Abbott, D.H. & Isley, A.E. 2002. The Intensity, Occurrence, and Duration of Superplume Events and Eras Over Geological Time

Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307 www.elsevier.
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The intensity, occurrence, and duration of superplume events and eras over geological time
Dallas H. Abbotta,*, Ann E. Isleyb
b a Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964, USA Department of Earth Sciences, State University of New York at Oswego, Oswego, NY 13126, USA
Abstract We dene the characteristics of plume events that can be called superplumes. Using the surface area of the smallest oceanic plateau generated during the Cretaceous superplume era, we dene a cuto surface area for superplume ood basalts of 5410,000 km2. We show that the maximum widths of feeder dikes of plume lavas are linearly related to the square root of the surface area covered by their ood basalts. From this we derive a cuto: the widest feeder dikes of a superplume event must be 570 4 m wide. All high Mg rocks as dened by Isley and Abbott [J. Geol. (2001)] are superplume rocks. Layered intrusions formed by superplumes have either high abundances of platinum group elements and/or chromium. We use all of the data from the superplume proxies: ood basalts, dike swarms, high Mg rocks, and layered intrusions to dene the duration of superplume eras over Earth history. Over two thirds of the superplume eras last less than 8 million years. We nd no signicant dierence between the average duration of Archean (13 7 Ma) and Phanerozoic (12 3Ma) superplume eras. Finally, we use our data on maximum dike widths and ood basalt surface area to construct estimates of the overall surface area covered by lava during individual superplume events over the last 2.9 Ga. We nd that the largest Precambrian superplume events erupted at least 10 times more lava than the largest Phanerozoic superplume event, covering a minimum of 1418% of the planet. Between 1.7 and 2.9 Ga, there were enough large Precambrian superplume events to completely resurface the planet. We also nd evidence for many superplume events earlier than 2.9 Ga, but due to a lack of data on maximum widths of feeder dikes, we cannot estimate the relative sizes of most of these events. # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
* Corresponding author. Fax: +1-914-365-8156. E-mail address: dallas@ideo.columbia.edu (D.H. Abbott).

