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Basaltic magma (properly called mafic magma) forms in areas of the mantle where silica (SiO2) is low, but iron and magnesium is high. This usually and most famously occurs along spreading ridges, where oceanic crust is formed, but can occur anywhere -- including surface volcanoes, which can form flood basalts as we commonly know them.
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago
Wiki User
∙ 10y agoBasalt lava flows are not very viscous (a measure of resistance to flow) and so can flow easily and quickly across great distances delivering great volumes of basaltic rock. Some of these extrusions covered huge areas of the Earth and there is still potential for an eruption of this kind to happen again. Basalt lava flows have covered over a million and a half square kilometers of Siberia called the Siberian Trapps. The 65 million year old Deccan Trapps in India, a source of wonderful zeolite specimens, may have originally been just as large and its eruptions may have contributed to the extinction event that killed off the dinosaurs. The Columbia River Basalt Group is another huge basalt flow that could be over 6,000 feet thick. It covers large areas of Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Its soils contribute to the healthy potato crop from this region. Recent historic basalt flows have occurred on Iceland. The mara (black areas) on the moon are made of basalt and probably formed from basalt lava flows. And as might be expected, there also are large basalt flows on Mars.
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What do hot spots do?
flood basalts and volcanoes
Why don't flood basalts build volcanic cones?
Flood basalts build volcanic cones because flood basalts are believed to originate when the head of a mantle hotspot first arrives beneath the base of a plate. Because of this, they are unable to build volcanic cones.
Evidence of former surface volcanic activity is often found in the vast accumulations of lava called what?
Flood basalts.
Can repeated eruptions of relatively fluid lava from fissures eventually cause an area to be covered by flood basalts?
yess.
What is fissure mean?
a fissure eruption is magma gets erupted inside the earth
What do hot spots do?
flood basalts and volcanoes
Why don't flood basalts build volcanic cones?
Flood basalts build volcanic cones because flood basalts are believed to originate when the head of a mantle hotspot first arrives beneath the base of a plate. Because of this, they are unable to build volcanic cones.
What do hot spots form?
flood basalts and volcanoes
The Columbia plateau is an excellent example of?
flood basalts
Other than volcanoes what can hot spots form?
flood basalts
Evidence of former surface volcanic activity is often found in the vast accumulations of lava called what?
Flood basalts.
Can repeated eruptions of relatively fluid lava from fissures eventually cause an area to be covered by flood basalts?
yess.
What has the author Robert J Carson written?
Robert J. Carson has written: 'Flood basalts and glacier floods' -- subject(s): Guidebooks, Geology, Flood basalts 'Quaternary geology of the south-central Olympic Peninsula, Washington' -- subject(s): Geology, Geology, Stratigraphic, Stratigraphic Geology
What is fissure mean?
a fissure eruption is magma gets erupted inside the earth
What is the Columbia Plateau in Washington and Oregon?
The Columbia Plateau in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho is a flood basalt plateau. It formed during the Pliocene period and is one of the largest flood basalts to ever form on the planet.
How many different kinds of volcanoes are there and what are they?
There are six types: Shield, Strato. Caldera, Monogetic fields, Flood Basalts and Mid-ocean ridges.
Why do flood basalts cover so much area when they erupt?
Because the basalt lava is very "runny" as compared to lavas that contain more silica.
