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Basalt is the most common volcanic rock type on Earth, making up over 90% of all volcanic rock on the planet. [81] The crustal portions of oceanic tectonic plates are composed predominantly of basalt, produced from upwelling mantle below the ocean ridges. [82]
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.
Ocean – Body of salt water covering most of Earth; Plate tectonics – Movement of Earth's lithosphere List of tectonic plate interactions – Types of plate boundaries; Supercontinent – Landmass comprising more than one continental core, or craton; Terrane – Fragment of crust formed on one tectonic plate and accreted to another
The crystallized magma forms a new crust of basalt known as MORB for mid-ocean ridge basalt, and gabbro below it in the lower oceanic crust. [16] Mid-ocean ridge basalt is a tholeiitic basalt and is low in incompatible elements. [17] [18] Hydrothermal vents fueled by magmatic and volcanic heat are a common feature at oceanic spreading centers.
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 ]
PREMA, or “Prevalent Mantle” was the first term coined by Zindler and Hart (1986) to describe the most common composition sampled by ocean island basalts. [14] Hart et al. (1992) later named the location of the intersection of ocean island basalt compositions in radiogenic isotopic multi-space as the “Focus Zone”, or FOZO. [15]
Columbia River Basalt Group [g] Chilcotin Plateau Basalts [e] Increased Antarctic deep waters Yellowstone hotspot Nördlinger Ries (14.5-14.3) Burdigalian: 20.44 Aquitanian: 23.03 * Shield volcanoes of Ethiopia [h] Antarctic ice sheet complete Paleogene: Oligocene: Chattian: 28.1 Ethiopian and Yemen traps (31–30) [h] Fish Canyon Tuff (27.51 ...
The Columbia River Basalt Group (including the Steen and Picture Gorge basalts) extends over portions of four states. The Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) is the youngest, smallest and one of the best-preserved continental flood basalt provinces on Earth, covering over 210,000 km 2 (81,000 sq mi) mainly eastern Oregon and Washington, western Idaho, and part of northern Nevada. [1]