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    Devsamridhi Arora
    Continental flood basalts are large igneous provinces that have inundated continents with fluid basaltic lava, covering extensive areas. They are thought to originate when continental rifting coincides with a mantle plume, with the combination of these two factors resulting in exceptionally high thermal output and lava eruptions. Continental flood basalts are dominated by tholeiitic basalts and show evidence of fractional crystallization, having undergone substantial crystal fractionation before eruption. Geochemical variation between different flood basalt occurrences is the result of differing degrees of partial melting, fractional crystallization, magma mixing, and crustal contamination during emplacement.

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    Continental flood basalts are large igneous provinces that have inundated continents with fluid basaltic lava, covering extensive areas. They are thought to originate when continental rifting coincides with a mantle plume, with the combination of these two factors resulting in exceptionally high thermal output and lava eruptions. Continental flood basalts are dominated by tholeiitic basalts and show evidence of fractional crystallization, having undergone substantial crystal fractionation before eruption. Geochemical variation between different flood basalt occurrences is the result of differing degrees of partial melting, fractional crystallization, magma mixing, and crustal contamination during emplacement.

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    Continental flood basalts are large igneous provinces that have inundated continents with fluid basaltic lava, covering extensive areas. They are thought to originate when continental rifting coincides with a mantle plume, with the combination of these two factors resulting in exceptionally high thermal output and lava eruptions. Continental flood basalts are dominated by tholeiitic basalts and show evidence of fractional crystallization, having undergone substantial crystal fractionation before eruption. Geochemical variation between different flood basalt occurrences is the result of differing degrees of partial melting, fractional crystallization, magma mixing, and crustal contamination during emplacement.

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    Devsamridhi Arora
    Continental flood basalts are large igneous provinces that have inundated continents with fluid basaltic lava, covering extensive areas. They are thought to originate when continental rifting coincides with a mantle plume, with the combination of these two factors resulting in exceptionally high thermal output and lava eruptions. Continental flood basalts are dominated by tholeiitic basalts and show evidence of fractional crystallization, having undergone substantial crystal fractionation before eruption. Geochemical variation between different flood basalt occurrences is the result of differing degrees of partial melting, fractional crystallization, magma mixing, and crustal contamination during emplacement.

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    CONTINENTAL FLOOD BASALTS

    WHAT ARE CONTINENTAL FLOOD BASALTS?


    Tremendous outpourings of basaltic lavas, that have inundated local areas of the oceans and continents, amounting to largest igneous events on Earth, have been called large igneous provinces(LIPs).

    The continental manifestations of these LIPs are called continental flood basalts(CFBs), or plateau basalts.

    A more ancient term traps, meaning steps is ocassionally used to refer to them, because of the step like geomorphology of eroded flow layers.

    The flows are unusually fluid and rapidly erupted, covering extensive areas with large volumes of magma.

    Erosion in these volcanic piles has commonly revealed cogenetic mafic intrusions, including sills, dikes, and the more massive layered mafic intrusions.

    MAP SHOWIN LARGE IGNEOU PROVINCES OVER THE WORLD

    Province Columbia River Basalt Afro-Arabia North Atlantic Igneous Province

    Region Northwestern USA Yemen-Ethiopia Northern Canada, Greenland, the Faeroe Islands, Norway, Ireland and Scotland India & southern Pakistan

    Age (Ma) 17-to-6 31-to-25

    Area (106 km2 0.16 0.6

    Volume (106 km3 0.175 0.35

    Also known as or includes

    Ethiopia High Arctic Large Igneous Province Jameson Land Thulean Plateau

    62-to-55

    1.3

    6.6

    Deccan Traps Madagascar Rajmahal Traps Paran and Etendeka traps Karoo-Ferrar Province

    65.5 88 116

    0.5 - 0.8

    0.5 - 1

    BrazilNamibia South Africa, Antarctica, Australia & New Zealand Northern South America, Northwest Africa, Iberia, Eastern North America Russia Australia

    134-to-129

    1.5

    >1

    Equatorial Atlantic Magmatic Province Brazilian Highlands

    183-to-180

    0.15-to-2

    0.3

    Central Atlantic magmatic province Siberian Traps Warakurna large igneous province

    197-to-199

    ~10

    ~2.5

    250 1078-to-1073

    1.5 - 3.9 1.5

    0.9 - >2 Eastern Pilbara

    AGE OF CONTINENTAL FLOOD BASALTS AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE


    Major continental flood basalt provinces occur in the Proterozoic, the Early Cambrian, the Late Permian-Early Jurassic, the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic, the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous, the Late Cretaceous-Late Eocene, the Palaeocene-Eocene, the Eocene-Miocene, the Eocene/Miocene/ Middle Pleistocene, and the Miocene.

