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The Giant's Causeway (Irish: Clochán an Aifir) [1] is an area of approximately 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. [3] [4] It is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (4.8 km) northeast of the town of Bushmills.
Columnar jointing in Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland Columnar jointing in the Alcantara Gorge, Sicily. Columnar jointing is a geological structure where sets of intersecting closely spaced fractures, referred to as joints, result in the formation of a regular array of polygonal prisms (basalt prisms), or columns.
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.
An area of particular note is the Giant's Causeway on the north coast, a mainly basalt formation caused by volcanic activity between 50 and 60 million years ago. [21] The basalts were originally part of the great Thulean Plateau formed during the Paleogene period. [22]
The interlocking basalt columns on the north-east side of Fingal Head were called the "Giants Causeway", named after the famous Giants Causeway between Northern Ireland and Western Scotland. The Fingal Caves located on the south side of Fingal Head, were destroyed and used in the early 1900s for the Tweed Break water.
Similar formations are found at the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, on the island of Ulva and at Ardmeanach on the Isle of Mull. [8] Grooves in the roof of MacKinnon's cave indicate either a pyroclastic flow or a series of eroded ash falls in the rock above the columnar basalt. [ 12 ]
Artist Matthew Barney used the cave along with the Giant's Causeway for the opening and closing scenes of his art film, Cremaster 3. In 2008, the video artist Richard Ashrowan spent several days recording the interior of Fingal's Cave for an exhibition at the Foksal Gallery in Poland. [15] One of Pink Floyd's early songs bears this location's name.
The major eruptions at this time produced the Antrim Plateau, the basaltic columns of the Giant's Causeway and the lavas and igneous intrusions of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. An early phase of the Alpine Orogeny , about 50 Ma, was responsible for the shaping of the London Basin syncline , the Weald-Artois Anticline to the south, the North ...