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Earth and Space Sciences · Glossary

What is Oceanic crust, pillow lava, sheeted dyke complex?

Also known as: oceanic crust · pillow lava · sheeted dyke complex

Definition 13.4 University Earth and Space Sciences — Year 1 · Chapter 13 — Rifts, Ridges and Passive Margins

The oceanic crust is the crust made at ocean ridges: 6 to 7 km7\,\mathrm{km} of basalt and gabbro, from the sea floor down to the Moho, beneath a cover of sediments. Pillow lava is lava erupted under water, made of rounded, interconnected tubes and lobes, each with a glassy skin chilled by the sea. A sheeted dyke complex is a layer made almost entirely of parallel vertical dykes, each intruded into the previous ones.

Pillow lavas on the Galápagos Rift, cut by a fissure that opened after they had set: the top of layer 2 of the oceanic crust as it forms. Each pillow is a tongue of lava frozen from the outside by the sea water. Photograph: NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Galápagos Rift Expedition 2011, CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons).
Pillow lavas on the Galápagos Rift, cut by a fissure that opened after they had set: the top of layer 2 of the oceanic crust as it forms. Each pillow is a tongue of lava frozen from the outside by the sea water. Photograph: NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Galápagos Rift Expedition 2011, CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons).
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