Traprock (or
basalt)
mountains,
ridges, (or just
traps) are elevated landscape features made of
trap rock, most often
basalt. Basalt, due to its high quantity of iron, is a characteristically dark-colored rock that weathers to shades of red and purplish-red when exposed to the air. Basalt is the substance of many elevated topographic features worldwide (hills, mountains, ridges, rock formations, etc.). Landscape features composed of basalt may include:
- Elevated sections of prehistoric ocean floor that have been raised above sea level via plate tectonics
- Prehistoric terrestrial lava floods that have become upended and/or exposed via faulting and erosion
- Various surface volcanic landforms both recent and ancient.