0264-3707/02/$ - see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0264-3707(02)00024-8
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D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307
1. Introduction We know that the interior of the early Earth had a higher content of radioactive elements. As a result, the core and mantle were hotter and melted more extensively. Our samples of these high degree melts are komatiites and other high Mg rocks (Arndt and Nisbet, 1982; Isley and Abbott, 2002). Previously, we have shown that these high degree melts had potential temperatures that decayed exponentially over time (Abbott et al., 1994), with a decay rate like that predicted independently from the radioactive element contents of chondritic meteorites (Wasserburg et al., 1964). Overall, the potential temperatures of high Mg rocks (and concurrent mid-ocean ridge type basalts) have declined about 170 20 C since the middle Archean (Galer and Metzger, 1998). During the late Phanerozoic, we know that the extrusion of high Mg rocks (e.g. Gorgona and Tortugal komatiites) occurred concurrently with greatly increased production of tholeiitic basalt in the form of oceanic plateaus and massive ood basalts (e.g. Caribbean-Columbian province). (Kerr et al., 1996a,b) These episodes of increased production of basaltic extrusives have been dubbed superplumes (Larson, 1991). In between superplumes, the rate of basalt production declines and very few if any high Mg rocks are extruded Plume activity does continue during these times, but the plumes are not superplumes. Because the liquidus temperatures of Archean high Mg rocks were much greater than those of the known Phanerozoic high Mg rocks, the average degree of melting of the mantle must have been greater. It follows that the volume of extrusives generated during Archean plume and superplume events must also have been greater. The diculties lie in using the preserved rock record to quantify the dierence in volume and to distinguish between normal plume activity and superplumes. The rock record is by nature incomplete. Oceanic plateaus may be subducted or disaggregated. Continental ood basalts, their feeder dikes, and even their underlying magma chambers may be eroded or deformed. Nonetheless, certain proxies have proven useful in delineating mantle plume events (Larson 1991; Ernst and Buchan 1997a,b, 2001). We have previously dened four proxies of mantle plume activity: komatiites, ood basalts, massive mac dike swarms and layered igneous intrusions (Isley and Abbott, 1999). We determined that komatiites are the most robust indicators of the global plume activity that is characteristic of superplumes. We have more recently suggested that other high-Mg igneous rocks (including meimechites, and some picrites and ankaramites) are the Phanerozoic equivalents of komatiites, and serve as equally strong indicators of global mantle plume volcanism (Isley and Abbott, 2002). However, other plume proxies have yielded more equivocal results. Some Precambrian basalt sequences that lack high-Mg units are of limited areal extent yet have been interpreted as ood basalts (e.g. the ca. 2.0 Ga. Mugford Group; Barton, 1975). Likewise, there are mac dikes of such limited areal extent that it is dicult to see how they could have served as feeders to continental ood basalts. While extremely large dike swarms like the Matachewan or Central Atlantic dikes are suggestive of superplume origin (Ernst and Buchan, 1997a; Heaman, 1997), what areal extent a dike swarm must have to be considered massive is unclear. Further, many layered igneous intrusions are emplaced in orogenic provinces, and are unrelated to plume volcanism. In this paper, we attempt to dene the subsets of dikes, ood basalts and layered igneous intrusions that are characteristic of superplume events. We then compile a time-series of individual superplume events and use it to evaluate which times during Earth history were characterized by many individual superplume events, thus dening a superplume era.
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2. Plumes, superplumes events and superplume eras: the importance of the dierence Mantle plumes (or hotspots) were discovered by identifying areas of unusual volcanism that were not produced by the dewatering or melting of downgoing plates (Morgan, 1978; Crough, 1983). The present-day areas of plume volcanism are sprinkled over the planet, with over 20 acknowledged active mantle plumes (Molnar and Stock, 1987; Sleep, 1990). In the ocean basins, ordinary plumes produce hotspot island chains. On land, ordinary plumes produce areas of ood basalts (e.g. Yellowstone hotspot) or volcanic elds (e.g. Raton hotspot) (Simkin and Siebert, 1994). At times, ordinary plumes have order of magnitude increases in their volcanic extrusion rate per unit time (Duncan and Pyle, 1988; Renne, 1995; Hames et al., 2000). These tremendous increases in volcanic volume result in the production of massive ood basalts, massive dike swarms, and oceanic plateaus. The driving forces for these transitions in plume activity are not known. Some suggest that large meteorite impacts might trigger such changes (Boslough, 1996; Hagstrom, 2000). Others suggest that plume initiation events produce most oceanic plateaus or massive ood basalts (Richards et al., 1991). Although most ordinary plumes do begin with the formation of a large igneous province, some large igneous provinces (e.g. Deccan) have formed from ordinary plumes that suddenly became more active (Bhandari et al., 1993; Courtillot et al., 2000). Thus, the superplume/ordinary plume transition can occur at any time in the life of a plume. When many superplume events occur in a short geological period, they constitute a superplume era. Because they produce massive volumes of basalt in the form of oceanic plateaus and ood basalts, superplume eras have produced major episodes of continental growth and continental rifting (White and MacKenzie, 1989; Stein and Hofmann, 1994; Abbott and Mooney, 1995; Stein and Goldstein, 1996). For example, the largest and thickest oceanic plateaus produced by the Cretaceous superplume era are unsubductable and constitute new continental blocks (Abbott et al., 1997). A superplume at 202 Ma produced the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) (Sebai et al., 1991; Hames et al., 2000). During the extrusion of the CAMP lavas, a large triple junction formed that eventually resulted in the divergence of three continental blocks: Africa/Europe, North America, and South America (Ernst and Buchan, 1997a; Marzoli et al., 1999). Thus, superplume events and eras are major drivers of tectonic change on the Earth, both by building and by disaggregating continents (Condie et al., 2001). Despite the importance of the dierence between superplumes and ordinary plumes, the present methods of distinguishing between superplumes and ordinary plumes are quite nebulous. Condie (2001) has made a start by dening superplumes as plume heads with a diameter of between 1500 and 3000-km. In terms of eruptive volume, he denes superplumes as those producing an eruptive volume of 5106 km3 or greater (Condie, 2001). The problem is that both of these denitions are very dicult to apply to the eroded remnants from ancient plumes. What really constitutes massive ood basalt as opposed to the basalt elds produced by ordinary plumes? How can we identify events that are distinguished by large increases in igneous extrusion rate as we go back in time and the accuracy of geochronology decreases? When is a dike swarm a massive swarm as opposed to being a simple dike swarm? All of the above methods of distinguishing plumes from superplumes are exceedingly dicult to apply in Precambrian rocks, where the crust is eroded and deformed. We need more quantitative methods of distinguishing superplume events from plume events, methods that can distinguish superplumes from ordinary plumes using spatially
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Table 1 Cretaceous superplume igneous provinces Province name Madagascar basalts Rio Grande Rise Broken Ridge+Naturaliste Plateau Venezuelan-Colombian Basin Kerguelen Plateau Hess Rise Alpha Ridge oceanic plateau Manihiki Plateau Wallaby Plateau Ontong Java Plateau Average age (Ma) 87.55 88 91 100 100.5 107.5 111 118.5 118.5 122.15 Error (Ma) 3.8 1 2 20 11.5 12.5 20 6.5 6.5 3.2 Surface area (km2) 1 1 1 1 1 050 670 020 860 540 800 1 650 1 210 410 1 860 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
restricted samples. Isley and Abbott (2002) have developed one such method, by dening high Mg rocks as characteristic of superplume events. In the following sections, we dene more such quantitative methods.
3. Flood basalts: minimum size indicative of a superplume event The recent Cretaceous superplume era was characterized by the formation of numerous oceanic plateaus; ten of these have been well dated (Table 1). We assume that the size of the smallest, the Wallaby Plateau, 4.1 105 km2, is the lower limit for superplume-generated ood basalt provinces. Based on the distribution of high-Mg rocks in ood basalt sequences of known size, we infer that this is a conservative approach. Neither the Rajmahal ood basalts nor the Columbia River trapsboth of which have areal extents smaller than the Wallaby Plateau (Table 2)contain units with high-Mg character. The total volume of the Columbia River ood basalts is 1.75105 km3 (Tolan et al., 1989), below the threshold for superplume lava volume proposed by Condie (2001). In comparison, the Caribbean-Columbian basalt province has a surface area of 1,860,000 km2, and it contains the Tortugal komatiites (Costa Rica), the Gorgona island komatiites, and the Curacao picrites (Isley and Abbott, 2002). The North Atlantic basaltic province has an area of 1,300,000 km2 and contains both picrites and meimechites within parts of Greenland. The Icelandic plateau covers 800,000 km2, and there are ankaramites on Iceland (Pegram and Allegre, 1992). The Caribbean-Columbian, the North Atlantic and the Icelandic provinces all have total lava volumes in excess of 5105 km3, and thus would t the denition of a superplume province proposed by Condie (2001). Thus, the Phanerozoic data support the decision to consider only those ood basalts provinces over 410,000 km2 in area as superplume-generated. Because recent sequences of ood basalts have relatively little erosion compared to ancient ones, the original surface areas of recent ood basalt terrains are comparatively well known. However, because of long-term erosion, the present-day outcrop of ancient ood basalts represents only a fraction of their original areal extent. Therefore, we must calculate their original area from the remaining outcrop area. We use an erosion correction that was originally developed for
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Table 2 Large igneous provinces with both mapped feeder dikes and a known value of original surface area of ood basalts Name Maximum dike width, m > 100 300 40 10 150 8 > 60 Original surface area, km2 1.50E+06 7.00E+06 1.64E+05 5.04E+03 1.28E+06 4.10E+03 8.60E+05 References
Deccan province Central Atlantic province Columbia River province Harrat Hadan Parana-Serra Geral and Etendeka Rajmahal Iceland
Karkare and Srivastava, 1990 Oliveria et al., 1990; Marzoli et al., 1999 Hooper, 1997 Sebai et al., 1991 Peate, 1997; Erlank et al., 1984 Kent et al., 1997 Gudmundsson, 1990; Schubert and Sandwell, 1989
cratonic rocks (Veizer and Jansen, 1985; Condie et al., 2001). The original surface area (Ao) of a ood basalt province is given by the following equation: Ao A=ekT ; 1
where A is the present day surface area, T is time in million years, and k is a decay constant of 9.9021E-4 (derived from Condie et al. 2001). If the original surface area of a ood basalt province is calculated to be less than 410,000 km2, the ood basalt is not included in our list of superplume generated ood basalts (Table 3). Half of the recent ood basalt sequences that we are assuming represent mantle superplume activity contain units with rocks containing > 18 wt.% MgO (cf., Isley and Abbott, 2002). One quarter of the ood basalt sequences are part of an oceanic feature and cannot easily be subjected to the same sort of scrutiny as continental sequences. Because high-Mg units typically comprise < 10% of the total volume of a continental ood basalt (Francis and Hynes, 1979), it is not surprising that such units are not known from the oceanic plateaus listed in Tables 1 and 2. There is therefore a generally good agreement between the high-Mg record and the ood basalts that we infer are proxies of mantle superplume activity.
4. Mac dikes: minimum size indicative of a superplume event As a ood basalt province is eroded, its feeder dikes and magma chamber are exposed at the surface. In ancient terrains, only the feeder dikes and/or magma chamber are left. For example, the Great Dike and satellites of Zimbabwe represent a combination of a layered intrusion (elongated magma chamber) and the remnants of a massive dike swarm (Podmore and Wilson, 1987; Ernst and Buchan, 1997b). The edges of this dike swarm have been lost due to lateral erosion and deformation of the Zimbabwe craton. The problem lies in using the characteristics of the feeder dikes to infer whether or not an ordinary plume or a superplume produced the eroded ood basalt province.
