geologise:

Extreme Geology: The Giant’s Causeway, Ireland and Staffa, Scotland
→ Credit for photos: one, two, and three.

These amazing basalt columns cane be found on Staffa, Scotland, and Giant’s Causeway in Nothern Ireland. These geological structures formed from volcanic activity over 50 mya where the slow cooling of basalt creates the hexagonal columns you see today. The process which creates such stunning hexagonal columns is called “columnar jointing”; a process where the basalt rapidly cools from the outside towards the centre, causing it to contract and form these structures.

(via fuckyeahvolcanoes)