ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Basalt fan structure

So imagine you have a bunch of Lego blocks. And you start stacking them on top of each other to build a tower. Now, if you push the tower, it might wobble and fall over because it's not very stable, right?

Now, let's say you take those same Lego blocks and instead of stacking them in a tower, you spread them out on the ground in a sort of fan shape. Like if you were trying to make a big fan out of Legos. This is what we call a basalt fan structure.

But here's the cool part. Because the blocks are spread out like a fan, they're actually much more stable than if they were stacked in a tower. It's like if you spread your arms out wide, you can balance better than if you just stand with your feet close together.

Basalt fan structures are made of rocks instead of Legos, but the concept is the same. Imagine millions of little rocks all arranged in a fan shape. This happens when hot lava flows out of a volcano and starts to cool and harden into rock. As it cools, it cracks and breaks into all these little pieces that start to stack up in a fan shape.

So that's what a basalt fan structure is - a bunch of rocks arranged in a fan shape that is actually very stable and strong. Cool, huh?