Description
Great Staple Tor is a shapely granite outcrop on Dartmoor near Tavistock, Devon. The deeply eroded rocks almost look like they have been arranged by human hands, one on top of the other. However the process is a result of freeze-thaw cycles, where water seeps into a crack and then freezes, expanding as it does so, before melting and repeating the cycle, each time creating a bigger gap. Over time this process is enough to split even the toughest igneous rocks, such as granite, into peculiarly shaped tors surrounded by block fields of loose debris.
