Basalt Seafloor

It most commonly forms as an extrusive rock such as a lava flow but can also form in small intrusive bodies such as an igneous dike or a thin sill it has a composition similar to gabbro the difference between basalt and gabbro is that basalt is a fine grained rock while.

Basalt seafloor.

Once formed in the deep crust basalt magma wants to rise and at the center of the mid ocean ridge it oozes onto the seafloor where it rapidly solidifies in the ice cold water in the form of lava pillows. Because of seafloor spreading the metasomatic products cover a major part of the planet and therefore in term of area are the most extensive of. B ə ˈ s ɔː l t ˈ b eɪ s ɒ l t uk. The magnetism of mid ocean ridges helped scientists first identify the process of seafloor spreading in the early 20th century.

As the magma and lava cool at seafloor spreading centers whatever magnetic field is present get ingrained into the rock. More than 90 of all volcanic rock on earth is basalt and the eruption of basalt lava is observed by geologists at about 20. Seafloor basalt interaction between cold seawater and hot mafic ultramafic rocks in the 65 000 km long oceanic spreading ridge system is likely the largest active metamorphic system on the planet. Every so often it has occurred over 170 times over the past 100 million years the poles will suddenly switch.

Located on the eastern flank of the east pacific rise dorado outcrop is a site of low temperature thioprofundum lithotrophicum suggesting carbon and. ˈ b æ s ɔː l t ˈ b æ s əl t is a mafic extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of lava rich in magnesium and iron exposed at or very near the surface of a terrestrial planet or a moon. Farther down basalt that doesn t erupt hardens in dikes stacked vertically like cards in a deck. Basalt is a dark colored fine grained igneous rock composed mainly of plagioclase and pyroxene minerals.

A flood basalt 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 flood basalt provinces such as the deccan traps of india are often called traps after the swedish word trappa meaning stairs due to the characteristic stairstep geomorphology of many associated landscapes. The ocean plates spread and grow in opposite directions so rocks that are equidistance from the center have the same magnetic polarity and age. Sub seafloor basalts are very common on earth and enable co 2 mineralization as a long term storage mechanism permanently sequestering the carbon.