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ShareBasalt is a common gray to black volcanic rock.
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It is usually fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava on the Earth's surface.
It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria.
Unweathered basalt is black or gray.
Basalt magmas form by decompression melting of peridotite in the Earth's mantle, a process discussed in the entry for igneous rocks.
The crustal portions of oceanic tectonic plates are comprised predominantly of basalt, produced from upwelling peridotite in the mantle below ocean ridges.
For more information about the topic Basalt rock, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
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