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mbari-blog:
Behold, the beauty of geology 🤩
At the Endeavour Segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, the underwater landscape is littered with angular fragments of basalt that were the remnants of an old lava lake. This is a region that was once filled with hot lava and eventually drained. As the ROV Doc Ricketts flew by this area, researchers could see evidence of this cooling and draining in the stacked horizontal layers. The platy horizontal layers of basaltic lava along the back wall were once part of a solid platy surface layer of basalt covering a molten lake of lava. As this molten lava drained, a new top surface was exposed, and a new horizontal platy layer was formed. The pillars were actually created by seawater—as hot magma flowed into the lake during the eruption, some water was trapped below. Being less dense, this water escaped upward through the lava, solidifying tubes of basalt on its ascent. We call these “pit and pillar” features.
You lava to sea it
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