The origin of the term ’basalt’

Abstract

Therefore, the Stolpen Castle Hill seems the global type locality for the rock ‘basalt’(!), at least from historical perspective and without due regard to later developments in petrographical classifications. Consequently, the hill was designated as one of 77 national geotopes in Germany in 2006 (Goth and Suhr 2007). The Agricola’s text was based on a description written 1,500 years before by Gaius Plinius Secundus, or Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79). He is famous among geologists for his descriptive report on the Vesuvius eruption in AD 79, and this volcanic eruption style is now called ‘Plinian’. Some two years earlier, he penned the 36th volume of his Naturalis Historia, including the following short excerpt: “This same Egypt found in Ethiopia a (stone), which is called basaltes, of the colour and hardness of the iron, which gave the name.” (Pliny the Elder ca. AD 77, translated from Latin in English). The antique text strongly resembles Agricola’s description, lacking only the mention of columns.