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Table 3 Superplume Type Flood Basalt Provinces Name Iceland Rockall Plateau North Atlantic Igneous Province Deccan Traps Madagascar basalts (Manajary bas. Kom) Rio Grande Rise Broken Ridge Venezuelan-Colombian Basin picrites Kerguelen Plateau Hess Rise Alpha Ridge oceanic plateau Manihiki Plateau Wallaby Plateau Ontong Java Plateau Parana-Serra Geral and Etendeka Parana-Serra Geral and Etendeka Shatsky Rise Magellan Rise Ferrar Dolerite Sills Karoo Province (Lembobo (Letaba) picrites) Newark SGp, Merdian Gp Siberian Traps (Bottom 90%) Location North Atlantic N. Atlantic N. Atlantic border India Madagascar S. Atlantic Indian Ocean Carribbean Indian Ocean Pacic Ocean Arctic Ocean Pacic Ocean Indian Ocean Pacic Ocean S. America/Africa S. America/Africa Pacic Ocean Pacic Ocean Antarctica Africa N. America Asia Age 7.5 57.5 59.55 61.45 87.55 88 91 100 100.5 107.5 111 118.5 118.5 122.15 128.75 131.35 140 145 183.6 183.7 198.5 252.15 Error 7.5 2 2 4.6 3.8 1 2 20 11.5 12.5 20 6.5 6.5 3.2 2.8 8.4 10 5 1 0.6 3.5 3.8 Surface area 8.00E+05 6.70E+05 1.30E+06 8.00E+05 1.60E+06 1.67E+06 5.10E+05 1.86E+06 1.54E+06 8.00E+05 1.65E+06 1.21E+06 4.10E+05 1.86E+06 1.20E+06 1.20E+06 1.24E+06 5.40E+05 4.50E+05 2.20E+06 7.00E+06 3.40E+05 Reference age Saunders et al., 1997 Sinton and Duncan, 1998 Saunders et al., 1997 Baksi, 1994 Storey et al., 1997 Schubert and Sandwell, 1989 Schubert and Sandwell, 1989 Schubert and Sandwell, 1989 Schubert and Sandwell, 1989 Schubert and Sandwell, 1989 Embry and Osadetz, 1988 Schubert and Sandwell, 1989 Schubert and Sandwell, 1989 Con and Eldholm, 1994 Renne et al., 1996a Renne et al., 1996b, Turner et al., 1994 Schubert and Sandwell, 1989 Schubert and Sandwell, 1989 Encarnacion et al., 1996 Encarnacion et al., 1996 Philpotts, 1998 Renne et al., 1995; Basu et al., 1995 Reference width/area D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307 Schubert and Sandwell, 1989 Schubert and Sandwell, 1989 Eldholm and Grue, 1994 Duncan and Pyle, 1988 Ernst and Buchan, 2001 Schubert and Sandwell, 1989 Schubert and Sandwell, 1989 Schubert and Sandwell, 1989 Schubert and Sandwell, Schubert and Sandwell, Schubert and Sandwell, Schubert and Sandwell, Schubert and Sandwell, Schubert and Sandwell, Peate, 1997 Peate, 1997 Schubert and Sandwell, 1989 Schubert and Sandwell, 1989 Fleming et al., 1997 Marsh et al., 1997 Ernst and Buchan, 2001 Sharma, 1997 1989 1989 1989 1989 1989 1989
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Table 3 (continued) Name Emeishan-Song Da-Jinping Flood Basalts (has picrites) East European Craton Antrim Plateau Basalts Franklin Sills Hottah McKenzie mt (inferred from dikes) Willouran Volcanics Keweenawan Basalts Umkondo Dolerite FB Coppermine River Basalts Nauyat Plateau Basalt, Mackenzie Onega Plateau Birrimian thoeliites-Tehini belt Nippising diabase ood basalt Karelian SGp Sumi-Sariola Gp Imandra-Varzuga (Strelna) Rampur Flood Basalts (Gharwar-Mandi) Klipriveersberg FloodbasaltVentersdorp SG Fortescue-Kylena Fortescue-Mt. Roe FB Derdepoort Flood Basalts Location Asia Europe Australia N. America N. America Australia N. America Africa N. America N. America Europe Africa N. America Baltica Baltica India Kaapvaal Pilbara Pilbara Kaapvaal Age 254.9 368.75 531.5 724 779 827 1097.7 1104.7 1270 1277 1975 2183.7 2219.05 2441.8 2442.8 2486 2713.3 2725 2772 2782 Error 5.1 10.75 18.5 3 2 6 12.1 2.3 4 18 24 6.7 3.6 1.7 4.8 69 8.3 45 2 5 Surface area 2.50E+05 3.00E+06 4.50E+05 1.27E+05 500000 2.10E+05 1.60E+05 2.00E+06 2.00E+06 2.00E+06 6.00E+06 1.26E+04 4.50E+04 1.00E+04 1.00E+04 1.70E+05 2.10E+05 1.12E+05 1.12E+05 1.00E+04 Reference age Chung et al., 1998 Ernst and Buchan, 2001 Bultitude, 1976 Heaman et al., 1992 LeCheminant and Heaman, 1994 Wingate and Giddings, 2000 Davis and Paces, 1990, Davis and Green, 1997 Hanson et al., 1998 LeCheminant and Heaman, 1989a,b LeCheminant and Heaman, 1989a,b Puchtel et al., 1999 Hirdes and Davis, 1998 Condie et al., 1987 Amelin et al., 1995 Amelin et al., 1995 Bhat et al., 1998 Wingate, 1998 Wingate, 1998 Wingate, 1998 Wingate, 1998 Reference width/area D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307 Chung et al., 1998 Ernst and Buchan, 2001 Ernst and Buchan, 2001 Robertson and Baragar, 1972 LeCheminant and Heaman, 1994 Hilyard, 1990 Ernst and Buchan, 2001 Hanson et al., 1998 LeCheminant and Heaman, 1989a,b LeCheminant and Heaman, 1989a,b Puchtel et al., 1999 Hirdes and Davis, 1998 Buchan et al., 1996 Puchtel et al., 1996 Amelin et al., 1995 Bhat et al., 1998 Wingate, 1998 Blake, 1993 Blake, 1993 Wingate, 1998
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The map area of feeder dike outcrops might be one indicator, but we know from studies of the Columbia River basalts that the map area of the feeder dikes is much less than the map area covered by basalt ows (Hooper, 1982, 1997). So, the map area of ancient feeder dikes can only give, at best, a lower limit on the former areal extent of the ood basalts. Finally, in very old cratons, the small surface areas of the surviving cratons themselves limit our ability to calculate an original extent of plume activity. Cratons are artifacts of the tectonic processes that formed them and surrounded them with younger, deformed rocks. Their sizes constitute an articial limit on the calculation of dike swarm area and original areal extent of ood basalt provinces. Additionally, the total surface area covered by dikes is not only poorly preserved, but what is preserved is usually highly metamorphosed and deformed. So it is necessary to nd another characteristic which may be correlated with areal extent. Theoretical calculations of the total volume of magma passed through a dike (per unit dike height) as a function of the dike width at the Earths surface shows a nearly linear relationship between the square of dike width and the total magma volume (Fialko and Rubin, 1999). That is, for dikes with widths in excess of about 10 m, the total volume of magma discharged per unit of dike height (this has units of surface area) ranges from roughly 100 km2 for a dike 10 m wide to 10,000 km2 for a dike 100 m wide. This relationship means that a 100-m wide dike has a magma transport rate that is 100 times the magma transport rate of a 10-m wide dike. Thus, in any given dike swarm, the widest dikes are by far the most important in transporting magma. Erupting ood basalts have very low viscosities and spread out over wide areas, covering hundreds of square kilometers in short periods of time. Thus, it has been observed that ood basalts show only a small variation in thickness over large areas (Con and Eldholm, 1994; Encarnacion et al., 1996; Hooper, 1997). It is reasonable to infer, therefore, that total magma volume and total surface area covered are closely related variables. If we could show that total surface area of the ood basalt, S, is equal to some constant A times the square of the maximum dike width, W, we could then estimate the surface area covered by long eroded ood basalt events. We could further use the maximum widths of the largest feeder dikes to evaluate which past ood basalt events were generated by normal plume activity and which were generated by superplume activity. It is very dicult at this time to assemble suciently reliable data on the areal extent of ood basalts and the maximum width of their feeder dikes. We have been able to identify just ve Phanerozoic plume and superplume events (Table 2) with accurate data on maximum dike width and ood basalt area: (1) the Parana-Serra Geral and Etendeka ood basalts of South America and West Africa; (2) the Columbia River ood basalts of the northwestern US; (3) the Harrat Hadan in Ethiopia; (4) the Rajmahal Traps of India; and (5) the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP). (Note that the surface areas listed are the total surface areas covered by ood basalts before any continental rifting took place.) Data for Iceland and the Deccan Traps are also listed in Table 2, but the dike widths for these terrains are not well constrained. Another sequence of ood basalts, the Ferrar-Karoo Province of South Africa and Antarctica, is not listed because it is partly buried under the Antarctic ice cap, so neither dike widths nor total surface area are well-known. To test for a possible relationship between the maximum dike width and the areal extent of a ood basalt province, we plotted the maximum dike width in each terrain versus the corresponding square root of the surface area of ood basalt. Fig. 1 shows that there is a very strong linear correlation between the two variables, with an R2 value of 0.99 for the correlation. The
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Fig. 1. Maximum feeder dike width (meters) versus square root of total surface area (km) covered by ood basalts. Data points: squares. Best-t line is t by least squares with a forced zero intercept. Data used to make this plot is in Table 2.
relationship is linear for all maximum dike widths in our data set, which range from 8 m wide to 300 m wide. To derive our empirical relationships, we made two least squares ts to the data, reversing the dependent and independent variables. From our line ts, we were able to derive two simple predictive equations. The rst equation calculates total surface area (A) from the maximum width (W) of the feeder dikes: A 9:0826W 2 2
The error in the slope of Eq. (2) is 0.527. Conversely, a second least squares t predicts maximum feeder dike width from the ood basalts total surface area, so that W 0:1093A1=2 : 3
The error in the slope of Eq. (3) is 6.67E-3. We can test these relations using the partial data from the other basalt provinces in Table 2. For example, we do not know the maximum width of the Deccan feeder dikes; although it is known that the widest mapped feeder dikes are over 100 m in width. We use Eq. (3) and the total surface area of the Deccan traps (1,500,000 km2) to calculate a maximum dike width of 134 8 m. For the Wallaby plateau, the smallest superplume-generated plateau in Table 1, the equation
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predicts a maximum dike width of 70 4 m. We therefore assume that superplume activity generates dikes having widths in excess of 70 m (Table 4). Dike swarms with maximum feeder dike widths less than 70 m are categorized as belonging to normal plume events. This denition ts with the small amount of data listed in Table 2. The Columbia River normal plume produced maximum dike widths of 40 m, consistent with our empirical prediction, while the superplumegenerated Deccan traps are known to have dike widths wider than 100 m, consistent with our denition of a superplume event. As better eld data for the characteristics of Phanerozoic ood basalt provinces become available in the future, we will be able to rene our boundary values.
5. Superplume layered intrusions In terranes with high pressure metamorphic rocks exposed at the surface, the dike swarms are eroded and often removed. For example, the areas of the Canadian Shield with granulite facies rock at the surface have far fewer dike swarms that the adjacent lower grade regions (Fahrig and West, 1987; Halls, 1987). In the granulite regions, the only remnant of a superplume event may be the lower part of a magma chamber that fed the eroded dikes. These solidied magma chambers constitute mac and ultramac layered intrusions. The problem is how to dierentiate between layered intrusions generated by superplumes and those generated by some other process. The size of a layered intrusion is not a good indicator of the plume magnitude. Instead, the sizes of layered intrusions appear to be dependent on crustal and tectonic factors not necessarily related to the plume itself. For example, the Rhum intrusion on the isle of Rhum o the coast of Scotland was emplaced during the North Atlantic superplume event. The Rhum intrusion covers an area of only 30 km2 (Hamilton et al., 1998). A much larger feature, the 48.8 Ma Kap Edvard Holm layered intrusion, on the east coast of Greenland, covers 360 km2; but with an age of 48.8 Ma, it is too young to have been formed by the North Atlantic superplume (Tegner et al., 1998). Thus, superplumes do not necessarily produce larger intrusions and normal plumes do not necessarily produce smaller intrusions. Superplumes are associated with increased melting in the mantle, so intrusions formed by them would be expected to have a dierent mineralogy than those formed by normal plumes. In particular, we would expect them to have high concentrations of compatible elements such as Cr and the platinum group elements (PGEs). The primary magmas, as they crystallized in the intrusion, would be expected to form layers of chromitite or layers enriched in PGEs. The Great Dike of Rhodesia, for example, contains extensive chromium deposits (Guilbert and Park, 1986). We know that the small Rhum intrusion was formed by a superplume event and therefore we would expect to nd Cr and PGE enrichments. In fact, the Rhum intrusion does contain small, well-dened chromite layers (Hamilton et al., 1998). However, the much bigger Kap Edvard Holm layered intrusion, known to be unrelated to a superplume event, is not enriched in Cr or PGEs and has no chromite layers (Tegner et al., 1998). Other small intrusions along the west coast of Scotland and east coast of Greenland, known to have been produced by the North Atlantic superplume, such as the one on the Isle of Mull and the Skaergaard intrusion, also contain chromite and/or show PGE enrichment (Guilbert and Park, 1986).
Table 4 Superplume dike swarms

