Materials

Basalt

Igneous Rock

Citation Formats

General Reference

Earth and Environment Atlas. "Basalt." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://earth.interactiveatlas.org/materials/basalt.

APA Style

Earth and Environment Atlas. (n.d.). Basalt. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://earth.interactiveatlas.org/materials/basalt

BibTeX

@misc{earthandenvironmentatlas-basalt,
  author = {Earth and Environment Atlas},
  title = {Basalt},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://earth.interactiveatlas.org/materials/basalt},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

A dark, fine-grained igneous rock formed from lava cooling quickly at the surface. It is the most common rock type in the Earth's oceanic crust and the dominant rock of most volcanic islands.

Facts

Kind

Rock 1

Formation Class

Igneous, extrusive (formed through the cooling and solidification of lava at or near the surface) 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Gabbro

Gabbro has the same chemical composition and mineralogy as rapidly cooled, fine-grained basalt.

Source Gabbro (Wikipedia)

In Discipline

Geology

Source Rock, Geology (Wikipedia)

Sources

1. Rock, Geology (Wikipedia)

Wikimedia FoundationView the Source

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