Yellowstone hotspot volcanism in California? A paleomagnetic test of the Lovejoy flood basalt hypothesis

Abstract

In 2000, D.L. Wagner and colleagues hypothesized that the middle Miocene Yellowstone hotspot volcanism thought to have produced the great expanses of Columbia River and Oregon Plateau Basalts also gave rise to the Lovejoy Basalt of California. Paleomagnetic directions of lava flows of the Lovejoy Basalt in isolated localities scattered more than 200 km across northeastern and central California show that they were erupted rapidly and that some of them traveled great distances. Most of the paleomagnetic directions form a tight cluster distinct from the Miocene mean field direction for the region, indicating eruption within a relatively short time span compared to geomagnetic secular variation—that is, within a few hundred to a few thousand years. Directional correlations demonstrate that some flows traveled at least 75 km and likely as much as 200 km. These findings support the hypothesis that the Lovejoy flows are flood basalts that compose a large southwestward extension of Yellowstone hotspot volcanism.