Name Iceland Peary Land dike swarm Deccan dikes Parana dikes Central Atlantic Dike Swarm Messejana Dike Shelborne Dike St Malo dike Swarm Chara Sinsk Dikes Grenville Dikes Thule dikes Ganna Kouriep mac dikes Borden diabase dikes (Franklin) Mundine well dike swarm Gairdner Dike Swarm Bistjarvi-Laanila diabase dikes Champ de Mers Guruve Swarm/Deweras dike Pidgeon river dikes (Logan sill) Abitibi Dykes Gardar Giant Dikes-Tugtutoq Sundsjo dike Sudbury Dikes Gardar Giant Dikes-older Market dolerite Muskox Intrusion dikes (MacKenzie) Harp dolerite dikes/Reid Brook Intrusion Pilanesberg dikes swarm Hallefors dike Breven giant dike Aland-Aboland dike swarm (Korso, Foglo) Region North Atlantic Greenland India Brazil North America Spain Nova Scotia Europe Europe Canada Greenland Africa North America Australia Australia Baltica Australia Zimbabwe Canada Canada Greenland Europe Canada Greenland Europe Canada Canada Africa Europe Europe Europe Width, m > 60 200 > 100 100 250 300 180 100? 200 100 100 100* 250 > 300 > 100 ? 200 130 100 500 250 800 250 100 200 700 400 400 > 75 1000 1000 400 Age 7.5 66 66.5 132.5 201 203 203 330 377.5 590.5 682 717 724 755 840.5 1036.5 1058 1100 1110 1140.6 1154 1213 1238.5 1259.5 1260 1270 1277 1330 1518 1545 1558.5 Error 7.5 6.6 4.3 5 2 2 2 10 19.5 1.5 25 11 4 3 73.5 55.5 14 270 3 2 16 18 4 56.5 10 4 3 80 38 26 30.5 Reference age Saunders et al., 1997 Dawes and Soper, 1971 Bhattacharji et al., 1996 Peate, 1997 Dunning and Hodych, 1990 Dunn et al., 1998 Dunn et al., 1998 Aifa et al., 1999 Tomshin and Koroleva, 1990 Kamo et al., 1995 Dawes and Rex, 1986 Reid et al., 1991 Heaman et al., 1992 Wingate and Giddings, 2000 Zhao and McCulloch, 1993 Mertanen et al., 1996 Glikson et al., 1996 Hahn et al., 1991 Krogh et al., 1984 Condie et al., 1987 Upton et al., 1995 Patchett, 1978 Dudas et al., 1994 Patchett, 1978 Suominen, 1991 Barnes and Francis, 1995 MacKay, 1994 Hunter and Reid, 1987 Patchett, 1978 Patchett, 1978 Suominen, 1991 Reference: maximum dike width Gudmundsson, 1990 Nielsen, 1987 Bhattacharji et al., 1996 Druecker and Gay, 1987 Oliveria et al., 1990 Dunn et al., 1998 Papezik and Barr, 1981 Aifa et al., 1999 Tomshin and Koroleva, 1990 Seymour and Kumarapeli, 1995 Nielsen, 1987 Hunter and Reid, 1987 Christie and Fahrig,1983 Wingate and Giddings, 2000 Zhao and McCulloch, 1993 Mertanen et al., 1996 Sheraton and Sun, 1997 Wilson et al., 1987 Green et al., 1987 Ernst et al., 1987 Upton and Emeleus,1987 Patchett, 1978 Condie et al., 1987 Upton and Emeleus,1987 Suominen, 1991 Ernst and Buchan, 1997a,b Cadman et al., 1993 Emerman, 1991 Aberg and Lopez Montano, 1986 Wikstrom, 1985 Lindberg and Eklund, 1990
D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307 275
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Table 4 (continued) Name Melville Bugt Dike Swarm Hame olivine dolerite dikes Ansio Tiruvannamali dike swarm Dharwar Hame olivine dolerite dikes Virmala Dharwar, dolerite-gabbronorite, dikes Avanavero feeder dikes (Roraima) Oenpelli dolerite dikes Uruguayan Dikes Zyzdal-Zalesskaya Dike Korosten Avanavero Suite Sills (Roraima intrusives) Dharmapuri dikes Cuthbert Dikes (younger Molson) some komatiitic Avayalik dikes Kennedy dike swarm Lac de Gras dikes Kangamuit younger dikes Ft. Frances, diabase dikes Kovero-Koli dikes (Fe tholeiites) Marathon diabase, Kenora-Kabetogama komatiitic dikes Pippolanmaki-Kutsu dikes Cauchon (older Molson)-some komatiitic Region Greenland Europe India Europe India Guiana Australia Rio de la Plata Europe Guiana India Superior North America (Labrador) North America Slave Greenland Superior Europe Width, m 500 1000 100 1000 80 51000 200 80 51000 500 100 120 > 200 > 100 > 100 100 100* 100 Age 1645 1646 1650 1667 1668 1670 1690 1726 1758.8 1789 1822 1882.8 1890.5 2010 2026.5 2039.5 2076.5 2113 Error 35 6 10 8 31 28 10 11 0.9 2 42 2.3 2.5 10 3.5 1.5 4.5 4 Reference age Kalsbeek and Taylor, 1986 Ramo and Siivola, 1991 Radhakrishna et al., 1999 Ramo, 1991 Radhakrishna and Joseph, 1996 Teixeira et al., 1998 Page et al., 1980 Teixeira et al., 1999 Amelin et al., 1993 Norcross et al., 1998 Radhakrishna et al., 1999 Heaman et al., 1986 Scott and Machado, 1994 Chamberlain et al., 1997 LeCheminant et al., 1995 Nutman et al., 1999 Hanes et al., 1994 Pekkarinen, 1979; Pekkarinen and Lukkarinen, 1991 Buchan et al., 1996 Beck and Murthy, 1982 Pekkarinen and Lukkarinen, 1991 Heaman et al., 1996a Reference: maximum dike width Nielsen, 1987 Airo, 1999 Radhakrishna and Joseph, 1996
Airo, 1999 Panganamentula, 1994 Gibbs, 1987 Parker et al., 1987 Teixeira et al., 1999 Shatalov, 1991 Gibbs, 1987 Radhakrishna and Joseph, 1996 Zhai et al., 1994 Bridgewater et al., 1995 Chamberlain, 2000,written comm. LeCheminant et al., 1995 Nielsen, 1987 Buchan et al., 1996 Nykanen et al., 1994
Superior Superior Europe Superior
100* 120 > 100 120
2114.5 2120 2123 2145
10.5 67 10 25
Buchan et al., 1996 Halls, 1987 Pekkarinen andLukkarinen, 1991 Zhai et al., 1994
Table 4 (continued) Name Biscotasing, qtz. th. dikes Wyoming, Bighorn II Klotz basic dikes Sukkertoppen dikes (Pakitsoq, Sister dikes) Senneterre, quartz thol., Kikkertavik Dike Swarm Antarctica, Vestfold Hills II, high-Mg norites Binneringie/Jimberlana dikes (Celebration dike/ Widgiemoltha swarm) Lewisian, Scourie I, picrites, norites, pyroxenites Koillismaa (Syote, Kussuarvi, Porttivaara, Narankavaara) Vinela dike, Vetreny Belt Penikat Layered Intrusion (deformed dike) (also Kemi and Tornio) Hearst, Fe-rich qtz. th. dikes Karelian dikes (near Olango) Matachewan, Fe-rich qtz tholeiites, Mistassini komatiite and basaltic dikes Streich gabbro norite dikes (feeder to Agnew) Kangamuit older mac dikes Great Dyke Golden Mile dolerite dike Sylvania Inlier dikes Black Range/Cajuput dike Wyoming Bighorn I Ushushuwana Intrusion Tarssartoq-Amerilik dikes Region Superior Wyoming Superior Greenland Superior Canada Antarctica Yilgarn Width, m 250 150 100 200 100 400 100 51000 Age 2166.7 2200 2209 2214 2214.3 2235 2238 2410.4 Error 1.4 35 2 10 12.4 2 7 2.3 Reference age Condie et al., 1987 Stueber et al., 1976 Buchan et al., 1998 Nutman et al., 1995 Buchan et al., 1993 Cadman et al., 1993 Lanyon et al., 1993 Doehler and Heaman, 1998 Heaman, 1989 Vogel et al., 1999 Puchtel et al., 1997 Alapieti and Lahtinen, 1986 Reference: maximum dike width Buchan et al., 1999 Stueber et al., 1976 Buchan et al., 1998 Bridgewater et al., 1974
Buchan et al., 1993 Cadman et al., 1993 Hoek and Seta, 1995 Hatton and Von Gruenewald, 1990 Barooah and Bowes,1990 Ernst and Buchan, 1997b Puchtel et al., 1997 Ernst and Buchan, 1997b
Europe Baltica Craton Europe Baltica Craton
80 51000 500 51000
2419.5 2436 2437 2440
5.5 5 3 10
Superior Baltic Superior Canada Superior Greenland Zimbabwe Craton Australia Pilbara Australia Wyoming Kaapvaal Craton Greenland
100? 200 250 100 300 100 1000 700 > 200 1000 150 51000 100
2446 2446 2466 2470 2491 2528 2596 2698 2747 2771 2826 2875 3485
3 5 23 20 5 25 14 22 4 2 58 40 25
Heaman, 1997 Vuollo et al., 1999 Heaman and Tarney, 1989 Rivers, 1997 Krogh et al., 1984 Willigers et al., 1999 Mukasa et al., 1997 Nelson et al., 1994 Wingate, 1999 Wingate, 1999 Stueber et al., 1976 Layer et al., 1988 Nutman et al., 1996
Ernst and Halls, 1984 Mertanen et al., 1999 Condie et al., 1987 Fahrig et al., 1986 Vogel et al., 1999 Nielsen, 1987 Podmore and Wilson, 1987 Parker et al., 1987 Wingate, 1999 Wingate, 1999 Stueber et al., 1976 Hunter and Reid, 1987 Nielsen, 1987
Dike width estimated from maximum dike width assuming a 1000:1 ratio of dike length:maximum dike width.
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Consequently, as our fourth proxy for superplume activity, we use the presence of Cr and/or PGE enrichment in layered intrusions with no arc anity. Intrusions containing no such enrichment are classied as being produced by normal plumes. Intrusions containing chromite layers, Cr enrichment, and/or PGE enrichment are classied as being produced by superplumes. Using this criterion, we have developed a list of superplume-generated layered igneous intrusions, given in Table 5.
6. Identication and duration of superplume event and eras We assembled all the data for each of our superplume proxies into one large data set. Using the geochronological data, including the errors in age, we generated a time series by making a gaussian curve for each age and age error. The area under each gaussian curve is the same for each age and its error, but the height of the gaussian peak is greater if the age error is small. The result is shown in Fig. 2A where we see a time series generated from the sum of the individual gaussians. The height of the peaks depends on both the numbers of superplume proxies available for a given event and the errors in the dating of these events. In Fig. 2A the highest peak is for the next to youngest superplume era, the Cretaceous superplume era at 84120 Ma (Larson, 1991). This might suggest that the Cretaceous superplume was the largest superplume event in Earth history. However, this is not true. The height of this peak is due to the very low errors in the rock dates. It is a fact of geochronology that younger rocks are more precisely dated than older rocks. In order to reduce this bias, we arbitrarily set the minimum age error at 5 Ma. That is, all rock units with an age error of less than 5 million years were assigned an error of 5 Ma. The result, shown in Fig. 2B, shows a smoothed distribution that reduces the peak heights of the best-dated superplumes. This smoothed time series shows that the largest Precambrian superplume era is about as large as the largest Phanerozoic superplume era. This is more reasonable, but is still rather deceptive. In order to assess the true size of superplume eras, we must quantify the length of time, which denes each era. To do this, we must identify the beginning and ending of signicant superplume activity throughout Earth history. Then we will have more valid information on the relative size of Precambrian superplume eras compared to those in the Phanerozoic. To do this, we used a cuto value based on the mean error of the data in the time series in Fig. 2A. The mean error of the ages is 17.45 Ma. We added together eight modeled gaussians with the same mean and with an age error of 17.45 Ma. We found that this model time series had a maximum peak height of 0.183. Therefore, we dene the beginning and end of a superplume era by using the sections of the time series that have values above 0.183. To obtain the most accurate assessment of the duration of superplume eras, we use the age and error data as given in the literature (as for the time series shown in Fig. 2A). The resulting list has 36 superplume eras occurring throughout recorded Earth history (Table 5). As shown in Fig. 3, most of the superplume eras last a relatively short time, 8 Ma or less. Overall, we nd that the average duration of superplume eras in the Phanerozoic (12 3Ma) is indistinguishable from the average duration of superplume eras in the Archean (13 7 Ma). A few superplume eras are quite long, with durations of over 10 Ma. One superplume era, at about 2.72.8 Ga., lasted about 80 Ma. As the geochronology improves, these longer superplume
Table 5 Superplume Type Layered Intrusions

