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A flood basalt (or plateau basalt [1]) is the result of a giant volcanic eruption or series of eruptions that covers large stretches of land or the ocean floor with basalt lava. Many flood basalts have been attributed to the onset of a hotspot reaching the surface of the Earth via a mantle plume . [ 2 ]
Effusive basalt lava flows cool to either of two forms, ʻaʻā or pāhoehoe. [8] This type of lava flow builds shield volcanoes, which are, for example, numerous in Hawaii, [9] and is how the island was and currently is being formed.
The Greenstone Flow is one of the world's largest known lava flows, estimated at a volume ~1650 to ~6000 cubic kilometers of mafic lava. [2] [3] In places, the lava pooled to depth of 487 meters. [4] The flow was generated by a flood basalt eruption during the Midcontinental Rift, which occurred 1.1 billion years ago. [5]
Basalt that erupts under open air (that is, subaerially) forms three distinct types of lava or volcanic deposits: scoria; ash or cinder ; [63] and lava flows. [64] Basalt in the tops of subaerial lava flows and cinder cones will often be highly vesiculated, imparting a lightweight "frothy" texture to the rock. [65]
Basalt columns seen on Porto Santo Island, Portugal. Columnar jointing of volcanic rocks exists in many places on Earth. Perhaps the most famous basalt lava flow in the world is the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, in which the vertical joints form polygonal columns and give the impression of having been artificially constructed.
Volcanic rifted margins are characterized by: a transitional crust composed of basaltic igneous rocks, including lava flows, sills, dikes, and gabbros, high volume basalt flows, seaward-dipping reflector sequences of basalt flows that were rotated during the early stages of breakup, limited passive-margin subsidence during and after breakup ...
The Nido eruptive period was a long episode of volcanic activity between 6 and 4 million years ago that involved the effusion of highly mobile, fluid basaltic lava flows from multiple, widely spaced eruptive centres; these eruptive centres included at least six major volcanoes and many more smaller volcanic cones. [60]
Basaltic and later andesitic to dacitic flows of lava covered increasingly larger areas of this formation to eventually form the lava plateau upon which the park is situated. About 600,000 years ago, Mount Tehama started to rise as a stratovolcano in the southwestern corner of the park, eventually reaching an estimated 11,000 ft (3,400 m) in ...