Hot pyroclastic material, however, might become welded as it settles, and, thus, be almost impermeable. Silicic lavas tend to be extruded as thick, dense flows, and they have low permeability except where they are fractured. Basaltic lavas tend to be fluid, and, they form thin flows that have considerable pore space at the tops and bottoms of the flows. Numerous basalt flows commonly overlap, and the flows are separated by soil zones or alluvial material that form permeable zones. Columnar joints that develop in the central parts of basalt flows create passages that allow water to move vertically through the basalt.
Basaltic rocks are the most productive aquifers in volcanic rocks.
This map of basaltic and other volcanic-rock aquifers in the United States shows the shallowest principal aquifer. In some places, other, sometimes more productive, aquifers underlie those mapped. In other places, local aquifers, such as those along stream valleys, might overlie the aquifers mapped. Local aquifers are not shown because of the scale of the map. Limit of continental glaciation.