Stratigraphic records of the dynamic uplift of the Emeishan large igneous province

Abstract

Fluid dynamical and numerical modelling predicts a large-scale regional domal uplift prior to basalt eruptions in large igneous provinces, which can be readily measured when a plume head rises below a shallow marine sedimentary basin. Research on the sedimentology, biostratigraphy, and isotopic chronology of the Emeishan large igneous province demonstrates that the sedimentary environment in the Maokou stage is not uniform carbonate platform facies, but rather sedimentary facies with a north–south linear alignment and west–east different distribution controlled by the syn-depositional normal faulting of the Changhai and Xiaojiang faults, which are the result of underwater dynamic uplift induced by deep mantle activity. The dynamic uplift started in the Maokou stage. Thus, thinning of the Maokou limestone was the product of the difference in the initial depositional thickness caused by the underwater uplift and post-depositional surface uplift and erosion, but post-depositional uplift was much less than kilometre scale. Sedimentary facies differentiation and tectonic–sedimentary evolution in the Maokou stage provide a constraint for the time of the initial eruption and eruption environment before and during the Emeishan basalt eruption. Small-scale magmatic activity might have already begun in the middle of the Maokou stage, whereas submarine and terrestrial sedimentary environments coexisted before and during Emeishan basalt eruption.