[CarolinaGuitarman]

"Not really ~ the Deccan Traps and their counterpart in Siberia indicate that sometimes it goes like crazy."

Geologically speaking, it's gradual.

"Then there are the "hot spots" around the world, and the volcanos popped up over subduction zones.

Fast and hot ~ hardly "gradual"."

Geologically, it IS gradual.

[muawiyah]

Hmmm ~ Mt. St. Helens held us spellbound for a few weeks, then the deluge.

The old gradualist philosophy in geology held that mountains were all formed by weathering of surface rock.