GeoLog

Giants Causeway

Imaggeo on Mondays: Sunset on the Giant’s Causeway

January 14, 2019
Imaggeo on Mondays: Sunset on the Giant’s Causeway
Sunset on The Giant's Causeway. Credit: Osip Kokin (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Pictured here is the Giant’s Causeway – a region of basalt columns, created 50-60 million years ago during the Paleogene. The typical polygonal form of the bedrocks, a product of active volcanic processes from the past, is well underlined by the sunset’s light; that’s why I took the photo in the late evening. The separate cracks are extended by weathering over time and are filled eluvi ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Giants Causeway

November 30, 2015
Imaggeo on Mondays: Giants Causeway
Giants Causeway. Credit: Bernhard Aichner (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Since its discovery back in the late 1600s the origin of the spectacular polygonal columns of the Giants Causeway, located on a headland along the northern coast of Ireland, has been heavily debated. Early theories for its origin ranged from being sculpted by men with picks and chisels, to the action of giants, through to the force of nature. It wasn’t until 1771 that Demarest, a Frenchman, sugges ...[Read More]