    The virtual absence of continental flood basalts from the Palaeozoic is puzzling for uniformitarian geologists.

    Continental flood basalts are thought to originate when a continental rift system coincides with a mantle plume. If this is the case, why did no continental flood basalts form throughout the Palaeozoic?

    It is suggested that continental flood basalts could not form in the Palaeozoic because they require subaerial conditions and the continents were flooded at that time.

    TECTONIC SETTINGS OF CFBs


    There are three major hypotheses for the origin of continental flood basalts, associated with the following tectonic settings: 1) Continental rifting. 2) Mantle plumes. 3) Back-arc spreading.

    CFBs RELATED TO CONTINENTAL RIFTING

    Dfficult to determine which leads to which, but both attributed to some deep seated thermal instability.
    CFBs may be associated with failed rifts i.e those that do not lead to new oceanslike the Keweenawan province and Siberian traps. LIPs and CFBs also associated with incipient stages of successful continental rifting the Parana, Karoo, North Atlantic and Antarctic provinces occurred in sites undergoing continental fragmentation that led to the opening of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. However, not all continental rifts are loci of CFBs, suggesting that a mantle hot spot plume is a necessary component of magmatism. A deep plume, tapping the sub-660km enriched mantle could also explain the alkaline character of some CFB material.

    CFBs RELATED TO MANTLE PLUMES

    Mantle plumes, or hot spots, are commonly associated with continental break-up, and arenow recognized as principal cause of LIPs.

    The Parana and Etendeka provinces are of an age and position to have been located over the Tristan hotspot at the time of initial development and rifting in the South Atlantic.

    The combination of rifting and plume development result in exceptionally high thermal output, which result in the local development of CFBs.

    In case of Deccan Traps, the period of intense igneous activity post dated the rifting activity between India and Africa by 50Ma. Plate tectonic reconstructions for the period of flood volcanism put the Deccan area near or over the hotspot now beneath the Reunion Island.

    In this case, hotspot activity alone was apparently sufficient to generate this huge flood basalt province, but the period was also markedby the separation of India and Madagascar.

    CFBs RELATED TO BACK ARC SPREADING

    Columbia River Basalt Group is considered to be a result of back-arc spreadin behind the Cascade arc in a continental environment. This might be called failed back arc, because it never fully separated to an off-shore arc such as Japan with a marginal sea behind it. Such arcs, that retain most of their continental character, are called ensialic back arc basins. The thermal output of such a back arc system alone is not generally regarded as sufficient to generate the quantity of basalt found in CFB provinces. Thus, a plume is also suspected of taking part.

    COMPOSITION OF CONTINENTAL FLOOD BASALTS

    Tholeiitic basalts are the dominant magma type in continental flood basalts. But more evolved differentiates and alkaline types are also represented. Although picrites (intrusive igneous rock of ultramafic (very silica-poor) composition that is composed largely of olivine and augite and is somewhat similar to peridotite) do occur in some CFBs, the magmas are generally evolved.

    Non-picritic flows are characteristically high in Si, Fe, Ti and K. Mg# is commonly less than 60.
    Compatible trace element contents, such as Ni and Cr, are low, suggesting that CFBs are not primary magmas, but have undergone substantial crystal fractionation prior to eruption.

    GEOCHEMICAL VARIATION IN CFBs

    Magma reservoir ponded at the base of the crust was proposed as a site for low pressure fractional crystallization of plagioclase, olivine and pyroxene, which can explain the evolved nature of CFBs. In areas of extension, the crust is thinner, forming a natural collectin point for ascending magma. Alternatively, a plume head could cause extension. Plumes may stall at the base of the more rigid lithospheric mantle, but the density of primary magma s suggests that they should pond at the top of the mantle, beneath the less dense continental crust. Shallow fractional crystallizatin woul take place here, plus some assimilation of the lower crust, either until the density changed enough so that the magmas were once again bouyant enough to rise further, or extensional faults provided conduits for the escape and rise of dense mafic liquids. CFBs are also characterized by high concentrations of in compatible trace elements, particularly K2O, LIL and LREE.

    THUS, GEOCHEMICAL VARIATION IN CONTINENTAL FLOOD BASALTS IS THE RESULT OF DIFFERENCES IN THE DEGREE OF PARTIAL MELTING,POLYBARIC FRACTIONAL CRYSTALLIZATION, MAGMA MIXING, CRUSTAL CONTAMINATION, AND DIFFERENT CHARACTERISTICS. NO OCCURRENCE OF CFBs CAN BE SIMPLY MODELED IN A TEMPORAL SENSE BY ANY ONE OR ANY PAIR OF THE ABOVE PROCESSES.

    THANK YOU.

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