lava: Devils Postpile, columns of basalt formed by a lava flow
Towering columns of basalt, an igneous rock, make up the unusual formation known as the Devils Postpile, part of a national monument in east-central California. It formed within the last 100,000 years, when a lava flow filled a valley floor and then very slowly cooled and cracked into many-sided columns. Glaciers later eroded most of the hardened lava, revealing the sides of the remaining columns.
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