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The word lava comes from Italian and is probably derived from the Latin word labes, which means a fall or slide. [2] [3] An early use of the word in connection with extrusion of magma from below the surface is found in a short account of the 1737 eruption of Vesuvius, written by Francesco Serao, who described "a flow of fiery lava" as an analogy to the flow of water and mud down the flanks of ...
The tendency of felsic lava to be cooler than mafic lava increases the viscosity difference. The silicon ion is small and highly charged, and so it has a strong tendency to coordinate with four oxygen ions, which form a tetrahedral arrangement around the much smaller silicon ion. This is called a silica tetrahedron. In a magma that is low in ...
Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills , mountains , canyons , and valleys , as well as shoreline features such as bays , peninsulas , and seas , [ 3 ] including submerged features such as mid-ocean ridges , volcanoes , and the great ocean basins .
Basalt is the most common extrusive igneous rock [9] and forms lava flows, lava sheets and lava plateaus. Some kinds of basalt solidify to form long polygonal columns. The Giant's Causeway in Antrim, Northern Ireland is an example. The molten rock, which typically contains suspended crystals and dissolved gases, is called magma. [10]
It does so through magmatic activity or igneous activity, the production, intrusion and extrusion of magma or lava. Volcanism is the surface expression of magmatism. Magmatism is one of the main processes responsible for mountain formation. The nature of magmatism depends on the tectonic setting. [1]
The partially melted material is more buoyant and as a result will rise into the lithosphere, where it forms large magma chambers called diapirs. Some of the magma will make it to the surface of the crust where it will form volcanoes and, if eruptive on earth's surface, will produce andesitic lava.
Multiple successive and extensive lava flows cover the original landscape to eventually form a plateau, which may contain lava fields, cinder cones, shield volcanoes and other volcanic landforms. In some cases, a lava plateau may be part of a single volcano.
This diamond is a mineral from within an igneous or metamorphic rock that formed at high temperature and pressure. The rock cycle is a basic concept in geology that describes transitions through geologic time among the three main rock types: sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous.