Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology

, Volume 65, Issue 1, pp 19–28 | Cite as

Orientation of ocean floor basaltic rocks at time of cooling: A general method

  • Daniel Bideau
  • Roger Hekinian
  • Jean Francheteau
Article
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

During cooling of ocean floor basaltic lava, residual melt is segregated into vesicles which are still partially filled by volatiles. The segregated residual liquid and volatiles assume a preferential orientation in the earth's gravity field. The shape that the segregated material takes at the bottom of the vesicles is used as a criterion to determine the vertical orientation of the rock at time of cooling. This method is universally applicable to any rock which has passed through a molten phase prior to cooling.

Keywords

Mineral Resource Preferential Orientation Gravity Field Basaltic Rock Ocean Floor 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 1977

Authors and Affiliations

  • Daniel Bideau
    • 1
  • Roger Hekinian
    • 1
  • Jean Francheteau
    • 1
  1. 1.Centre Océanologique de BretagneBrest CedexFrance

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