Abstract
THE concept of thermal plumes1,2 of deep mantle material, up to 150 km in diameter, rising through the mantle and burning through the lithosphere to form scar traces of chains of igneous activity on moving oceanic and continental crust3 is providing Earth scientists with a new method for estimating the direction of drift4. Igneous chains such as the Tertiary volcanic province of north-west Britain5, White Mountain Magma Series from New Hampshire6 and the Nigerian younger granites7 have all recently been attributed to scar traces produced by the passage of lithospheric plates over thermal plumes in the mantle3,4, although the geochronological evidence cited5 does not always justify such assumptions. Here we present new systematic age data for four Nigerian sub-volcanic granites which suggest that these Mesozoic intrusives can be used to verify the general northerly drift of Africa.
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