Name Skaergaard Intrusion (Sorgenfri Glerscher Sill) Skye Complex (Cuillin gabbroic complex) Rum Intrusion Insizwa Complex(MtAyli)/ Tabankulu Dufek Layered Mac Intrusion Norilsk Talminsky Layered Intrusion (same age as Norilsk) Laouni Doviren Layered Intrusion Rincon del Tigre Complex Mount Davies (same age as Giles complex) Duluth Complex Muskox Mukanda-Buhoro-Musongati Massif Jinchuan layered intrusion Americano do Brasil Niquelandia/Tocantins Barro Alto Cana Brava Ultramac Complex Piumhi sill (Piumhi greenstone belt) Sally Malley Sudbury Igneous Complex Salt Creek Panton Intrusion Location Greenland United Kingdom United Kingdom South Africa Antarctica Asia Asia Algeria Siberia Brazil Musgrave Block USA Superior Burundi China Brazil Brazil Brazil Brazil Brazil Australia Superior Craton Australia Australia Mineralization PGE-rich Chromite (accessory but no bands) Chromite PGE-rich Chromite PGEs Chromite Average Age age error 55.55 58.91 60.53 178 183.25 250.1 250.1 Age reference Mineralization reference Guilbert and Park, 1986 Hamilton et al., 1998; Guilbert and Park, 1986 Hamilton et al., 1998; Guilbert and Park, 1986 Guilbert and Park, 1986 Ferris et al., 1998 Distler, 1994 Dyuzhikov et al., 1984 Cottin et al., 1998 Amelin et al., 1996 Annells et al., 1986 Hoatson, 1998 Paces and Miller, 1993; Guilbert and Park, 1996 Barnes and Francis, 1995 Tack et al., 1994 Fan, 1986 Wirth et al., 1990 Wirth et al., 1990 Wirth et al., 1990 Wirth et al., 1990 Jahn and Schrank, 1983 Hoatson, 1998 Deutsch and Grieve,1994 Wilkinson et al., 1975; Ashwal, 1993 Hatton and Von Gruenewaldt, 1990
1.75 Tegner et al., 1998 0.07 Hamilton et al., 1998 0.08 Hamilton et al., 1998 8 Fitch and Miller, 1984
0.95 Minor and Mukasa, 1997 1.5 Renne et al., 1995 1.5 Renne et al., 1995 65 48 86 5 Bertrand et al., 1985 Amelin et al., 1996 Annells et al., 1986 Glikson et al., 1996
Chromite 565 Chromite 699 Chromite (accessory 992 but no bands) Chromite 1078 PGE rich Chromite PGE-rich PGE-rich Chromite Chromite/PGE PGE/Chromite Chromite Chromite PGE-rich PGE-rich Chromite Chromite 1098.9 1270 1275.5 1508 1575.5 1575.5 1729 1729 1840 1844 1849.5 1850 1856
0.75 Paces and Miller, 1993; Gilbert and Park, 1996 4 LeCheminant 10.5 Tack et al., 1994 31 32.5 32.5 21 21 100 3 3.35 50 2 Tang et al., 1992 Ferreira-Filho et al., 1994 Ferreira-Filho et al., 1994 Suita et al., 1994 Suita et al., 1994 Jahn and Schrank, 1983 Sproule et al., 1999 Krogh et al., 1994 Wilkinson et al., 1975 Page et al., 1995
279
280
Table 5 (continued) Name Springvale (Lamboo) Intrusion Fox River Sill Katiniq Sills (Donaldson West) Bushveld Layered Intrusion Molopo Farms Kunene Complex Imandra Lopolith Olanga Complex Lukkulaisvarra Kivaaka Burakovsky Layered Intrusion East Bull Lake Layered Intrusion Agnew Instrusion Generalskaya Kamiskotia Layered Intrusion Bulong Complex Sills (Kalgoorlie) Stillwater Layered Complex Mulcahy Lake Layered Intrusion Lac des Iles Layered Complex Bird River Sill Luanga Location Australia Superior Craton Superior Craton Kaapvaal Craton Kaapvaal Craton Angola-Namibia Baltica Baltica Baltica Baltica Baltica Craton Craton Craton Craton Craton Mineralization Chromite Chromite, PGE-rich Chromite Chromite Chromite Chromite Chromite PGE-rich PGE-rich PGE-rich Chromite Chromite Chromite PGE-rich PGE-rich Chromite Chromite Chromite PGE-rich Chromite Chromite Average Age age error 1857 1883 1920 2043 2043 2120.5 2441 2441.8 2442.1 2445 2449 2481 2491 2505.1 2702 2705 2705 2733.3 2736 2745 2763 Age reference Mineralization reference Sun et al., 1991 Scoates and Eckstrand,1986
2 Page et al., 1995 1.45 Heaman et al., 1986 8 11 11 73.5 1.6 1.7 1.4 2 1.1 9 5 1.6 2 4 5 Parrish, 1989 Schoenberg et al., 1999 Schoenberg et al., 1999 Guilbert and Park, 1986; Cahen et al., 1984 Amelin et al., 1995 Amelin et al., 1995 Amelin et al., 1995 Balashov et al., 1993 Amelin et al., 1995 Krogh et al., 1984 Krogh et al., 1984 Amelin et al., 1995 Barrie and Davis, 1990 Nelson et al., 1995 Premo et al., 1990
Hatton and Von Gruenewaldt, 1990 Guilbert and Park, 1986 Hatton and Von Gruenewaldt, 1990 Guilbert and Park, 1986; Cahen et al., 1984 Balashov et al., 1993 Amelin et al., 1995 Balashov et al., 1993 Balashov et al., 1993 Amelin et al., 1995 Hubbard et al., 1998 Hubbard et al., 1998 Amelin et al., 1995 Sutclie et al., 1993 Nelson et al., 1995 Kleinkopf, 1985; Premo et al., 1990 Morrison et al., 1985 Bruegmann et al., 1997 Scoates, 1983* Diella et al., 1995
Superior Craton Superior Province Baltica Craton Superior Craton Yilgarn Craton Wyoming Craton Superior Craton Superior Craton Superior Craton Brazil
0.95 Morrison et al., 1985 28 5 6 Bruegmann et al., 1997 Ashwal, 1993 Machado et al., 1991
Table 5 (continued)
Name Windimurra+Yoanmi+ Alley+Barambie+ Gabanintha+Narndee Fiskanaesset Anorthosite Complex Bhavani Maitland Complex Mount Sholl Radio Hill Munni Munni Intrusion Sittampundi
Location Yilgarn Craton Nain Craton India Pilbara Pilbara Pilbara Pilbara India
Mineralization Chromite
Average Age age error 2800 40
Age reference Mathison and De Laeter, 1994 Ashwal et al., 1989 Bhaskar Rao et al., 1996 Hoatson et al., 1992 Hoatson et al., 1992 Hoatson et al., 1992 Sun and Hoatson, 1992 Bhaskar-Rao et al., 1996
Mineralization reference Hatton and Von Gruenewaldt, 1990 Hatton and Von Gruenewaldt, 1990 Bhaskar-Rao et al., 1996 Hoatson et al., 1992 Hoatson et al., 1992 Hoatson et al., 1992 Barnes and Hoatson,1994 Baskar-Rao et al., 1996; Hatton and Von Gruenewaldt, 1990 Jackson, 1996; Kroener et al., 1999 Moorbath et al., 1976; Hatton and Von Gruenewaldt, 1990 Nutman et al., 1996
Chromite Chromite Chromite PGE-rich PGE-rich Chromite PGE-rich Chromite
2870 2899 2925 2925 2925 2927 2935
70 28 16 16 16 13 60
Craton Craton Craton Craton
Messina Layered Intrusion Selukwe (Shurugwi)
Limpopo Belt
Chromite
3148.8 3373.5
38.75 Arndt et al., 1991 83.5 Taylor et al., 1991; Horstwood et al., 1999 Nutman et al., 1996
Zimbabwe Craton Chromite
Itsaq Gneiss Complex
Greenland
Chromite
3811
281
282
Fig. 2. (A). Time series of superplume events versus time derived from adding gaussians dened by ages and age errors of individual superplume proxies. This time series uses the errors of ages as they are given in the literature. The result is higher peak heights for events with very high precision ages. (B) Time series of superplume events versus time derived from adding gaussians dened by ages and age errors of individual superplume proxies. The series is smoothed by setting all age errors less than 5 my to 5 million years.
eras may prove to be two or more pulses of superplume activity. For example, the Cretaceous superplume era now appears to represent two pulses of superplume activity rather than a single period of continuous superplume magmatism (Table 5).
7. Methodology: extrapolation of superplume sizes from dike widths The vast majority of ood basalts from past superplume events are nearly completely eroded. At best, only the feeder dikes to these ood basalts remain. We use Eq. (2) to extrapolate the size of past ood basalt events. Because the largest of the Phanerozoic ood basalts, the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) event had maximum feeder dike widths of about 300 m (Marzoli et al., 1999), we are condent that our relationship is valid for maximum dike widths up to 300 m. For feeder dikes less than 300 m in maximum width, we can successfully model the approximate areal extent of the resulting ood basalt province before it was eroded. Even if only one part of an original plume-generated triple junction has survived in the geological record, the method is still valid. For example, the plate reconstruction of the initial conguration of
283
Fig. 3. Histogram of the duration of superplume eras. The distribution has two modes at 2 Ma and at 14 to 18 Ma.
the superplume that produced the CAMP ood basalts shows a triple junction in the region that is now the mid-Atlantic ocean. Four ood basalt provinces on four continents were deposited around this triple junction before rifting separated them. Now these ood basalts form parts of North America, South America, Europe and Africa. In three out of four of these provinces, there is a massive feeder dike that has a maximum dike width of 300 m: (1) the Messejana dike in Spain, (2) the Roiraima-Cassipore dikes in South America, and (3) the Ksi-Ksou dike in West Africa. In North America, the widest CAMP dike is 180 m wide (the Shelbourne dike in Nova Scotia). If we were to wait 1 Ga until only one out of four of these provinces was preserved in the geological record, there is a 3 out of 4 chance that the widest surviving dikes would be 300 m wide. There is a 25% chance that only the 180-m-wide dike would be preserved. In this example, we would have a 75% chance of closely approximating the actual areal extent and a 25% chance of seriously underestimating it. Thus, we can feel condent that using the maximum dike widths in our compilation (Table 5) will produce at least minimum estimates for the sizes of the original ood basalt provinces and thereby give at least minimum estimates for the size of the plume or superplume event. The extrapolation of original superplume size from the maximum feeder dike width is much more hazardous when the feeder dikes exceed 300 m in width. It is possible that thermal erosion during magma transport to the surface articially increases the width of these large dikes (Williams and Lesher, 1996) and that therefore the linear correlation shown in Fig. 1 is no longer valid. To test this, we used the MacKenzie dike swarm as a test case. The maximum width of the feeder dikes to the associated Muskox layered intrusion is 400 m. Using our empirical relationship shown in Eq. (2), we derive a predicted original surface area for the eroded MacKenzie ood basalts of 13,200,000 km2. We digitized the boundaries of the MacKenzie dike swarm from the map of Fahrig and West (1987) and used Stokes theorem to calculate the total surface area covered by
284
Fig. 4. Square root of surface area (km) covered by ood basalts versus the maximum width (m) of feeder dikes. Squares: Data points (Table 2) used to t the line. Best-t line is t by least squares with a forced zero intercept. Large circle: results from MacKenzie dike swarm using the surface area of the dike swarm and the width of the feeder dikes to the associated Muskox intrusions. Large Triangles with upward arrows: minimum widths of dikes from the Deccan traps and Iceland versus surface area of the superplume lavas.
the dike swarm: 2.0E 6 km2. However, in any ood basalt event, the feeder dike swarm covers a much smaller surface area than the ood basalts. For example, we digitized the boundary of the surface area covered by the feeder dikes to the Columbia River basalt province (Hooper, 1982) and found that the dike surface area, 8.6E 4 km2, represented 52.4% of the total area of the ood basalt province. If we scale the MacKenzie dike surface area upward by dividing by 0.524 we get a predicted ood basalt surface area of 3.82E 6 km2. We assume that this represents only one third of the original province (LeCheminant and Heaman, 1989a), as would be the case if the MacKenzie swarm is analogous to the CAMP event. Therefore, the predicted size of the MacKenzie event is 1.14E 7 km2, about 87% of the prediction of Eq. (2) (Fig. 4). This is well within the error for estimates of the size of the Muskox feeder dikes and for the ratio of feeder dike surface area to ood basalt surface area. We also plot the minimum dike widths of the feeders to Deccan traps and the Iceland basalts, and they plot near the best-t line. Thus, we feel relatively condent that for igneous events where the feeder dikes are 400 m or less in maximum width, our calculations of ood basalt surface area are reasonable within the known errors of the eld measurements. Using the maximum width of giant feeder dikes (those greater than 400 m in width) to infer the lateral extent of ood basalt provinces has some further problems. When feeder dikes are very wide with very high magma ow rates, local discontinuities in ow can produce irregular thermal erosion of the dike walls. The widest of these irregularities can eventually form funnel shaped layered intrusions (Ernst and Buchan, 1997b). The width of these funnel shaped layered intrusions is much wider than the true width of the feeder dike and should not be used to infer the
