Giant's Causeway
| Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast | |
|---|---|
UNESCO world heritage 
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| Giant's Causeway |
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| National territory: |
 United Kingdom
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| Type: | nature |
| Criteria : | (vii) (viii) |
| Surface: | 239 ha |
| Reference No .: | 369 |
| UNESCO region : | Europe and North America |
| History of enrollment | |
| Enrollment: | 1986 (session 10) |
The Giant's Causeway ( English for 'dam of the giant', Irish Clochán an Aifir or Clochán na bhFómharach ) is located on the northern coast of Antrim County in Northern Ireland , east of the small town of Bushmills about 80 km from Belfast .
The Giant's Causeway has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986 . It consists of about 40,000 evenly shaped basalt columns , the age of which is about 60 million years. About half of the columns have a hexagonal cross-section, but there are also those with four, five, seven or eight corners. The largest of the stone pillars are twelve meters high. The rock layer is up to 25 m thick. The Giant's Causeway runs about five kilometers along the cliffs and ends in the sea, from which it reappears on the Scottish coast as Fingal's Cave - according to the old legend of Fionn mac Cumhaill . Geologists attribute the formation of the basalt dam to the cooling of hot lava . Formations of vertical basalt columns can arise when the lava cools down very slowly and evenly. The pillar structure is formed from stress cracks that slowly run into the material. These are caused by the cooling and shrinking of the material and spread perpendicular to the cooling surface. The volcano , the lava of which led to the formation of the Giant's Causeway , has now been eroded away.
Legend
According to an Irish legend , the dam was built by the giant Fionn McCumhaill (also Finn McCool or Finn McCumhail). It is said that one day Fionn was so insulted by his Scottish adversary Benandonner that he decided to build this dam to defeat Benandonner in a duel. He tore huge rocks from the cliffs of the coast and thrust them into the sea to build a safe route to Scotland. When he finished building, he challenged Benandonner to battle. In order not to lose his reputation, he had no choice but to accept the challenge, and so he set off for Ireland. Meanwhile, Fionn, tired and exhausted from the work on the dam, was looking for a way out of how he could relax before meeting the Scottish giant. He then disguised himself as a baby and waited with his wife for the arrival of Benandonners. When he appeared, Fionn's wife assured him that he was not there at the moment. At the same time she invited him for tea and promised that Fionn would be back soon. When Benandonner saw the alleged baby while waiting, he pale at the thought that given the size of the child, the father must be gigantic. Fear seized him and he ran back over the dam to Scotland, destroying it behind him.
- Overview
The first impression
When approaching
Up close
In between is a washed-out rock
The lava field from the other side
The way back to the Visitor Center
Giant's Causeway from above
literature
- EA Jagla, AG Rojo: Sequential fragmentation: The origin of columnar quasihexagonal patterns. In: Physical Review E. Vol. 65, No. 2, 026203, 7 S., 2002, doi : 10.1103 / PhysRevE.65.026203 .
Web links
- Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast - entry in the list of UNESCO and report of the commission (English; PDF; 40.5 kB)
- irish-net.de: Giant's Causeway - The Giant's Dam
- ireland.com: The story of a giant
Individual evidence
- ^ L. Goehring and S. Morris: Order and disorder in columnar joints. Europhys. Lett. 69, pp. 739-745, 2005, doi: 10.1209 / epl / i2004-10408-x .
- ↑ The Legend of the Giant Finn MacCool.
Heritage: Durham Castle and Durham Cathedral (1986) | Ironbridge Gorgewith The Iron Bridge (1986) | Studley Royal Park with the ruins of Fountains Abbey (1986) | Stonehenge, Avebury, and Associated Monuments of Megalithic Culture (1986) | King Edward's castles and city walls in Gwynedd (1986) | Blenheim Palace (1987) | Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey with St Margaret's Church (1987) | Downtown Bath (1987) | Borders of the Roman Empire : Hadrian's Wall (1987) and Antonine Wall (2008) | Tower of London (1988) | Cathedral , St Augustine's Abbey and St Martin's Church in Canterbury (1988) | Edinburgh Old and New Town (1995) | Maritime Greenwich (1997) | The Heart of Neolithic Orkney (1999) | Old town of Saint George's (Bermuda) with fortifications (2000) | Blaenavon industrial landscape (2000) | New Lanark Industrial Model Estate (2001) | Saltaire industrial village (2001) | Derwent Valley Mills (2001) | Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew (2003) | Liverpool - Maritime Trade City (2004, R ) | Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape (2006) | Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal (2009) | Forth Bridge (2015) | Gorham Cave (2016) | Lake District (2017) | Jodrell Bank Radio Observatory (2019)
Natural Heritage: Giant's Causeway and Coast (1986) | Henderson (Pitcairn Islands) (1988) | Gough Island and Inaccessible (1995) | Dorset and East Devon Coast (2001)
Cultural / Natural Heritage: St. Kilda (Scotland) (1986)
Coordinates: 55 ° 14 ′ 26.9 " N , 6 ° 30 ′ 42.1" W.