Back صخر مصطبي Arabic Trap AST Трап (геалогія) Byelorussian Трапи Bulgarian Trapp (Geologie) German Trap (geología) Spanish Trapp French Տրապներ Armenian Batu trap ID Stuðlaberg Icelandic

Trap rock

For other uses, see Traprock (disambiguation).
The East Rock trap rock ridge overlooking New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
Trap rock forming a characteristic pavement, Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland
Trap rock cliff overlooking the Hudson River from an overlook on the Hudson Palisades in Bergen County, New Jersey, U.S.
Trap rock forming a characteristic stockade wall, Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland

Trap rock, also known as either trapp or trap, is any dark-colored, fine-grained, non-granitic intrusive or extrusive igneous rock. Types of trap rock include basalt, peridotite, diabase, and gabbro.[1] Trap is also used to refer to flood (plateau) basalts, such as the Deccan Traps and Siberian Traps.[2] The erosion of trap rock created by the stacking of successive lava flows often creates a distinct stairstep landscape from which the term trap was derived from the Swedish word trappa, which means "stairs".[1]

The slow cooling of magma either as a sill or as a thick lava flow sometimes creates systematic vertical fractures within the resulting layer of trap rock. These fractures often form rock columns that are typically hexagonal, but also four- to eight-sided.[3][4]

  1. ^ a b Neuendorf, K.K.E., J.P. Mehl, Jr., and J.A. Jackson, J.A., eds. (2005) Glossary of Geology (5th ed.) American Geological Institute, Alexandria, Virginia. 779 pp. ISBN 978-0-922152-76-6
  2. ^ Le Maitre, R. W., ed. (2002) Igneous Rocks: A Classification and Glossary of Terminology. Cambridge University Press, New York. 236 pp. ISBN 978-0-521-66215-4
  3. ^ Muller, G. (1998) "Experimental simulation of basalt columns". Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. vol. 86, no. 1–4, pp. 93–96
  4. ^ Spry, A. (1962). "The origin of columnar jointing, particularly in basalt flows". Journal of the Geological Society of Australia. Vol. 5, pp. 191–216.
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