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A new type of basalt rock discovered

  • Posted By
    10Pointer
  • Categories
    Miscellaneous
  • Published
    25th Mar, 2021

Context

A team of researchers has unearthed a new type of rock on the seafloor while drilling through the Pacific Ocean.

About the Newly discovered rock

  • It is a type of basalt, which was formed by the rapid cooling of fast-flowing lava which has iron and magnesium.
  • This basalt is found buried deep beneath kilometers thick sediment at the bottom of the ocean.
  • It was drilled 6 km down to the ocean floor of the Amami Sankaku Basin in the Japanese Sea, about 1,000 km southwest of Japan’s Mount Fuji volcano.
  • The area is a part of the ‘ring of fire’ subduction zone in the Pacific.

About Basalt rock

  • Basalt is a fine-grain rock formed when mafic lava is exposed at the surface.
  • It encompasses around 90% of all volcanic rock on earth.
  • It is also found on different planetary bodies like the moon and Mars.
  • Basaltic magma is formed because of the pressure present in the upper mantle in the Earth’s interior.

Types of Rocks

Igneous Rock

  • Igneous rock is formed by the cooling and solidification of magma.
  • They are of two types
    • Intrusive rock is formed by the cooling-off and slow crystallization within the earth’s crust. Example: Granite.
    • Extrusive rocksare formed when magma reaches the surface. Example: Basalt
  • Sedimentary rocks
  • They are formed on the earth's surface by the accumulation of earlier rocks, minerals, and organisms.

Metamorphic rocks

  • They are formed by sedimentary rock, igneous rock, or another older metamorphic rock, due to the different temperature and pressure conditions.

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