traprock mountain

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.