Scientists have established the true origin of the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. Instead of a legendary battle of giants, as Irish folklore suggests, the unique basalt columns were formed as a result of powerful volcanic activity that occurred about 60 million years ago. This was reported by The Guardian, according to UNN.
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As the publication notes, for centuries this story has been passed down from generation to generation: how the Irish giant Finn McCool built the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland to fight his Scottish rival Benandonner, hurling pieces of the Antrim coast into the sea.
Now scientists have established that the formation of this coastline was the result of intense volcanic activity during a "major globally influential volcanic event," rather than a legendary battle between two destructive giants. It was this event that led to the appearance of approximately 40,000 characteristic interlocking basalt columns about 60 million years ago.
Geochronologists investigating the origin of the Giant's Causeway found that its formation lasted 5.5 million years—8 million years less than previously thought.
They also established that the processes that shaped the Giant's Causeway were linked to a globally significant volcanic event, traces of which are recorded in rocks as far away as Greenland.
The basalt columns of the Giant's Causeway are a UNESCO World Heritage site.
For the first time, scientists have been able to definitively link the first lava flows on the Northern Irish plateau to the same volcanic activity that formed the giant basalt columns in Fingal's Cave on the Scottish island of Staffa—rocks previously thought to have formed millions of years after the Giant's Causeway.
Rock formations in the neighboring Mourne Mountains, as well as on the Hebridean island of Rum and magmatic activity on the Isle of Skye, are also linked to this volcanic event. This allows for a more precise determination of the geological context of the Giant's Causeway's formation for the first time and creates a new timeline of volcanic activity in Northern Ireland.
Dr. Simon Tapster, a geochronologist at the British Geological Survey (BGS), said: "Essentially, we have pieced together the jigsaw of volcanic rocks across the North Atlantic, focusing on Northern Ireland, and have been able to reassess a massive globally influential volcanic event."
"As a result of revising the timeframe, we have shown that it lasted for a significantly shorter period."
The Giant's Causeway is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is considered one of the greatest natural landmarks in the United Kingdom. According to Irish folklore, Finn McCool created it to cross to Scotland and challenge Benandonner, who was threatening his land, but retreated back to Ireland when he saw that his rival was a much larger and stronger giant.
The legend also tells that Finn's wife, Oonagh, saved the day by dressing him up as a giant baby. Seeing the 'father of such a child,' Benandonner was terrified and fled back to Scotland, destroying the bridge during his escape.
While tourists may prefer the legend, scientists have proven that the Giant's Causeway was formed when thick flows of molten rock rose through cracks in the Earth's crust. As the lava cooled, stresses occurred that caused the rock to crack into predominantly hexagonal columns, although four-, five-, seven-, and polygonal shapes also occur.
Tapster's research is part of a broader BGS initiative to better understand the geology of the UK through more precise determination of geological time in rocks.
He added: "By analyzing the timeframe and high-precision chronology, we can correlate them with other locations, including the Inner Hebrides in Scotland—Mull, Rum, Skye—as well as in the broader context of Greenland and the Faroe Islands."
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