What Is The Meaning Of Flood Basalt?

To know the meaning of flood basalt, it is extremely important for us to know the meaning of Basalt. Basalt is a fine grained rock of dark colour extruding from volcanic eruption. This rock is rich in iron and magnesium.

Flood basalt is an enormous sheet of basalt from volcanic vent over a vast surface of land. This can be formed at a place where a rift is present over a continental hot spot, and also the lava is extremely hot with low viscosity.

Flood basalts occurred in quite substantial scale in the pre-historic time and is responsible for the formation of many plateaus and mountain range that have survived for millions of years. The Deccan Traps in central part of India, the Siberian Traps and the Columbia River Plateau in the United States on America are three examples of prehistoric flood basalts.