Lava low degree of polymerization and high temperature favors chemical diffusion, so it is common to see large, well-formed phenocrysts within mafic lavas. Basalt lavas tend to produce low-profile shield volcanoes or "flood basalt fields", because the fluidal lava flows for long distances from the vent. The thickness of a basalt lava, particularly on a low slope, may be much greater than the thickness of the moving lava flow at any one time, because basalt lavas may "inflate" by supply of lava beneath a solidified crust. Most basalt lavas are of "ʻAʻā" or "pāhoehoe" types, rather than block lavas. Underwater, they
Chinchillas (lava dome) part of a caldera system in the Pozuelos basin. Chinchillas (lava dome) Chinchillas is a lava dome complex in the northern Puna of the Andes, in the Sierra de Rinconada. The complex is constructed on an Ordovician basement called the Acoite Formation. In addition to the dacitic lava dome on the southern end of the complex it also contains small volume massive pyroclastic flows and ash-and-block flows. The complex has a volume of . The complex was formed 13±1 mya over a fault zone. Hydrothermal Ag-Pb-Zn deposits found there in breccia were mined occasionally. According to Coira "et al." (1996)