Iceland:
Did you know that there is a country where you can find a beautiful rock in the shape of an elephant? Aptly named Elephant Rock, it looks almost exactly like the head of a large elephant sticking its trunk in the water.
Amazing, right?
Do you know where we need to travel in order to see this rock?
It is indeed Iceland. A bit more about it:
Iceland is a land of volcanoes. Nowhere is this more evident than on the Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands), an archipelago off the southern coast of Iceland. Here, centuries of volcanic eruptions formed sea cliffs that appear almost fairy-tale-like.
Among these eye-catching formations, one stands out: A portion of the volcano-formed coast on Heimaey (which means “Home Island”) looks almost exactly like the head of a large elephant sticking its trunk in the water.
The rock is elephantine enough that some people think that it must have been shaped with human intervention. That is not the case, however. The elephant’s realistic appearance is, at least partially, due to the fact that the cliff consists of basalt rock. The rock gives the figure “skin” that looks wrinkled and grayish, just like a real elephant.
The most common hypothesis is that the elephant and other rock formations on Heimaey came from the Eldfell Volcano, which has erupted many times and continues to be active in the modern era. In 1973, an eruption caused significant damage to the island, and the harbour area was only saved by a dramatic cooling operation that solidified the advancing lava with ocean water before it reached the coast.
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