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A flood basalt (or plateau basalt [1]) 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. Many flood basalts have been attributed to the onset of a hotspot reaching the surface of the Earth via a mantle plume . [ 2 ]
Flanking mountains are generally taller along the east side of the rift (although some of this relief may be Laramide in origin). [1] The thickness of the crust increases to the north beneath the rift, where it may be as much as 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) thicker than it is in the south. The crustal thickness underneath the rift is on average 30 ...
In this case Yellowstone could be expiring. It could be another 1–2 million years (as the North American Plate moves across the Yellowstone hotspot) before a new supervolcano is born to the northeast, and the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field joins the ranks of its deceased ancestors in the Snake River Plain. [12]
The plateau has an average elevation of between 305 and 460 m (1,001 and 1,509 ft). The geological region called the Western Australian Shield is a western part of the Australian Shield. The Australian Shield is fractured into a number of distinct blocks , including two cratons - the Pilbara Craton in the North and the Yilgarn Craton in the ...
In 1992, Coffin and Eldholm initially defined the term "large igneous province" as representing a variety of mafic igneous provinces with areal extent greater than 100,000 km 2 that represented "massive crustal emplacements of predominantly mafic (magnesium- and iron-rich) extrusive and intrusive rock, and originated via processes other than 'normal' seafloor spreading."
The Columbia River Basalt Group (including the Steen and Picture Gorge basalts) extends over portions of four states. The Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) is the youngest, smallest and one of the best-preserved continental flood basalt provinces on Earth, covering over 210,000 km 2 (81,000 sq mi) mainly eastern Oregon and Washington, western Idaho, and part of northern Nevada. [1]
Giant animals roamed the area. Beavers were the size of bears, and mammoths were 14 feet (4.3 m) high at the shoulder and weighed 10 tons. Even buffalo were much larger than today. The glaciers continued to retreat and the climate became warmer over the next few millennia; the giant creatures died out about 9,000 years ago. [13]
The Giant's Causeway (Irish: Clochán an Aifir) [1] is an area of approximately 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] It is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland , about three miles (4.8 km) northeast of the town of Bushmills .