Basalt forms when really hot melted rock, called lava, cools down and gets hard!
Basalt is a common kind of rock you can find on Earth. Think of it like a building block for our planet! It's a special type of rock called an igneous rock. "Igneous" is a fancy word that means it came from melted rock that was super hot, like from inside the Earth or a volcano.
How Basalt is Made
It all starts with molten lava. This is melted rock that has come out onto the Earth's surface, often from a volcano.
- Hot, Melted Lava: Basalt comes from a certain type of gooey, hot lava.
- Cooling Down: When this lava is exposed to the air or water, it starts to get colder.
- Getting Hard: As the lava cools, it stops being melted and hardens into solid rock. This is just like how water turns into ice when it gets cold, but much, much hotter!
- Turning into Basalt: The reference tells us that this lava cools and then hardens into a fine-grained crystalline rock. This means you can't easily see big sparkly crystals in it; it looks solid and dense.
So, simply put: Basalt is an igneous rock formed by the cooling of a certain type of molten lava. When that hot lava cools, it turns hard and solid, making the rock we call basalt!
Where Can You Find Basalt?
- Around volcanoes where lava has flowed and cooled.
- Making up big parts of the ocean floor!
- Sometimes in big stacks of rock called "basalt columns."
Basalt Facts:
- It's one of the most abundant types of rock on Earth.
- It's usually dark in color, often gray or black.
- People use basalt for building things, like roads and buildings.
It's pretty cool how a rock like basalt starts as hot, melted goo and turns into a strong, hard rock just by cooling!
