Geologic, geochemical, and geophysical consequences of plume involvement in the Emeishan flood-basalt province
- 1Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 510640 Guangzhou, China
- 2Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10699, Taiwan
- 3Department of Geology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 OEX, UK
- 4Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
Abstract
Prevolcanic kilometer-scale lithospheric doming in the Emeishan large igneous province, southwest China, allows us to evaluate the spatial and temporal consequences of uplift on the paleogeography, geology, geochemistry, and geophysics of the region. Systematic spatial variations are observed across the domal structure in the distribution and thickness of clastic and carbonate sediments, the extent of erosion, thickness, and chemistry of volcanic rocks, and the crust-mantle structure. These features, which are best explained by a mantle plume, may be used to track older plume sites in the geologic record.
Footnotes
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↵*yigangxugig.ac.cn
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- Accepted June 9, 2004.
- Received February 24, 2004.
- Revision received May 26, 2004.
- Geological Society of America
