Coastal view at Reynishverfi, near Gardar, Southern Iceland, of black sands, basalt columns and the sea stacks at Reynisdrangur
Black basalt weathers into a pebbly, black sand which is piled into s steep beach by Atlantic breakers. Impressive basalt columns are present in the cliffs at the beach head. As hot, basalt lava cools it cracks and fractures, the joints or cooling cracks thus formed being at right angles to the cooling surface. Joints, giving rise columnar basalt, form best in stagnant lava or (as here) in a sill or sheet of hot glowing basalt injected into the overlying rocks. The spiky, black basalt sea stacks at Reynisdrangur, further along the coast, have been detached from the cliffs by marine erosional processes (the end product of caves eroding through the sides of a headland and arch roofs collapsing), although folklore sees them as two trolls, caught by the morning sun, while pulling a ship ashore.
Size: 5833px × 3771px
Location: Wild Section of Coast, Reynishverfi, Gardar, Myrdalur, Southern Iceland
Photo credit: © robert harrison / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: -sided, basalt, beach, black, blue, bright, cliffs, coastal, columnar, columns, cooling, day, erosional, geography, geology, hexagonal, iceland, impressive, jointing, joints, marine, nature, processes, rocks, sand, scenery, sea, sky, stack, stacks, tourism, travel, vertical, view, vulcanism
