Moses Coulee in the US showing multiple flood basalt flows of the Columbia River Basalt Group. The upper basalt is Roza Member, while the lower canyon exposes Frenchmen Springs Member basalt
A flood basalt (or plateau basalt[1]) is the result of a giant volcanic eruption or series of eruptions that covers large stretches of land or the ocean floor with basaltlava. Many flood basalts have been attributed to the onset of a hotspot reaching the surface of the Earth via a mantle plume.[2]Flood basalt provinces such as the Deccan Traps of India are often called traps, after the Swedish word trappa (meaning "staircase"), due to the characteristic stairstep geomorphology of many associated landscapes.
^Neal, C.; Mahoney, J.; Kroenke, L. (1997). "The Ontong Java Plateau"(PDF). Large Igneous Provinces: Continental, Oceanic, and Planetary Flood Volcanism, Geophysical Monograph 100. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2017-01-01.
^Negi, J. G.; Agrawal, P. K.; Pandey, O. P.; Singh, A. P. (1993). "A possible K-T boundary bolide impact site offshore near Bombay and triggering of rapid Deccan volcanism". Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors. 76 (3–4): 189. Bibcode:1993PEPI...76..189N. doi:10.1016/0031-9201(93)90011-W.