Mantle Convection and Surface Expressions

Abstract

Most hotspots, kimberlites, and large igneous provinces (LIPs) are sourced by plumes that rise from the margins of two large low shear-wave velocity provinces in the lowermost mantle. These thermochemical provinces have been quasi-stable for hundreds of millions years and plume heads rise through the mantle in about 30Myr or less. LIPs provide a direct link between the deep Earth and the atmosphere but environmental consequences depend on both their volumes and the composition of the crustal rocks they are emplaced through. LIP activity can alter the plate tectonic setting by creating andmodifying plate boundaries and hence changing the paleogeography and its long-term forcing on climate. Extensive blankets of LIP-lava on the Earth’s surface can also enhance silicate weathering and potentially lead to CO2 drawdown, but we find no clear relationship between LIPs and postemplacement variation in atmospheric CO2 proxies on very long (>10 Myrs) time-scales. Subduction flux estimates correlate well with zircon age frequency distributions through time. This suggest that continental arc activity may have played an important role in regulating long-term climate change (greenhouse vs. icehouse conditions) but only the Permo-Carboniferous icehouse show a clear correlation with the zircon record.