SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM

II. Using geophysics and geochemistry to probe magmatism and eruption processes  

II.9 Continental large igneous provinces: understanding processes of magma formation, storage, evolution, and eruption

Conveners:
Dylan Colón, University of Oregon; dcolon@uoregon.edu
Anita Grunder, Oregon State University; grundera@geo.oregonstate.edu
Stephen Self, University of California, Berkeley; sself@berkeley.edu
Wendy Bohrson, Central Washington University; bohrson@geology.cwu.edu
Paul Renne, Berkeley Geochronology Center; prenne@bgc.org
Erika Rader, NASA Ames Research Center; erika.rader@nasa.gov
John Wolff, Washington State University; jawolff@wsu.edu

Large igneous provinces are characterized by extreme volumes (~106 km3) of magma erupted in geologically short time periods. These include the well-known flood basalt provinces and the associated evolved magmas that accompany nearly all such systems. In most cases, there are also hotspot tracks that are temporally and spatially connected to the flood basalt (e.g., Yellowstone-Columbia River Basalt province). We seek contributions that will help to better understand large igneous provinces and their associated hotspot tracks, with an emphasis on those that occur in continental crust. Relevant questions include: Where are the melts produced, including both the initial basalts and the most evolved rhyolites? What are the primary sources of chemical diversity in magmas, and what are the relative contributions of crustal melting, magma recharge, and fractional crystallization to this diversity? How does crustal composition influence the style of volcanism and the composition of erupted magmas? What role does tectonics play? What are the timescales of magma formation, differentiation, and eruption in these systems? What are the environmental impacts of these eruptions? We encourage submissions from a range of disciplines, including volcanology, petrology, geochemistry, computational modeling, and geophysics. Interdisciplinary studies are particularly encouraged.