Volcanic plateau up by foundering of the Earth's crust to form the present ocean basin. The Earth features numerous subaerial and submarine volcanic plateaus such as the Columbia River Plateau (subaerial) and the vast Ontong Java Plateau (submarine). Pyroclastic plateaus are produced by massive pyroclastic flows and they are underlain by pyroclastic rocks: agglomerates, tephra, volcanic ashes cemented into tuffs, mafic or felsic. Examples include Shirasu-Daichi which covers almost all of Southern Kyūshū, Japan and the North Island Volcanic Plateau in New Zealand. Volcanic plateau A volcanic plateau is a plateau produced by volcanic activity. There are two main types: lava plateaus
Geology of the Northwest Territories metavolcanic rocks. Quartz arenite in the Rae Craton has been interpreted as possible passive margin or rift deposits. Around the world, greenstone belts are a hallmark of ancient Precambrian rocks. The Ennadai-Rankin greenstone belt is the second largest in Canada and displays felsic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks, as well as mafic rocks reaching greenschist grade on the sequence of metamorphic facies. Laminations in ironstone and pelite formations suggest that the mafic volcanic rocks deposited on the low energy slope of a volcanic plateau, away from wave action. Because of the enormous time distance from the Archean, exact interpretations are less