The role of mantle plumes in the development of continental drainage patterns

Abstract

The geomorphology of three continental flood-basalt provinces supports a recent model for the generation of such provinces by melting of hot mantle plumes. Characteristic drainage patterns indicating topographic doming associated with plume activity are still preserved after up to 200 Myr. Crustal thickening by magmatic under-plating is the most likely cause of the persistence of such features.