Flood basalt

Moses Coulee in the US showing multiple flood basalt flows of the Columbia River Basalt Group. The upper basalt is Roza Member, while the lower canyon exposes Frenchmen Springs Member basalt

A flood basalt (or plateau basalt[1]) is the result of a giant volcanic eruption or series of eruptions that covers large stretches of land or the ocean floor with basalt lava. Many flood basalts have been attributed to the onset of a hotspot reaching the surface of the Earth via a mantle plume.[2] Flood basalt provinces such as the Deccan Traps of India are often called traps, after the Swedish word trappa (meaning "staircase"), due to the characteristic stairstep geomorphology of many associated landscapes.

Michael R. Rampino and Richard Stothers (1988) cited eleven distinct flood basalt episodes occurring in the past 250 million years, creating large igneous provinces, lava plateaus, and mountain ranges.[3] However, more have been recognized such as the large Ontong Java Plateau,[4] and the Chilcotin Group, though the latter may be linked to the Columbia River Basalt Group.

Large igneous provinces have been connected to five mass extinction events,[5] and may be associated with bolide impacts.[6]

  1. ^ Jackson, Julia A., ed. (1997). "flood basalt". Glossary of geology (Fourth ed.). Alexandria, Virginia: American Geological Institute. ISBN 0922152349.
  2. ^ Mark A. Richards; Robert A. Duncan; Vincent E. Courtillot (1989). "Flood Basalts and Hot-Spot Tracks: Plume Heads and Tails". Science Magazine. 246 (4926): 103–107. Bibcode:1989Sci...246..103R. doi:10.1126/science.246.4926.103. PMID 17837768. S2CID 9147772.
  3. ^ Michael R. Rampino; Richard B. Stothers (1988). "Flood Basalt Volcanism During the Past 250 Million Years". Science. 241 (4866): 663–668. Bibcode:1988Sci...241..663R. doi:10.1126/science.241.4866.663. PMID 17839077. S2CID 33327812. PDF via NASA[dead link]
  4. ^ Neal, C.; Mahoney, J.; Kroenke, L. (1997). "The Ontong Java Plateau" (PDF). Large Igneous Provinces: Continental, Oceanic, and Planetary Flood Volcanism, Geophysical Monograph 100. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-01-01.
  5. ^ Jiang, Qiang; Jourdan, Fred; Olierook, Hugo K. H.; Merle, Renaud E.; Bourdet, Julien; Fougerouse, Denis; Godel, Belinda; Walker, Alex T. (25 July 2022). "Volume and rate of volcanic CO2 emissions governed the severity of past environmental crises". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 119 (31): e2202039119. Bibcode:2022PNAS..11902039J. doi:10.1073/pnas.2202039119. PMC 9351498. PMID 35878029.
  6. ^ Negi, J. G.; Agrawal, P. K.; Pandey, O. P.; Singh, A. P. (1993). "A possible K-T boundary bolide impact site offshore near Bombay and triggering of rapid Deccan volcanism". Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors. 76 (3–4): 189. Bibcode:1993PEPI...76..189N. doi:10.1016/0031-9201(93)90011-W.