This, however, is dwarfed by the Siberian Traps which are estimated to have erupted enough lava to cover nearly 37 million square miles of land and is being put forward as the main cause of the demise of the dinosaurs. These types of flood plains are found all over the world, though in smaller quantities.
Basalt also forms in dikes, sills, and columns that have proven to be quite a puzzle to early geologists. In Ireland lies a formation called the "Giant's Causeway" that is made of basalt columns that have cooled and begun to shrink, forming long columns of rock that look like different geometric shapes from the top.
In the United States, the Devil's Tower in Wyoming is a great example of this same columnar jointing; this was formed when a basalt volcano cooled and fractured into columns. Over the years, the outside of the volcano was eroded away, leaving the hard basalt underneath. The Devil's Postpile near Mammoth Lakes, California is another example of columnar jointing as is Paul Bunyan's Woodpile in central Utah.
Devil's Tower in Wyoming.