Basalt columns seen on Porto Santo Island, Portugal

Columnar jointing of volcanic rocks exists in many places on Earth. Perhaps the most famous basalt lava flow in the world is the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, in which the vertical joints form polygonal columns and give the impression of having been artificially constructed.

Notable columnar jointed volcanics

Africa

South Asia

India

See also: National Geological Monuments of India, Menhirs in India, and Vijay Vittala Temple of 56 musical pillars

In India, columnars are found in several places across the volcanic traps such as 6.5 crore or 65 million years ago (Mya) old deccan traps in South India and 14.5 crore or 145 mya old Rajmahal Traps in Eastern India.

Interlocked basaltic columns at the top of Kavadia mountain at Dewas district in India.

West Asia

Armenia
Garni Gorge, Armenia
Turkey
Vertically jointed columnar basalt of Basalt Rocks Natural Monument in Turkey

Middle East

Iran
Syria / Israel (disputed)
Meshushim River, with prominent hexagonal basalt columns

East Asia

Curved columns of rhyolitic tuff at the Hong Kong High Island Reservoir
China
Hong Kong
Taiwan
Japan
Columnar basalts at Cape Stolbchatiy, Kuril Islands, Russia
Mongolia
Russia
South Korea

Southeast Asia

Indonesia
Close up view of stones atop Gunung Padang
Panorama atop Gunung Padang
Malaysia
at Kg Balung Cocos, Tawau, Sabah
Basalt Columns exposed along a river in a remote place in Tawau, Malaysia
Philippines
Thailand
Vietnam
The Cliff of Stone Plates (Gành Đá Đĩa) near Tuy Hòa city, Phú Yên Province, Vietnam
La Concepción, Aculco, México

Central America

El Salvador
Panama
Costa Rica

Europe

Basalt columns in the Rhön, North Bavaria, Germany
Columnar jointing in the basalt of the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland

Faroe Islands

France

Germany

Greenland

Hungary

Iceland

Italy

Portugal

Sardinia

Slovakia

Spain

United Kingdom

Other

Volcanic rock columns, Milos

North America

Columnar jointing in the basalt of the Pain de sucre (sugar loaf) in les Saintes, French West Indies
Columnar basalt at Devil's Postpile in California
Devils Tower, Wyoming
Canada

Caribbean

United States

Basalt columns in the Mascota River, Mexico
Basaltic Prisms of Santa María Regla in Huasca de Ocampo, Hidalgo

Mexico

Oceania

Cape Raoul, Tasmania
Blackhead, Dunedin, New Zealand
Australia
Federated States of Micronesia
New Zealand

South America

Mars

Columnar jointed rocks in unnamed crater wall, Marte Vallis region, Mars. Image courtesy of the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, Arizona State University.

Several exposures of columnar jointing have been discovered on the planet Mars by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, which is carried by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

Uses

A view of Gunung Padang

A likely Hindu-origin ancient site at Gunung Padang in West Java, Indonesia was built by horizontally laying basalt columns to form terraces on the slope of a hill and creating open-roofed chambers by erecting vertical columns. A now-ruined thirteenth-century religious complex called Nan Madol was built using columnar basalt quarried from various locations on the island of Pohnpei in Micronesia.

Gallery

See also

References

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