Tuzo Wilson Seamounts numerous smaller vents, with a total edifice volume of about 12 km. The lava emitted in eruptions at the Tuzo Wilson Seamounts is made of basalt, a common gray to black or dark brown extrusive volcanic rock low in silica content (the lava is mafic) that is usually fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava. Glassy pillow lava is found at the seamounts, a type of rock typically formed when basaltic lava emerges from a submarine volcanic vent. The viscous lava gains a solid crust on contact with the water, and this crust cracks and oozes additional large blobs or
Lava channel Lava channel A lava channel is a stream of fluid lava contained within marginal zones of static (i.e., solid and stationary) lava or lava levees. The initial channel may not contain levees per se, until the parental flow solidifies over what develops into the channel and creates natural levees. This initial levee allows for the building of a more complex levee and channel. As the lava flows through the channel, the elevation of the surface of the lava flow pulsates and lava can possibly flood the associated channel walls spilling out of the channel and over the existing levees, creating