A lava plain, also called a lava field or lava bed, is a large expanse of nearly flat-lying lava flows. Such features are generally composed of highly fluid basalt lava, and can extend for tens or even hundreds of miles across the underlying terrain. The extent of large lava fields is most readily grasped from the air or in satellite photos, where their typically dark, nearly black color contrasts sharply with the rest of the landscape.
Some of the most ancient geological remnants of basaltic plains lie in Canada's Precambrian Shield. Eruption of plateau lavas near the Coppermine River southwest of Coronation Gulf in the Arctic, built an extensive plateau about 1200 million years ago with an area of about 170,000 km2 (66,000 sq mi) representing a volume of lavas of at least 500,000 km3 (120,000 cu mi).
Famous quotes containing the words lava and/or field:
“We walk on molten lava on which the claw of a fly or the fall of a hair makes its impression, which being received, the mass hardens to flint and retains every impression forevermore.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Is not the tremendous strength in men of the impulse to creative work in every field precisely due to their feeling of playing a relatively small part in the creation of living beings, which constantly impels them to an overcompensation in achievement?”
—Karen Horney (1885–1952)