During the mafic capping stage, basanite, alkali olivine basalt and hawaiite erupted mainly from small parasitic cones, tuff rings and fissures in the eastern half of the shield. Eruptions occurred subglacially, subaqueously and/or subaerially as shown by a wide range in the degree of vesicularity, freshness and glass content of the lavas. In most cases, each parasitic cone produced three or four lava flows from breaches in the cone walls. These were erupted as pāhoehoe and ʻaʻā, but the tops of the lava flows are commonly missing due to erosion. Hawaiite was the most extensively erupted lava of the mafic capping stage, occurring mostly at the southern end of the Itcha Range but also in its interior.