Dec 18, 2025 · Columnar jointing at the Devil's Post Pile National Monument in California and a miniature display found by David Stone near Healy, Alaska. (Geophysical Institute photograph)

Dec 18, 2025 · Columnar jointing patterns in basalt create displays like the Devil's Post Pile in California (a natural shrinkage phenomenon, and the topic of an earlier column ). Cracked lake beds obviously …

May 18, 1995 · Separate regions within the columnar, anvil-topped cloud, now called a cumulonimbus, contain opposite electrical charges. Scientists theorize these charges may be formed when …

Dec 18, 2025 · In this case, the features are caused by light refracted through columnar crystals that are falling with their long dimensions in the horizontal plane. Sometimes conditions are such that only a …

Oct 30, 2025 · If the air is extremely wet and just a few degrees below freezing, only needles and columnar snow crystals form. Six-sided plate crystals grow if the temperature is somewhat colder …