About this book
Continental flood basalts, volcanic passive margins, and oceanic plateaus represent the largest known volcanic episodes on our planet, yet they are not easily explained by plate tectonics. Indeed, some are likely to record periods when the outward transfer of material and energy from the Earth's interior operated in a significantly different mode than at present. In recent years, interest in large-scale mafic magmatism has surged as high-precision geochronological, detailed geochemical, and increasingly sophisticated geophysical data have become available for many provinces. However, the sheer amount of recent material, often in the form of detailed collaborative research projects, can overwhelm newcomers to the field and experts alike as the literature continues to grow dramatically. The need for an up-to-date review volume on a sizable subset of the major continental and oceanic flood basalt provinces, termed large igneous provinces, was recognized by the Commission on Large-Volume Basaltic Provinces (International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior), and the co-editors were charged with organizing and implementing such a volume. We hope that Large Igneous Provinces will be valuable to researchers and graduate students worldwide, particularly to petrologists, geochemists, geochronologists, geodynamicists, and plate-tectonics specialists; it may also interest planetologists, oceanographers, and atmospheric scientists.
Contents
Preface
John J. Mahoney and Millard F. Coffin ix
The Columbia River Flood Basalt Province: Current Status
Peter R. Hooper 1
Evolution of the Red Sea Volcanic Margin, Western Yemen
Martin Menzies, Joel Baker, Gilles Chazot, and Mohamed Al'Kadasi 29
The North Atlantic Igneous Province
A. D. Saunders, J. G. Fitton, A. C. Kerr, M. J. Norry, and R. W. Kent 45
Cretaceous Basaltsin Madagascar and the Transition Between Plume and Continental Lithosphere Mantle Sources
Michael Storey, John J. Mahoney, and Andrew D. Saunders 95
The Caribbean-Colombian Cretaceous Igneous Province: The Internal Anatomy of an Oceanic Plateau
Andrew C. Kerr, John Tarney, Giselle F. Marriner, Alvaro Nivia, and Andrew D. Saunders 123
Rajmahal Basalts, Eastern India: Mantle Sources and Melt Distribution at a Volcanic Rifted Margin
W. Kent, A.D. Saunders, P. D. Kempton, and N. C. Ghose 145
The Ontong Java Plateau
Ciive R. Neal, John J. Mahoney, Loren W. Kroenke, Robert A. Duncan, and Michael G. Petterson 18
The Parana-Etendeka Province
David W. Peate 217
Stratigraphy and Age of Karoo Basalts of Lesotho and Implications for Correlations Within the Karoo Igneous Province
J. S. Marsh, P. R. Hooper, J. Rehacek, R. A. Duncan, and A. R. Duncan 247
Siberian Traps
Mukul Sharma 273
Giant Radiating Dyke Swarms: Their Use in Identifying Pre-Mesozoic Large Igneous Provinces and Mantle Plumes
Richard E. Ernst and Kenneth L. Buchan 297
Plume/Lithosphere Interaction in the Generation of Continental and Oceanic Flood Basalts: Chemical and Isotopic Constraints
John C. Lassiter and Donald J. DePaolo 335
Flood Basalts and Magmatic Ni, Cu, and PGE Sulphide Mineralization: Comparative Geochemistry of the Noril'sk (Siberian Traps) and West Greenland Sequences
Peer C . Lightfoot and Chris J. Hawkesworth 357
Emplacement of Continental Flood Basalt Lava Flows
Stephen Self, Thorvaldur Thordarsna, and Laszlo Keszthelyi 381
Large Igneous Provinces: A Planetary Perspective
James W. Head III and Millard F. Coffin 411
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