At some point in time, basalt looked at itself in the mirror and realized that if it ever wanted to be noticed by the cool kids in nature (us), it would have to step up its game. And so, much like the unpopular girl who is secretly gorgeous when she takes her glasses off, basalt showed the world what it was capable of—by arranging itself into columns.
Admittedly, on the surface this doesn’t seem all that impressive—columns aren’t traditionally very exciting—but when put together into a sprawling honeycomb, this type of basalt is a sight to behold. The unique formations are a result of lava flows cracking as they cool, in a perpendicular direction to the original flow. Columnar basalt clusters can be found all over the world—and then, naturally, climbed.
