Plume-lithosphere interaction in generation of the Emeishan flood basalts at the Permian-Triassic boundary

Abstract

The Emeishan flood volcanism that erupted at Permian-Triassic boundary time produced a large igneous province of at least 2.5 X 10 5 km 2 in the western margin of the Yangtze craton, southwestern China. The volcanic successions, suggested to have resulted from a starting mantle plume, comprise thick piles of basaltic flows and subordinate picrites and pyroclastics. The picrites, which have high magnesian contents (MgO ≊ 20–16 wt%), variable degrees of light rare earth element enrichment [(Ce/Yb) N ≊ 4–25] and heterogeneous isotope ratios [ϵ Nd ≊ (T) +4 to −4], are proposed to have been generated by mixing between the dominant plume-derived magmas and small amounts of lamproitic liquids from the continental lithospheric mantle.