Reynisfjara Basalt Columns

The Reynisfjara basalt columns form the cliffs of Reynisfjall backing a black volcanic sand beach near the village of Vik i Myrdal on Iceland's south coast. Like the columns at Svartifoss and the Giant's Causeway, they formed as a thick lava flow cooled and contracted, cracking into a dense array of predominantly hexagonal basalt columns, here exposed vertically along the cliff face by later coastal erosion. Just offshore, the jagged sea stacks known as Reynisdrangar rise from the water, formed of the same basaltic rock and, in Icelandic folklore, said to be trolls caught by sunlight and turned to stone; the beach is also known for dangerous, unpredictable "sneaker waves" driven by the open North Atlantic swell.