New basalt type discovered beneath the ocean

New basalt type discovered beneath the ocean A new type of rock created during large and exceptionally hot volcanic eruptions has been discovered beneath the Pacific Ocean. An international team of researchers including from the University of Leeds unearthed the previously unknown form of basalt after drilling through the Pacific Ocean floor. The discovery suggests that ocean floor eruptions sourced in the Earth’s mantle were even hotter and more voluminous than previously thought. Report co-author is Dr Ivan Savov, of Leeds’ Institute of Geophysics and Tectonics , in the university’s School of Earth and Environment. He said: “In an era when we rightly admire discoveries made through space exploration, our findings show there are still many discoveries still to make on our own planet. “The rocks that we recovered are distinctly different to rocks of this type that we already know about. In fact, they may be as different to Earth’s known ocean floor basalts as Earth’s basalts are to the Moon’s basalts.