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  • Review Article
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The life cycle of large igneous provinces

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 2, pages 840–857 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Extremely voluminous magmatic systems known as large igneous provinces (LIPs) punctuate Earth’s history, and the gases they release plausibly link large-scale geodynamic and magmatic processes with major climate shifts in Earth’s geological record. However, quantifying the relationships between magmatism, gas release and environmental changes remains challenging. In this Review, we explore the major insights and outstanding questions regarding the linked evolution of mantle melting, expansive magmatic systems and the redistribution of volatiles from the solid Earth to the atmosphere. The evolution of mantle melt generation during LIP episodes sets the fundamental tempo of magma emplacement throughout the crust. The progression of crustal LIP magmatism and associated hydrothermal activity help shape the chemical evolution of the continental lithosphere and surface environment. Percolation of magmatic and metamorphic volatiles can decouple the tempo of gas release — a potential key driver of environmental changes — from the tempo of extrusive volcanic activity. LIPs demonstrate how large-scale magmatic systems interact with the surrounding lithosphere to propel evolving regimes of magma and volatile transfer through the crust. New, temporally resolved constraints on the evolution of LIP plumbing systems are needed to keep pace with increasingly precise timelines of palaeoenvironmental change during LIP emplacement.

Key points

  • Large igneous provinces (LIPs) mobilize climate-impacting gases from the solid Earth and have been implicated in major environmental disruptions.

  • Mantle melting varies between LIPs: continental LIP main-phase melting tends to be shallower than early and late phases, whereas oceanic LIPs differ, suggesting that lithosphere thickness is among the controls modulating melting.

  • LIPs exhibit an evolving lithospheric transport system that links waxing and waning generation of a prodigious volume (106–107 km3) of mantle melt with intrusions and surface outpourings of lava.

  • LIP volatiles originate from the mantle, continental lithospheric mantle and crust. Evolving magmatic chemistry, intrusion, volatile flushing and cryptic degassing complicate the relationship between pace of emissions (particularly CO2) and surface eruption rates.

  • Understanding links between LIP melt generation, lithospheric magma plumbing and surface climate requires high-resolution timelines for these systems combining geodynamic modelling, geochronology and geochemical datasets.

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Fig. 1: Large igneous provinces represent Earth’s largest magmatic events.
Fig. 2: Evolution of continental large igneous provinces.
Fig. 3: Stratigraphy of the Columbia River Flood Basalts.
Fig. 4: The tempo of LIP magmatism varies across multiple timescales.
Fig. 5: Melt inclusion and proxy data track CO2, S and halogen budgets in large igneous province magmas.
Fig. 6: Regime diagram tracking large igneous province evolution.

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Data availability

Data compilation used in Fig. 5 is available in a worksheet file (Supplementary data).

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Acknowledgements

T.A.M. acknowledges funding from ERC consolidator grant (ERC-2018-COG-818717-V-ECHO). B.A.B. acknowledges funding from NSF EAR 1615147. L.K. acknowledges funding from NSF EAR 1848554.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Benjamin A. Black

  2. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science, CUNY City College, New York, NY, USA

    Benjamin A. Black

  3. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA

    Leif Karlstrom

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Tamsin A. Mather

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Contributions

All authors participated in drafting and revising the article. B.A.B. and T.A.M. led the discussion of volatiles and created the volatile compilation, L.K. led the discussion of formation-level and member-level tempo, B.A.B. and L.K. led the discussion of the structure of large igneous provinces and their relationship to other volcanic activity, B.A.B. led the discussion of mantle melt generation.

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Correspondence to Benjamin A. Black.

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Supplementary information

Glossary

Mass extinctions

Abrupt losses of biodiversity in which >75% of species vanish over geologically short intervals, yielding extinction rates that far exceed rates at which new species evolve.

Continental lithospheric mantle

(CLM). The uppermost part of the mantle that is mechanically attached to continental crust and does not participate in mantle convection.

Transcrustal transport system

The suite of processes by which magma ascends through the crust to the surface via a network of storage zones (magma chambers) and dikes and/or sills.

Tholeiitic

Iron-rich basalts like those found at mid-ocean ridges, commonly thought to originate at relatively high (>10%) degrees of melting, typically at pressures <3 GPa.

Alkaline

Basalts rich in K and Na, and are thought to originate at relatively low degrees of melting (<5%), often at pressures >3 GPa.

Mantle melting

Occurs when the decompression, temperature or composition of mantle material (or a combination of these) place it above its solidus — but almost universally below its liquidus, when it would be entirely molten.

Mantle plumes

Focused upwellings from the deep mantle with anomalous composition and temperature that cause them to be buoyant.

Edge-driven convection

Invokes lithospheric thickness variations, for example, across the edges of continents, to drive local convection and decompression melting.

Delamination

When the formation of dense eclogites causes the lowermost crust or lithospheric mantle to sink into the underlying mantle.

Mantle potential temperatures

The temperatures of a parcel of mantle if brought adiabatically to the Earth’s surface, which enables comparison of mantle temperatures from different depths.

Geodynamic modelling

Solves conservation equations for mass, momentum and energy to predict how the solid Earth evolves, typically focused on large length scales and timescales, and typically involving mantle convection.

Major element

An element with concentration exceeding ~1 wt% — in this case, within magmas — including Si, Fe, O, Mg, Ca and Al.

Trace element

An element with concentration typically <1 wt%, such as rare-earth elements.

Partial melting

A fractional degree of melting, from 0% at the solidus to 100% at the liquidus.

Magma plumbing system

Transcrustal magma transport and storage networks that feed surface eruptions.

Intrusive to extrusive ratio

The proportion of primary magma that freezes upon ascent versus the volume that erupts on the surface.

Mantle xenoliths

Fragments of mantle rock entrained and transported in a magma — the presence of dense xenoliths in erupted volcanic rocks reflects sufficiently rapid ascent to keep them entrained.

Dynamic topography

Often defined as the time-dependent generation of surface relief from non-isostatic mantle or crustal flow.

Tempo

The tempo of magmatism is its pace, for example, how the intensity of magmatic activity varies through time — it often refers to the volume and frequency of eruptions at the surface.

Incompatible

Elements that are strongly enriched in the melt relative to solid phases during mantle melting, often due to ionic charge or radius that hinders their easy substitution into the structure of the solid phases that are present.

Bulk distribution coefficients

Di, commonly abbreviated as Di = Cisolid/Ciliq, for the concentration of a species i in a solid residue (Cisolid) relative to in the liquid (Ciliq). By definition, Di « 1 for incompatible species.

Rehomogenization

The experimental reheating of crystals hosting recrystallized or bubble-bearing melt inclusions until inclusions melt, and then quenching to form homogeneous glass suitable for obtaining representative compositions by microanalysis.

CO2 flushing

Refers to exsolution of CO2-rich fluids at depth in the magmatic system, which then ascend and modify the balance of volatiles in shallower (typically more CO2-depleted) magmas.

Diffuse degassing

Non-eruptive degassing via permeable pathways through the crust.

Cryptic degassing

Cryptic degassing is gas release due to intrusive or metamorphic degassing that causes total degassing to exceed expectations from magma volatile concentrations, and that can manifest as excess gas release during eruptions or as diffuse, non-eruptive degassing.

Magma redox

Refers to the balance between oxidation and reduction that determines the oxidation state of chemical species in the magma.

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Black, B.A., Karlstrom, L. & Mather, T.A. The life cycle of large igneous provinces. Nat Rev Earth Environ 2, 840–857 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-021-00221-4

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