10. Basalt
Updated: May 17, 2022
Basalt is the most common type of rock in the world! it covers over 90% of the Earth's surface! Basalt is in places that include islands, beaches under the oceans and even in the mariana trench! Basalt is an igneous rock, which means it comes from volcanoes just like granite!
image from https://www.flickr.com/photos/scotnelson/
You may be wondering how basalt forms. basaltic magma cools down. basalt is everywhere! See the lava in the image? That is basaltic lava oozing down a fairly large piece of basalt. A lot of this lava cools down to become pieces of basalt and probably basalt slabs.
Basalt can be lots of different colours, but the most common one is dark grey. Other colours include black, brown, grey and light grey! If you want to go basalt hunting, you should know something. Basalt is really common near and on train tracks!
There is so much basalt on Earth, that the whole ocean crust under the sand is made from basalt! This is because when the Earth's crust was forming, and lot's of magma and rock were slowly cooling down, basalt was appearing everywhere! That is so much basalt! So, basalt is a really important role for the circle of life. If there were no basalt, there would be no you!
There are many types of basalt on Earth, not just one. Their names are:
glassy
massive
porphyritic
vesicular
scoriaceous
All of these types are grouped together into 3 different sections. Porphyritic, Trap and Ophite. basalt is on land, in the sea and even on some deserts! you can't see it though because most of it is covered by a layer of dirt or sand.
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