Igneous rock as extrusive rocks. Igneous rock may form with crystallization to form granular, crystalline rocks, or without crystallization to form natural glasses. Igneous and metamorphic rocks make up 90–95% of the top 16 km of the Earth's crust by volume. Igneous rocks form about 15% of the Earth's current land surface. Most of the Earth's oceanic crust is made of igneous rock. Igneous rocks are also geologically important because: In terms of modes of occurrence, igneous rocks can be either intrusive (plutonic and hypabyssal) or extrusive (volcanic). Intrusive igneous rocks are formed from magma that cools and solidifies within the crust
Pillow lava on the planet, the Isua and Barberton greenstone belts, confirms the presence of large bodies of water on the Earth's surface early in the Archean Eon. Pillow lavas are used generally to confirm subaqueous volcanism in metamorphic belts. Pillow lavas are also found associated with some subglacial volcanoes at an early stage of an eruption. They are created when magma reaches the surface but, as there is a large difference in temperature between the lava and the water, the surface of the emergent tongue cools very quickly, forming a skin. The tongue continues to lengthen and inflate with more lava,