285
lateral extent of a ood basalt province. Although most of our dikes do not represent such funnel shaped layered intrusions, a few do. These funnel shaped dikes are the Binneringie/Jimberlana dikes in Australia, the Great Dike in Zimbabwe, the Ushushwana intrusion in South Africa, the Penikat Layered Intrusion in Finland, and the Gardar Giant Dikes in Greenland (Ernst and Buchan, 1997b). Because they are up to two kilometers wide, the Avenavero feeder dikes in South America might also be such layered intrusions, but we have not found information indicating that the Avenavero dikes have the necessary synformal cumulate layering (Rickwood, 1990). The width of the feeder dike to these layered intrusions can be determined from gravity surveys or from along strike studies. For example, the Great Dike of Rhodesia has a maximum width of 11 km, but a detailed gravity survey estimates that its feeder dike is about 1 km wide (Podmore and Wilson, 1987). Therefore, the correct width to use in calculating the original lateral extent of the ood basalts emanating from the Great Dike is 1 km, not 11 km. A gravity survey over the 2 km wide layered intrusion (dike) at Narankavaara in Finland nds that the feeder dike is 1 km wide at depth (Alapieti et al., 1979). Because the Great Dike is the widest of the known layered intrusions, it is unlikely that any of the funnel-shaped intrusions has a feeder dike over 1 km in width. (We note that a dike that was 2.6 km wide would, by extrapolation, extrude enough lava to cover the entire surface area of the Earth.) Therefore, we have articially truncated all estimated widths of feeder dikes at 1 km (Table 5). This is the best option we have until more gravity surveys are performed over funnel shaped layered intrusions.
8. Cumulative extent of eras of superplume magmatism In the Phanerozoic, superplume eras have occurred over time periods ranging from 4 to 32 Ma in duration (Table 6). For each of the events listed, we also have information on the total surface area covered by the resulting ood basalts that we can use to compare to Precambrian superplume eras. Because the age resolution of the Phanerozoic events is much better, Phanerozoic superplume eras can be resolved much more readily than those in the Precambrian. Nevertheless, most superplume eras are of comparable duration in both the Precambrian and the Phanerozoic. The intensity of magmatic activity during an individual superplume event can only be estimated from the data on ood basalts and maximum dike widths shown in Tables 2 and 6. The geochronological data on layered intrusions can be used to dene the lengths of superplume eras (Table 5), but their sizes cannot be used to determine the relative intensity of the associated magmatism. As a result, our data on cumulative superplume magmatism is incomplete. It is not possible to estimate the ood basalt surface area of the superplume eras numbered 30, 34, 35, and 36 in Table 7. We obtained an estimate for the surface area covered by ood basalt magmatism during each superplume era by adding the estimated surface areas of all the ood basalt provinces associated with a particular era [as derived from Eqs. (1) and (2)]. Because our method can estimate total surface area from a limited data set (i.e. one-third of a rifted triple junction), we have to avoid counting a given event more than once. Therefore, we eliminated well-dated events with overlapping age data on both ood basalts and feeder dikes and/or on more than one set of feeder dikes.
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Some dike and ood basalt events have ambiguous ages, and it is unclear whether they should be included in a given superplume era. In these cases, the ood basalt surface areas were included only in the estimate of the maximum surface area and not in the estimate of the minimum surface area. The resulting table (Table 7) shows a list of superplume events and eras through time and the probable ranges in the surface areas of their associated ood basalts. Of the 36 major superplume eras we have identied, our data are sucient to provide a minimum surface area estimate for 30 eras and a maximum surface area estimate for 32 eras.
Table 6 Duration of major superplume eras Era number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Start, m.y. 75 99 144 185 206 259 379 591 727 780 1100 1111 1142 1279 1760 1790 1859 1886 1891 2041 2116 2168 2211 2220 2238 2413 2451 2494 2506 2688 2775 2787 2903 2932 3024 3812 End, m.y. 53 82 112 181 197 246 361 590 721 778 1098 1103 1139 1265 1758 1788 1844 1880 1890 2038 2111 2165 2207 2217 2233 2409 2433 2487 2504 2681 2696 2784 2899 2924 3022 3810 Duration, m.y. 22 17 32 4 9 13 18 1 6 2 2 8 3 14 2 2 15 6 1 3 5 3 4 3 5 4 18 7 2 7 79 3 4 8 2 2
D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307 Table 7 Minimum and maximum size of superplume eras and events Name Iceland ows North Atlantic ows Deccan traps Peary Land dikes Madagascar ows Rio Grande rise ows Broken Ridge ows Venezuelan-Columbian ows Kerguelen Plateau ows Hess Rise ows Alpha Ridge Plateau ows Manihiki Plateau ows Wallaby Plateau ows Ontong Java Plateau ows Parana-Serra Gelal ows/dikes Shatsky Rise ows Magellan Rise ows Ferrar Dolerite ows Karoo Province ows CAMP dikes/ows Siberian traps ows Emeishan-Song Da ows St Malo dikes East European craton ows Chara Sinsk dikes Antrim plateau ows Grenville dikes Thule dikes Ganna Kouriep dikes Borden dikes Mundine well dikes Hottah McKenzie Mt ows Willouran Volcanics ows Bistjarvi-Laanilla dikes Champ de Mers dikes Keweenawan ows Guruve Deweras dikes Umkondo Dolerite ows Pidgeon River dikes Abitibi dikes Gardar (Tugtotoq) dikes Sundsjo dike Sudbury dikes Older Gardar dikes Market dolerite dikes Age, Ma 7.5 59.55 61.45 66 87.55 88 91 100 100.5 107.5 111 118.5 118.5 122.15 131.35 140 145 183.6 183.7 202 252.15 254.9 330 368.75 377.5 531.5 590.5 682 717 724 755 779 827 1036.5 1058 1097.7 1100 1104.7 1110 1140.6 1154 1213 1238.5 1259.5 1260 Error 7.5 2 4.6 6.6 3.8 1 2 20 11.5 12.5 20 6.5 6.5 3.2 8.4 10 5 1 0.6 3 3.8 5.1 10 10.75 19.5 18.5 1.5 25 11 4 3 2 6 55.5 14 12.1 270 2.3 3 2 16 18 4 56.5 10 Area, km2 8.00E+05 1.30E+06 8.00E+05 2.95E+06 1.60E+06 1.67E+06 5.10E+05 1.86E+06 1.54E+06 8.00E+05 1.65E+06 1.21E+06 4.10E+05 1.86E+06 1.20E+06 1.24E+06 5.40E+05 4.50E+05 2.20E+06 7.00E+06 2.00E+06 3.22E+05 7.37E+05 4.33E+06 2.95E+06 7.62E+05 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 4.61E+06 6.63E+06 1.08E+06 7.37E+05 2.95E+06 1.25E+06 4.75E+05 7.37E+05 2.00E+06 1.84E+07 4.61E+06 4.72E+07 4.61E+06 7.37E+05 2.95E+06 3.61E+07 Event no NI:0 1 1 1 2 2 2 NI:(2) NI:(2) NI:(2) NI:(2,3) 3 3 3 3 3 NI:(3) 4 4 5 6 6 NI:6a 7 7 NI:7a 8 NI:8a NI:(9) 9 NI:9a 10 NI:10a NI:10b NI:10c 11 11 12 12 13 NI:(13) NI:13a NI:13b NI:(14) NI:(14) Min. area, km2 8.00E+05 5.05E+06
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Max. area, km2 8.00E+05 5.05E+06
3.78E+06
9.63E+06
5.92E+06
8.11E+06
2.65E+06 7.00E+06 2.32E+06 7.37E+05 7.28E+06 7.62E+05 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 4.61E+06 6.63E+06 1.08E+06 7.37E+05 2.95E+06 1.25E+06 1.21E+06 2.04E+07 4.61E+06 4.61E+06 7.37E+05
2.65E+06 7.00E+06 2.32E+06 7.37E+05 7.28E+06 7.62E+05 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 5.35E+06 6.63E+06 1.08E+06 7.37E+05 2.95E+06 1.25E+06 1.21E+06 2.04E+07 5.18E+07 4.61E+06 7.37E+05
(contined on next page)
288 Table 7 (continued) Name
Age, Ma 1270 1330 1508 1518 1545 1558.5 1620 1645 1646 1650 1667 1668 1690 1726 1758.8 1789 1822 1882.8 1890.5 1975 2010 2026.5 2039.5 2076.5 2113 2114.5 2120 2123 2145 2166.7 2183.7 2200 2209 2214 2214.3 2219.05 2235 2238 2410.4 2419.5 2436 2440 2466 2470 2486 2491
Error 4 80 31 38 26 30.5 50 35 6 10 8 31 10 11 0.9 2 42 2.3 2.5 24 10 3.5 1.5 4.5 4 10.5 67 10 25 1.4 6.7 35 2 10 12.4 3.6 2 7 2.3 5.5 5 10 23 20 69 5
Area, km2 1.18E+07 4.14E+05 9.03E+06 7.37E+07 7.37E+07 1.18E+07 1.84E+07 1.84E+07 7.37E+07 7.37E+05 7.37E+07 4.72E+05 2.95E+06 4.72E+05 7.37E+07 7.37E+07 7.37E+05 1.06E+06 2.95E+06 4.26E+07 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 1.06E+06 7.37E+05 1.06E+06 4.61E+06 1.10E+05 1.66E+06 7.37E+05 2.95E+06 7.37E+05 4.07E+05 1.18E+07 7.37E+05 7.37E+07 4.72E+05 7.37E+07 7.37E+07 4.61E+06 7.37E+05 2.00E+06 6.63E+06
Event no 14 NI:(14) NI:14a NI:14b NI:14c NI:14d NI:14e NI:14f NI:14g NI:14h NI:14i NI:14j NI:14k NI:14l 15 16 NI:(17) 18 19 NI:19a NI:19b NI:19c 20 NI:20a 21 21 NI(21) NI(21) NI(22) 22 NI:22a NI:(23) 23 NI:(23) NI:(23) 24 25 25 26 NI:26a 27 27 NI:(27,28) NI:(27,28) NI:(27,28) 28
Min. area, km2 1.18E+07 9.03E+06 7.37E+07 7.37E+07 1.18E+07 1.84E+07 1.84E+07 7.37E+07 7.37E+05 7.37E+07 4.72E+05 2.95E+06 4.72E+05 7.37E+07 7.37E+07 4.10E+05 1.06E+06 2.95E+06 4.26E+07 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 1.47E+06
Max. area, km2 5.13E+07 9.03E+06 7.37E+07 7.37E+07 1.18E+07 1.84E+07 1.84E+07 7.37E+07 7.37E+05 7.37E+07 4.72E+05 2.95E+06 4.72E+05 7.37E+07 7.37E+07 7.37E+05 1.06E+06 2.95E+06 4.26E+07 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 3.27E+06
Muskox/MacKenzie dikes Pilanesberg dikes Jinchuan dike Hallefors dike Breven dike Aland-Aboland dikes(Korso, Foglo) Avanavero dikes II? (Roraima)* Melville Bugt dikes Hame dikes (Ansio) Tiruvannamali dikes Hame dikes (Virmala) Dharwar dikes Oenpelli dikes Uruguayan Dikes Zyzdal-Zalesskaya Dikes (Korosten)* Avanavero dikes I? (Roraima)* Dharmapuri dikes Cuthbert Dikes (younger Molson) Avayalik dikes Onega plateau ows Kennedy dikes Lac de Gras dikes Kangamuit younger dikes Ft. Frances dikes Kovero-Koli dikes Marathon dikes Kenora-Kabetogama dikes Pippolanmaki-Kutsu dikes Cauchon (older Molson) dikes Biscotasing dikes Birrimian ows Wyoming Bighorn II dikes Klotz basic dikes Sukkertoppen dikes (Pakitsoq, Sister dikes) Senneterre dikes Nippising ows Kikkertavik dikes Antarctica dikes Binneringie/Jimberlana dikes* Lewisian-Scourian dikes Koillismaa dikes* (also Vinela) Penikat dike*(also Hearst) Matachewan dikes Mistassini dikes Rampur ows Streich dikes(feeder to Agnew)
4.61E+06 1.10E+05 7.37E+05
5.67E+06 1.10E+05 6.08E+06
4.07E+05 1.25E+07 7.42E+07 4.72E+05 1.47E+08
4.07E+05 1.25E+07 7.42E+07 4.72E+05 1.55E+08
6.63E+06
1.40E+07
D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307 Table 7 (continued) Name Kangamuit older dikes Great Dyke* Golden Mile dike Klipriversberg ows Fortescue-Kylena ows Sylvania Inlier Dikes Black Range/Cajuput dike Derdepoort ows Wyoming Bighorn I dikes Ushushuwana dikes* Tarssartoq-Amerilik dikes Age, Ma 2528 2596 2698 2713.3 2725 2747 2771 2782 2826 2875 3485 Error 25 14 22 8.3 45 4 2 5 58 40 25 Area, km2 7.37E+05 7.37E+07 3.61E+07 3.10E+06 1.67E+06 2.95E+06 7.37E+07 1.58E+05 1.66E+06 7.37E+07 7.37E+05 Event no NI:(29) NI:29a 31 31 31 31 31 NI:(32) NI:(32) NI:(33) NI:35a Min. area, km2 4.10E+05 7.37E+07 1.18E+08
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Max. area, km2 7.37E+05 7.37E+07 1.18E+08
4.10E+05 4.10E+05 7.37E+05
1.82E+06 7.37E+07 7.37E+05
Possible duplications of the same event have been removed. There is no data for eras 30,34,35, and 36. Events labeled as NI were not included in Table 6 because their amplitudes in the time series in Fig. 1A are too small. If the event number is in parentheses, the age errors allow the superplume event to lie within a given superplume era, but the mean age is outside the range dened for that superplume era. In that case, the inferred surface areas of those ood basalts are included in the maximum area estimate but not the minimum area estimate of the superplume era. Minimum surface areas for events only dened by parenthesis are assumed to be 4.10E5 km2
However, there are 29 individual superplume events in our data set, which do not t into any of the age ranges of the 36 major superplume eras. The largest problem with the data on these 29 events is inadequate geochronology. Many of the 29 superplume events have very large inferred sizes, but their ages are so poorly dened that they overlap with better-dened events. We are certain that as more geochronological data are published, additional superplume eras will be identied.
