Mackenzie Large Igneous Province
MLIP | |
|---|---|
 Map of the Mackenzie Large Igneous Province and its sub-features. Blue star marks the approximate focal point for the 1,270 million year old magmatic activity. | |
| Location | Northwest Territories, Canada |
| Age | Mesoproterozoic |
| Area | |
| • Total | 2,700,000 km2 (1,000,000 sq mi) |
The Mackenzie Large Igneous Province (MLIP) is a major Mesoproterozoic large igneous province of the southwestern, western and northwestern Canadian Shield in Canada. It consists of a group of related igneous rocks that were formed during a massive igneous event starting about 1,270 million years ago. The large igneous province extends from the Arctic in Nunavut to near the Great Lakes in Northwestern Ontario where it meets with the smaller Matachewan dike swarm. Included in the Mackenzie Large Igneous Province are the large Muskox layered intrusion, the Coppermine River flood basalt sequence and the massive northwesterly trending Mackenzie dike swarm.
As a large igneous province, it is an extremely large area of related igneous rocks that were emplaced over an extremely short geological time span. The igneous rocks comprising the Mackenzie Large Igneous Province originated from processes not associated with normal plate tectonics and seafloor spreading. It is one of the several large igneous provinces scattered throughout the Canadian landscape, which can be thousands of kilometres in volume and area. The Mackenzie Large Igneous Province is one of the world's largest Proterozoic magmatic provinces, as well as one of the most well-preserved continental flood basalt terrains on Earth.[1] Igneous rocks of the Mackenzie Large Igneous Province are generally mafic in composition, including basalt and gabbro.
Even though the Mackenzie Large Igneous Province is classified as a large igneous province like other extremely large accumulations of igneous rocks on Earth, it is much larger than large igneous province standards. The standard size classification for large igneous provinces is a minimum areal extent of 100,000 km2 (39,000 sq mi). However, the Mackenzie dike swarm itself occupies an area of at least 2,700,000 km2 (1,000,000 sq mi), making the Mackenzie Large Igneous Province larger than the Ontong Java Plateau (in the southwestern Pacific Ocean) and the U.S. state of Alaska.[2]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
JUwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Day, James M.D. "The 1.27 Ga Mackenzie Large Igneous Province and Muskox layered intrusion". University of Maryland.[permanent dead link]