Basalt Columns

Basalt Columns

Scientists believe that 600 million years ago these rocks were formed by the creative turbulence of a bygone volcanic age; however there is no doubt your imagination may travel along incredibly beautiful stepping stones that lead into the hazes and myths of the past. This place is the only site of its kind in Ukraine. This monument proves that nature is an unsurpassed master architect. It offered us a unique structure of basalt polyhedron columns, lined with slender rows and striking with its monumentality and slender geometric shapes. However, to ensure that the viewer does not get tired of the uniformity of forms, the nature presented us with an unsurpassed sculpture of a basalt fan. You should also remember that all this beauty is in the frame of the philosophical calmness of crystal water. It is located in Kostopil Raion (district) of Rivne Oblast (region), near the villages of Basalt, Berestovets, New Berestovets on the basis of Ivano-Dolynskyi basalt deposit, which has conservation status since 1972 and is managed by PJSC "Ivano-Dolynskyi spetskar'ier". The total area is 0.8 hectares.

Basalt columns are a type of basalt that has a cross-sectional shape from four-sided to seven-sided. The thickness of the columns varies from 0.6 to 1.2 m. Predominantly they have a thickness of 0.8-1.0 m. Height varies from 3 to 30 m. The columns have the ability to stay straight even when they are split.

The reserve is complex: stratigraphic, petrographic, mineralogical, paleovolcanic, located on the western slope of the Ukrainian Crystal Shield. The total length of basalt outcrops within the reserve is 180-230 m. Also on the territory of the reserve there are minerals: adular, chlorite, janite, quartz, chalcedony, calcite, barite, hematite, pyrite, marcasite, psilomelan, bornite, azurite, native copper.