it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Northern Ireland.
Around 50 to 60 million years ago, during the Paleogene Period, Antrim was subject to intense volcanic activity, when highly fluid molten basalt intruded through chalk beds to form an extensive lava plateau. As the lava cooled, contraction occurred. Horizontal contraction fractured in a similar way to drying mud, with the cracks propagating down as the mass cooled, leaving pillar-like structures, which are also fractured horizontally into "biscuits". In many cases the horizontal fracture has resulted in a bottom face that is convex while the upper face of the lower segment is concave, producing what are called "ball and socket" joints. The size of the columns is primarily determined by the speed at which lava from a volcanic eruption cools.
The extensive fracture network produced the distinctive columns seen today. The basalts were originally part of a great volcanic plateau called the Thulean Plateau which formed during the Paleogene.
According to legend, the columns are the remains of a causeway built by a giant.
The story goes that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool), from the Fenian Cycle of Gaelic mythology, was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. Fionn accepted the challenge and built the causeway across the North Channel so that the two giants could meet. In one version of the story, Fionn defeats Benandonner. In another, Fionn hides from Benandonner when he realises that his foe is much bigger than he. Fionn's wife, Oonagh, disguises Fionn as a baby and tucks him in a cradle. When Benandonner sees the size of the 'baby', he reckons that its father, Fionn, must be a giant among giants. He flees back to Scotland in fright, destroying the causeway behind him so that Fionn could not follow.
Across the sea, there are identical basalt columns (a part of the same ancient lava flow) at Fingal's Cave on the Scottish isle of Staffa, and it is possible that the story was influenced by this.
The Giant's Causeway (known as Clochán an Aifir or Clochán na bhFomhórach in Irish and tha Giant's Causey in Ulster-Scots) is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption.
It is located in County Antrim on the northeast coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (4.8 km) northeast of the town of Bushmills.
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.
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, although there are also some with four, five, seven or eight sides. The tallest are about 12 metres (39 ft) high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 metres (92 ft) thick in places.
Much of the Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast World Heritage Site is today owned and managed by the National Trust and it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Northern Ireland.
Around 50 to 60 million years ago, during the Paleogene Period, Antrim was subject to intense volcanic activity, when highly fluid molten basalt intruded through chalk beds to form an extensive lava plateau. As the lava cooled, contraction occurred. Horizontal contraction fractured in a similar way to drying mud, with the cracks propagating down as the mass cooled, leaving pillar-like structures, which are also fractured horizontally into "biscuits". In many cases the horizontal fracture has resulted in a bottom face that is convex while the upper face of the lower segment is concave, producing what are called "ball and socket" joints. The size of the columns is primarily determined by the speed at which lava from a volcanic eruption cools.
The extensive fracture network produced the distinctive columns seen today. The basalts were originally part of a great volcanic plateau called the Thulean Plateau which formed during the Paleogene.
According to legend, the columns are the remains of a causeway built by a giant.
The story goes that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool), from the Fenian Cycle of Gaelic mythology, was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. Fionn accepted the challenge and built the causeway across the North Channel so that the two giants could meet. In one version of the story, Fionn defeats Benandonner. In another, Fionn hides from Benandonner when he realises that his foe is much bigger than he. Fionn's wife, Oonagh, disguises Fionn as a baby and tucks him in a cradle. When Benandonner sees the size of the 'baby', he reckons that its father, Fionn, must be a giant among giants. He flees back to Scotland in fright, destroying the causeway behind him so that Fionn could not follow.
Across the sea, there are identical basalt columns (a part of the same ancient lava flow) at Fingal's Cave on the Scottish isle of Staffa, and it is possible that the story was influenced by this.