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.
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Contribution no 548 du Département Scientifique, Centre Océanologique de Bretagne
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Bideau, D., Hekinian, R. & Francheteau, J. Orientation of ocean floor basaltic rocks at time of cooling: A general method. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 65, 19–28 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00373566
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00373566