Global warming of the mantle beneath continents back to the Archaean |
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| Authors: | Nicolas Coltice Hervé Bertrand Patrice Rey Fred Jourdan Benjamin R Phillips Yanick Ricard |
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| Institution: | 1. Gemological Institute of America (GIA), 50 west 47th Street, New York City, NY 10036, USA;2. Canadian Centre for Isotopic Microanalysis, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E3, Canada;1. State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 9825, Beijing 100029, China;2. State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi''an 710069, China |
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| Abstract: | Throughout its history, the Earth has experienced global magmatic events that correlate with the formation of supercontinents. This suggests that the distribution of continents at the Earth's surface is fundamental in regulating mantle temperature. Nevertheless, most large igneous provinces (LIPs) are explained in terms of the interaction of a hot plume with the lithosphere, even though some do not show evidence for such a mechanism. The aggregation of continents impacts on the temperature and flow of the underlying mantle through thermal insulation and enlargement of the convection wavelength. Both processes tend to increase the temperature below the continental lithosphere, eventually triggering melting events without the involvement of hot plumes. This model, called mantle global warming, has been tested using 3D numerical simulations of mantle convection Coltice, N., Phillips, B.R., Bertrand, H., Ricard, Y., Rey, P. (2007) Global warming of the mantle at the origin of flood basalts over supercontinents. Geology 35, 391–394.]. Here, we apply this model to several continental flood basalts (CFBs) ranging in age from the Mesozoic to the Archaean. Our numerical simulations show that the mantle global warming model could account for the peculiarities of magmatic provinces that developed during the formation of Pangea and Rodinia, as well as putative Archaean supercontinents such as Kenorland and Zimvaalbara. |
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