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BASALT

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Typical Minerals

Description

Minerals too small to identify

(except phenocrysts).
Composition will be from the
top of Bowen's Reaction
series (i.e. mafic) and we
would expect Ca plagioclase,
pyroxene, and perhaps some
olivine. Note that these
minerals are present in this
specimen, just too small to
see.
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A mafic igneous rock from the top of Bowen's Reaction Series.

Typically dark colored, although weathered specimens can appear quite
light, or reddish.
Olivine is sometime present as phenocrysts but is not essential. And
although this specimen does not show it, vesicular (cellular) varieties
are quite common, and these grade completely into scoria.

Tectonic Association
Basalt is one of the most common igneous rocks found. It is the
major constituent of the upper layer of the ocean floors (usually as
pillow lava), and hot spot volcanoes (such as the Hawaiian islands).
Basalt commonly forms on the continents too, usually the result of hot
spot activity. Here it may exist as intrusive dikes and sills, or extrusive
cinder volcanoes and lava flows. In the western U.S. such occurances
are common and usually quite visible since the volcanoes are relatively
young. But basalt is also common in the east, if you can get through the
vegetation to see it. In the east basalt shows up mostly as dikes, or more
spectacularly in the 1000 foot thick Palasides sill, across the Hudson
river from New York City.
Tectonic Cross Section - Pdf Version

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