Guinness World Records 2018

EARTH

LARGEST GLACIAL ERRATIC BOULDER
Glacial erratics are rocks that have been carried by glaciers
before being deposited on the ground as the ice melted. The
Okotoks Erratic is one such boulder, located near the town
of Okotoks in the Canadian Prairies in Alberta, Canada.
Composed of the metamorphic rock quartzite, it measures
approximately 41 x 18 m (134 x 59 ft) and is some 9 m (29 ft)
high, with a mass of around 16,500 tonnes (18,188 tons).

LARGEST SANDSTONE MONOLITH ROCK FORMATION

Uluru rises 348 m (1,141 ft) above the surrounding desert plain in Northern

Territory, Australia. Also known as Ayers Rock, this exposed sandstone

monolith is 2.5 km (1.5 mi) long and 1.6 km (1 mi) wide. In fact, a further

2.5 km of this Australian landmark lies underground. The characteristic red

hue of Uluru is caused by the rusting of the iron content in the rock at its

surface; were it not for this, it would be grey in colour.

TALLEST VOLCANIC COLUMNS

Devils Tower in Wyoming, USA,

began as an underground

intrusion of igneous rock

more than 50 million years

ago. The surrounding softer

sedimentary rock has

eroded, leaving this towering

monolith. Its volcanic

columns, some 585 ft

(178 m) tall, formed as the

magma intrusion cooled

and shrank. The Giant’s

Causeway (see left)

is another example

of this type of

volcanic column.

MOST COMMON VOLCANIC ROCK
Basalt accounts for more than 90% of all volcanic rock
at the Earth’s surface. It is the largest component of the
oceanic crust and also constitutes the main rock type seen
in many of the Earth’s mid-ocean land forms, including
the Hawaiian islands and Iceland. Basalt is fine-grained in
texture and dark in colour. Approximately 50% of this rock
is composed of silica; it also contains significant amounts
of iron and magnesium. Pictured above is the Giant’s
Causeway – on the coast of County Antrim in Northern
Ireland – which is formed from basalt.

TALLEST GRANITE MONOLITH
At 1,095 m (3,593 ft), El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, California, USA,
is the world’s loftiest block of granite. It is composed of plutonic rocks that
emerged approximately 102 million years ago, having taken some 2.7 million
years to form. Both plutonic and volcanic rocks are types of igneous rock,
which is produced as a result of the cooling and solidification of magma or
lava. Plutonic rock is created underground; volcanic rock forms above ground.

THICKEST CRUST

The Earth’s crust is the cold, solid, outermost layer of

its lithosphere, which sits above the hot convecting

asthenosphere (semi-molten rock at the upper levels of the

mantle). It is divided into plates and consists of two types:

the dense ocean crust and the lighter continental crust.

The Earth’s crust is at its thickest in the Himalaya mountains

in China, where it reaches 75 km (46 mi).

Native

American tribes

call this monolith by

a (^) number of
names. To the Kiowa, it is different
“Tree Rock”
or (^) “Aloft on a
Rock”, while the
know it as “Grizzly Lakota
Bear’s Lodge”.