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Large Igneous Province

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Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

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Definition

On Earth, large igneous provinces (LIPs) are defined as “voluminous emplacements of predominantly mafic extrusive and intrusive rock whose origins lie in processes other than ‘normal’ seafloor spreading” (Coffin and Eldholm 1992a, b; Head and Coffin 1997). A revised definition for Earth is “LIPs are magmatic provinces with areal extents >0.1 × 106 km2, igneous volumes >0.1 × 106 km3, and maximum life spans of ~50 Ma that have intraplate tectonic settings or geochemical affinities, and are characterized by igneous pulse(s) of short duration (~1–5 Myr), during which a large proportion (>75 %) of the total igneous volume has been emplaced” (Bryan and Ernst 2008).

Related Terms

Flood basalt province, Flood lava, Trap, Plateau basalt, Continental flood basalt, Ocean basin flood basalt

Description

Laterally extensive flat-lying fields of lava flows (sheet lava flows) (Geikie 1880), produced by flood lavas (very fluid lava flows), with long runout distance that inundate large...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Planetary Science Research Group, Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Henrik Hargitai

  2. Research Center for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Konkoly Thege Miklos Astronomical Institute, Budapest, Hungary

    Ákos Kereszturi

  3. European Space Agency (ESA), European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), 78, 28961, Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain

    Thomas Cornet

  4. Konkoly Observatory of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Erzsébet Illés-Almár

Authors
  1. Henrik Hargitai
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  2. Ákos Kereszturi
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  3. Thomas Cornet
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  4. Erzsébet Illés-Almár
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Correspondence to Henrik Hargitai .

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Hargitai, H., Kereszturi, Á., Cornet, T., Illés-Almár, E. (2014). Large Igneous Province. In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_215-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_215-1

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