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Types of Volcanoes: Flood Basalts

 	Distribution of Flood Basalts on the Indian Subcontinent

Distribution of Flood Basalts on the Indian Subcontinent
Image Credit: modified after "Die Erde CD"

 	Basalt columns of the Columbia River Basalt Group, USA

Basalt columns of the Columbia River Basalt Group, USA
Image Credit: MBG

 	Plateau Basalts, Iceland

Plateau Basalts, Iceland
Image Credit: Die Erde CD

Voluminous intraplate volcanic areas such as the Deccan Trapps of India, the Columbia  Plateau basalts, the Paraná Basin lavas, and the Siberian Trapps are called "flood basalt" provinces. there, lava flows comprising hundreds of thousands of cubic kilometers of magma erupted in a short time period and quickly covered tens of thousands of square kilometers. Individual, usually horizontal lava flows may reach up to fifty meter thickness. Volcanic hot-spot activity can often be related to flood basalt provinces. Those flood basalts are thought to have been generated by rapidly rising hot mantle plumes.