9. Relative magnitudes of superplume events and eras over time Using the methods discussed above and using the data presented in Tables 17, we ranked the superplume eras in order of size, from the largest yet known (1) to the smallest (36) (Table 8). None of the Phanerozoic superplume eras is in the top 10. Using the calculated surface areas, the three largest superplume eras apparently occurred in the Archean. There are seven eras whose size is indistinguishable, all tied for fourth place. Based on cumulative surface areas, the largest Precambrian superplume era produced enough lava to cover 20 times the surface area covered during the largest Phanerozoic superplume era. Based on the ratio of maximum widths of feeder dikes, the largest single Precambrian superplume covered 10 times the surface area of the largest single Phanerozoic superplume. It is clear that the extent and intensity of both individual Precambrian superplume events and superplume eras dwarfs that of superplume events and eras occurring during Phanerozoic time. When the data from Table 7 are plotted in a weighted time series (Fig. 5b), the weighted superplume time series has almost no amplitude for the past 1.1 Ga. There are six dominant peaks in the time series, at 1.65, 1.75, 1.8, 2.4, 2.44, and 2.76 Ga. Overall, it is clear that there has been a tremendous decrease in superplume intensity and volume since the Archean.
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Table 8 Size ranking of superplume events and eras Duration 015* 5379 8299 112144 181185 197206 246259 320340* 361379 513550* 590591 657707* 721727 752758* 778780 821833* 9811092* 10441072* 10981100 11031111 11391142 11951231* 12351243* 12651279 14771539* 14801556* 15191571* 15281589* 15701670* 16101680* 16401652* 16401660* 16591675* 16371699* 16801700* 17151737* 17581760 17881790 18441859 18801886 18901891 19511999* 20002020* 20232030* 20382041 Number NI:0 1 2 3 4 5 6 NI:6a 7 NI:7a 8 NI:8a 9 NI:9a 10 NI:10a NI:10b NI:10c 11 12 13 NI:13a NI:13b 14 NI:14a NI:14b NI:14c NI:14d NI:14e NI:14f NI:14g NI:14h NI:14i NI:14j NI:14k NI:14l 15 16 NI:(17) 18 19 NI:19a NI:19b NI:19c 20 Minimum area, km2 8.00E+05 5.05E+06 3.78E+06 5.92E+06 2.65E+06 7.00E+06 2.32E+06 7.37E+05 7.28E+06 7.62E+05 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 4.61E+06 6.63E+06 1.08E+06 7.37E+05 2.95E+06 1.25E+06 1.21E+06 2.04E+07 4.61E+06 4.61E+06 7.37E+05 1.18E+07 9.03E+06 7.37E+07 7.37E+07 1.18E+07 1.84E+07 1.84E+07 7.37E+07 7.37E+05 7.37E+07 4.72E+05 2.95E+06 4.72E+05 7.37E+07 7.37E+07 4.10E+05 1.06E+06 2.95E+06 4.26E+07 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 Maximum area, km2 8.00E+05 5.05E+06 9.63E+06 8.11E+06 2.65E+06 7.00E+06 2.32E+06 7.37E+05 7.28E+06 7.62E+05 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 5.35E+06 6.63E+06 1.08E+06 7.37E+05 2.95E+06 1.25E+06 1.21E+06 2.04E+07 5.18E+07 4.61E+06 7.37E+05 5.13E+07 9.03E+06 7.37E+07 7.37E+07 1.18E+07 1.84E+07 1.84E+07 7.37E+07 7.37E+05 7.37E+07 4.72E+05 2.95E+06 4.72E+05 7.37E+07 7.37E+07 7.37E+05 1.06E+06 2.95E+06 4.26E+07 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 7.37E+05 Ranking (min size) 25 15 17 14 19 12 20 27 11 26 27 27 16 13 24 27 18 22 23 6 16 16 27 9 10 4 4 9 7 7 4 27 4 28 18 28 4 4 29 24 18 5 27 27 27 Ranking (max size) 33 22 13 15 26 17 27 35 16 34 35 35 21 18 31 35 25 29 30 8 5 23 35 6 14 4 4 12 9 9 4 35 4 36 25 36 4 4 35 32 25 7 35 35 35
D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307 Table 8 (continued) Duration 20722081* 21112116 21652168 21772190 22072211 22172220 22332238 24092413 24142425 24332451 24872494 25042506 25822610* 26962775 27842787 28992903 34603510 Number NI:20a 21 22 NI:22a 23 24 25 26 NI:26a 27 28 NI:(29) NI:29a 31 NI:(32) NI:(33) NI:35a Minimum area, km2 7.37E+05 1.47E+06 4.61E+06 1.10E+05 7.37E+05 4.07E+05 1.25E+07 7.42E+07 4.72E+05 1.47E+08 6.63E+06 4.10E+05 7.37E+07 1.18E+08 4.10E+05 4.10E+05 7.37E+05 Maximum area, km2 7.37E+05 3.27E+06 5.67E+06 1.10E+05 6.08E+06 4.07E+05 1.25E+07 7.42E+07 4.72E+05 1.55E+08 1.40E+07 7.37E+05 7.37E+07 1.18E+08 1.82E+06 7.37E+07 7.37E+05 Ranking (min size) 27 21 16 31 27 30 8 3 28 1 13 29 4 2 29 29 27
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Ranking (max size) 35 24 20 38 19 37 11 3 36 1 10 35 4 2 28 4 35
Durations for events and eras have two sources: Table 6 (Duration of major superplume eras) and the errors of individual radiometric ages for superplume events (*). Note that there are many superplumes tied for 4th, 27th and 16th place.
The weighted superplume time series has many missing events. These represent superplume events that are only known from high Mg rocks and/or PGE /Cr rich layered intrusions. As we go back to earlier time periods, the total surface area of preserved continental crust decreases greatly. The overall degree of deformation also increases. Both of these eects decrease the likelihood that large feeder dikes will be found and recognized. Thus, we are still uncertain as to the overall magnitude of superplume activity prior to about 2.9 Ga. In order to compensate for superplume events with no record in dikes or ood basalts, we also construct a composite superplume time series. The composite time series (Fig. 5c) is a sum of the weighted superplume time series with an unweighted superplume time series derived from the high Mg rocks and layered intrusions (Fig. 5a). The composite superplume time series shows that there were superplume events after 1.1 Ga and prior to 2.9 Ga.
10. Discussion In the preceding sections, we have shown how it is possible to derive a history of plume and superplume volcanism on the surface of the Earth by using plume-generated features that survive in the geological record. We have shown that both individual superplumes events and superplume eras were much larger in the Precambrian than in the Phanerozoic. The chronology of superplume events over Earth history shown in Fig. 5 allows us to compare the history of superplume magmatism with the record of other types of events.
292
The two most dominant superplume eras in the Proterozoic occurred circa 1.8 and 2.4 Ga ago. Interestingly, these two periods correspond with the periods when the bulk of the Fe in Precambrian iron formations was deposited (Isley, 1995; Isley and Abbott, 1999). We suggest that the combination of massive amounts of tholeiitic volcanism, coupled with increases in the oxygen content of the atmosphere (Kasting, 1987) produced a synergy of conditions that resulted in the deposition of massive quantities of Fe on passive continental margins.
Fig. 5. Superplume time series. All time series are smoothed by setting the minimum error of well-dated ages to 5 my. (A) time series constructed by adding gaussians derived from the ages and age errors of superplume type high Mg rocks and layered intrusions. (B) Weighted time series is constructed by adding gaussians whose initial size is determined by the age and age error of superplume type ood basalts and dikes. Each individual gaussian is multiplied by the surface area of the ood basalt inferred from the restored surface area of the ood basalt or our empirical relationship between maximum width of feeder dikes and total surface area covered by ood basalts. (C) Sum of the time series in A and B.
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One unexpected nding is the relatively small size of the peaks in the weighted plume time series at 2.7 and 1.9 Ga, which have both been identied as major periods of continental growth. There are several possible explanations. At 2.4 Ga, the addition of plume lavas to an extending passive margin (along with Superior type iron formation) would not result in granitoid production until the next Wilson cycle. The ages of the resulting continental growth spurt, if dened by the ages of granites, would then be younger than the age of primary addition of the basaltic continental crust. At 2.7 Ga, we have a problem in the paucity of dike swarms of that age. Thus, we believe that it is likely that we have underestimated the size of the superplume events at 2.7 Ga. The maximum widths of the Avanavero dikes in South America largely dene the size of the superplume era at 1.65 Ga. These dikes are very poorly dated, with ages ranging from 1650 to possibly as old as 1800 Ma (Ernst and Buchan, 2001). There are two sets of dikes with diering orientation, which makes it likely that they are of signicantly dierent geological ages. Thus, we consider the superplume era at 1.65 Ga to be somewhat uncertain. Two issues that remain are the sizes of the largest superplume events and of most events prior to 2.9 Ga. Because of the gravity surveys over it, we are condent that the feeders to the Great Dike of Zimbabwe and the Narakavaara dike were at least 1 km in width. This observation implies that the largest Archean superplume events were at least 10 times larger than the largest Phanerozoic superplume events, covering about 73,000,000 km2. Taking the errors of our empirical predictions into account, these events covered, at least, between 14 and 18% of the Earths surface. However, other large dikes, such as the Jimberlana dike in Australia have widths of 1.5 km away from the wider dike sections that are layered intrusions (Hatton and Von Gruenewaldt, 1990). Nevertheless, without more geophysical constraints on feeder dike width, our best estimate is that the largest Archean superplumes were at least 10 times larger than the largest Phanerozoic superplumes. Overall, there are six individual superplume events (Table 7) with conservative feeder dike widths of at least 1 km and conservative lateral extents of at least 1418% of the planet. Taken together, these six events could have resurfaced the entire Earth with basalt. This conclusion is interesting in view of the young age of the basaltic surface of Venus (Head, 1994; Herrick, 1994). Venus has been compared many times to the Archean Earth (Solomon, 1980; Head, 1989). Because of its larger size and higher radioactive element content, the thermal evolution of Venus is less advanced than that of the Earth (Taylor, 1991; Arkani Hamed et al., 1993). Thus, our superplume record may be recapitulating for the Archean Earth what we now see on the surface of Venus.
11. Conclusions We dened four geological proxies for superplume activity: (1) High-Mg rocks (per Isley and Abbott, 2002); (2) Massive ood basalt provinces with an original surface area greater than 410,000 km2; (3) Maximum feeder dike widths greater than 70 m; and (4) Layered intrusions with enrichments in Cr and/or PGEs. We have shown that by using these proxies for mantle superplume magmatism in conjunction with their age dates, we are able to determine the duration and intensity of superplumes over Earth history. Our results show that overall superplume activity has progressively declined over the past 2.9 Ga. Our ranking of superplume events shows that the
294
strongest superplumes whose size we have been able to quantify occurred in Archean through early Proterozoic time (1.652.76Ga). Because of the limitations in geochronological, geophysical, and geological data on surviving outcrops, our calculations probably underestimate the actual frequency and intensity of superplume activity over time. As additional research data become available, it is highly likely that other distinct superplume events will be identied and that our estimates of the intensities of some superplumes in the Archean and Early Proterozoic will increase. We have demonstrated that it is possible to assess the relative size of Phanerozoic and Precambrian superplume events by using the maximum width of feeder dikes to predict the overall surface area covered by superplume magmatic activity. This assessment suggests that the largest Precambrian superplume events were at least ten times larger than the largest Phanerozoic superplume events. The largest Precambrian superplume events were essentially planetary in scale, involving at least 1418% of the Earths surface area. We have also dened 36 major periods of continuous superplume activity (superplume eras), with durations ranging from 76 to 1 million years. Over two thirds of all superplume periods have a relatively brief duration of 8 million years or less. There is no signicant dierence in the duration of Archean and Phanerozoic superplume eras.
Acknowledgements We thank Sarah Homan for editing. We thank Kent Condie, Ross Taylor and Richard Ernst for helpful comments on the paper. LDEO Contribution # 6280. References
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* Corresponding author. Fax: +1-914-365-8156. E-mail address: dallas@ideo.columbia.edu (D.H. Abbott).

