Funny how I thought all basalt was boring until my road trip!

I always saw basalt as just dark, plain rock by the roadside. Then I learned it forms from lava flows and can have cool columnar joints! Seeing Giant's Causeway pictures blew my mind. Now I notice basalt everywhere and appreciate its volcanic story. Geology is full of surprises like that!

2 comments

2 Comments

samschmidt1d ago

Try reading roadside geology signs, they're mini history lessons.

nathan_brown71d ago

Seriously, those signs leave out the best parts. They tell you how a rock formed but never who dug it up or why. Whole human stories of mining strikes or land grabs are missing. It's geology with the politics scrubbed clean. Like that shale layer didn't just appear, people fought over it. Drives me nuts they call that a history lesson.