Investigating Large Igneous Province Formation and Associated Paleoenvironmental Events: A White Paper for Scientific Drilling

Earth’s history has been punctuated over at least the last 3.5 billion years by massive volcanism on a scale unknown in the recent geological past. Largely unknown mechanical and dynamic processes, with unclear relationships to seafloor spreading and subduction, generated voluminous, predominately mafic magmas that were emplaced into the Earth’s lithosphere. The resultant large igneous provinces (LIPs; Coffin and Eldholm, 1994; Ernst and Buchan, 2001; Bryan and Ernst, 2008) were at times accompanied by catastrophic environmental changes. The interaction of the LIP-associated mantle processes with the Earth’s crust have produced a variety of surface expressions (Fig. 1a and 1b); the most common present-day examples are oceanic plateaus (e.g., Kerguelen/Broken Ridge, Ontong Java, Manihiki, Hikurangi, Shatsky), ocean basin flood basalts (e.g., Caribbean, Nauru), magma-dominated divergent continental margins (e.g., theNorth Atlantic), and continental flood basalts (e.g., Columbia River, Deccan Traps, Siberian Traps). Environmental effects associated with LIP formation include climate changes, mass and other extinctions, variations in ocean and atmospheric chemistry, and Oceanic Anoxic Events (OAEs). Therefore, the geodynamic processes in the mantle that produce LIPs have potentially profoundly affected the Earth’s environment, particularly the biosphere and climate. The IntegratedOcean Drilling Program (IODP) affords unique opportunities to investigate LIPs and associated environmental effects, building upon results from the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) and Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) (Coffin et al., 2006). To this end, a workshop on LIPs, sponsored by IODP Management International (IODP-MI) and the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, was held at the University of Ulster in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, U.K. on 22–25 July 2007 (Coffinet al., 2007)