What is a large igneous province?

A large igneous province is an extremely massive accumulation of intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks formed when magma travels through the Earth's crust. These events produce vast volumes of mafic rocks like basalt and gabbro, originating from processes distinct from normal plate tectonics. Their massive eruptions have historically coincided with mass extinctions and rapid climatic shifts.

What we know

• A large igneous province is an extremely large accumulation of igneous rocks, including both intrusive formations like sills and dikes, and extrusive formations like lava flows and tephra deposits. [2]
• The formation of large igneous provinces is variously attributed to mantle plumes or to processes associated with divergent plate tectonics, though some originated from processes not associated with normal plate tectonics. [2, 4]
• The standard size classification for a large igneous province requires a minimum areal extent of 100,000 square kilometers. [4]
• The formation of certain large igneous provinces over the past 500 million years coincides with mass extinctions and rapid climatic changes. [2]

Still open

• The exact causal relationships between large igneous province formation and historical mass extinctions or rapid climatic changes remain the subject of various hypotheses.

Where to go next

• how it workedHow do mantle plumes create massive volcanic formations?
• what followedWhat links volcanic provinces to mass extinctions?
• a case in pointWhat is the Mackenzie Large Igneous Province?
• compared withHow do flood basalts differ from standard volcanoes?
• the bigger pictureWhat are the major volcanic landforms on Earth?
• an unexpected connectionCould ancient volcanic rock weathering trigger a snowball Earth?The weathering of newly created rock in the Franklin Large Igneous Province may have increased carbon dioxide drawdown enough to cool global temperatures and initiate a snowball Earth period.

Sources

• [1]large igneous province (Wikidata Q792425) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Large igneous province · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Caribbean large igneous province · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Mackenzie Large Igneous Province · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Franklin Large Igneous Province · CC BY-SA 4.0