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What is so wondrous about basalt?

 

Columnar basalt is among Top 10 Natural Wonders of the World.

These are rocks, formed by lava eruption, which cooled down. The biggest columnar basalt deposits are in Northern Ireland and they are known under the name Giant’s Causeway.

This geological formation is composed of about 40 thousand interconnected basalt columns formed after the ancient volcano eruption.

Most columns in this formation are of hexagonal form, although tetrahedral, pentahedral, heptahedral, and octahedral also occur. The oldest are about 12 m high, and the thickness of hardened lava in some places comes up to 28 m.

In 1986 this territory was proclaimed the object of the UNESCO World heritage, and in 1987 - a National Natural Reserve.

The Giant’s Causeway is the most popular tourist attraction in the Northern Ireland.

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