Where Am I?

[John L]

0

Check yourself, John. Ireland and Scotland have several formations that are famous:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pla...ics#Europe

There doesn't have to be any active, or recently active, volcanic activity to form these formations. It could have happened a billion years ago, or 50 million, what have you.

So this place is on or near an active margin...

Alright, alright, you are correct. Should I slit my wrists? But the answer is still no.

[John L]

0

China?

In a word,.....................no.

[John L]

0

What makes them come out square?

Isn't a square just four sides? I'm afraid to make a bold statement, like I did with Tait, because if wrong, I may have to get out the razor blade.

[Twitchin Kitten]

0

Oh for the love of Pete. Don't tell me you don't know what I mean by "square"!

[John L]

0

Of course I know what you mean. You were talking about a four sided structure that is more or less equal each side. What I was trying to get you to do was to think about your statement and then do some checking up on it.

To the best of my knowledge, I have never seen a four sided basalt column that was a square by nature. All I ever remember is that they were always five sided(pentagon), although I have read somewhere that they can come in six sides(hexagon). So I went and Googled basalt columns and came up with a bunch of photos. You can see them right here. If you look at them from the end, they are five sided, and there is a reason for this. Four sides are not able to interlock to the extent that five, or even six, sided columns can. And since nature tends to take the simplest approach, the five sides are the most common.

And too, there are more than columnar basalt, but running basalt will just flow as a blob, and not be columnar. So they are not square, pentagon, or hexagon in that case.

Here's what I mean:



Or how about this:



For what its worth, I was just trying to get your curiosity juices flowing.

[Twitchin Kitten]

0

Jesus H Christ. Let me rephrase.

I wonder why they always come out with rather straight lines and what appears to be flat sides considering that this was once lava - liquid rock, which you would think would harden quite irregularly.

FYI - when I visited Devils Tower many of the rocks were 4 sided. I'll dig up and scan a picture when I'm at the desk computer tomorrow.

[John L]

0

I'd really be interested in seeing four sided basalt that was natural. This type of basalt is used as paving in places, but it is almost always cut down into four sides since it is harder to get the five sides to match well when trying to lay them side by side in random.

As for why it comes out in stacks, I've always wondered about that too. I'll need to look it up for my knowledge base.

I hope you are not having a bad day Dear.


Oh, aren't you going to ask more questions? I'm eager to turn this over to someone else, and play the game from the other end.

[Gunnen4u]

0

I might say.....central Asia?

[John L]

0

I might say.....central Asia?

Sorry Tait, but no.

[Gunnen4u]

0

Well, is it on Earth?