The Giant’s Causeway, Ireland
A Giant’s Stepping Stones
T e ground cracks open. Clouds of hot gases and steam billow into the sky. Sizzling hot lava spills out of these giant cracks. It oozes across the ground. T e lava covers everything in its path.
Nothing is safe. T ick forests burst into f lames. Streams and ponds boil. Animals flee. Yet the lava keeps coming. Eruption aſt er
eruption, it fills a river valley. T is low area of land tucked between hills is like a big bowl. Soon, it holds a lake of hot, molten rock that’s 90 meters (295 feet) deep. T e lake is so deep that the lava cools very
slowly. As it cools, it turns into rock. It also contracts, or shrinks. T en, crack! Small cracks appear in the rock. T ey form
shapes. Many have six sides like a hexagon. Soon the rock looks like a huge honeycomb. Many cracks are deep. T ey stretch all the way to the buried river valley. T ey form giant columns of rock.
12 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER Over the years, more lava bubbles up. It
covers the land. So does dirt and grass. T ey bury the columns, hiding them for millions of years. High above them, the surface of the land keeps changing, too. T e sea rises. It floods the land. Sea levels
drop. As the water goes out, it tugs at the land. Waves pound it. Winds blast it. Over time, these powerful forces wear away the land. Bit by bit, the cracked lava rock reappears.
T e columns aren’t all the same height any more. Some look like giant stepping stones. Today, 40,000 of these rocks stretch to the sea, forming the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland. Other columns form a cliff . T ey’re called T e Organ. T ey look like pipes of a huge organ. Lava doesn’t erupt here any more. Waves
and wind still beat this place, though. T e tough rock slowly wears away. Someday, like the land that once covered it, the columns will crumble. Giant’s Causeway will disappear.
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