D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307

D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307

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(continued on next page)

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Table 4 Superplume dike swarms

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(continued on next page)

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Superior Superior Europe Superior

100* 120 > 100 120

2114.5 2120 2123 2145

(continued on next page)

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Europe Baltica Craton Europe Baltica Craton

80 51000 500 51000

2419.5 2436 2437 2440

D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307

Table 5 Superplume Type Layered Intrusions

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(continued on next page)

D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307

Average Age age error 2800 40

Chromite Chromite Chromite PGE-rich PGE-rich Chromite PGE-rich Chromite

2870 2899 2925 2925 2925 2927 2935

Craton Craton Craton Craton

Messina Layered Intrusion Selukwe (Shurugwi)

Zimbabwe Craton Chromite

Itsaq Gneiss Complex

D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307

D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307

D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307

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Max. area, km2 8.00E+05 5.05E+06

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288 Table 7 (continued) Name

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4.61E+06 1.10E+05 7.37E+05

5.67E+06 1.10E+05 6.08E+06

4.07E+05 1.25E+07 7.42E+07 4.72E+05 1.47E+08

4.07E+05 1.25E+07 7.42E+07 4.72E+05 1.55E+08

(continued on next page)

Max. area, km2 7.37E+05 7.37E+07 1.18E+08

4.10E+05 4.10E+05 7.37E+05

1.82E+06 7.37E+07 7.37E+05

D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307

Ranking (max size) 35 24 20 38 19 37 11 3 36 1 10 35 4 2 28 4 35

D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307

D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307

D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307

D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307

D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307

D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307

D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307

D.H. Abbott, A.E. Isley / Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002) 265307