basalt
/ˈbasɔːlt
/ /ˈbas(ə)lt/noun [mass noun]
1A dark fine-grained volcanic rock that sometimes displays a columnar structure, typically composed largely of plagioclase with pyroxene and olivine.Further up section the geology is dominated by a succession of unmetamorphosed but strongly fractured and veined blocky andesites, basalts and tuffaceous rocks....
- These are invariably volcanic rocks, including rhyolites, andesites, basalts, and their explosive equivalents, pyroclastic rocks.
- Calcite is one of the frequently occurring minerals in cavities within the basalts of the Deccan trap rocks of Maharashtra State, India.
1.1A kind of black stoneware developed by Josiah Wedgwood.The fine-grained basalt stoneware reflected Wedgwood's Neoclassicism....
- One of the leading glass makers of the early 19th century classical revival in Bohemia was Count Von Buquoy, who, in 1817, successfully produced an opaque black glass that resembled Josiah Wedgwood's black basalt stoneware.
- If was used to imitate Josiah Wedgwood's rosso ant-leo and black basalt stoneware and was often decorated.
Derivatives
basaltic
/ adjective ...- It is a fault line where a basaltic oceanic plate grinds against a continental plate and dives into the hot core of the earth - a subduction zone.
- I thought the barrenness was because of basaltic and granite rocks, and the greenery was due to rich soil after Ghodgaon.
- Also of interest in the area is a basaltic column by the sea near Owenga.
Origin
Early 17th century (in the Latin form): from Latin basaltes (variant of basanites), from Greek basanitēs, from basanos 'touchstone'.