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1 School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Grant Institute, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JW, UK Godfrey.Fitton{at}ed.ac.uk
2 School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
3 Department of Geological Sciences, 1272 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1272, USA
4 Department of Geology, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
This volume summarizes the results of recent research on the Ontong Java Plateau (OJP) in the western Pacific Ocean (Fig. 1). The plateau is the most voluminous of the world’s large igneous provinces (LIPs) and represents by far the largest known magmatic event on Earth. LIPs are formed through eruptions of basaltic magma on a scale not seen on Earth at the present time (e.g. Coffin & Eldholm 1994; Mahoney & Coffin 1997). Continental flood basalt provinces are the most obvious manifestation of LIP magmatism, but they have oceanic counterparts in volcanic rifted margins and giant submarine ocean plateaus. LIPs have also been identified on the Moon, Mars and Venus, and may represent the dominant form of volcanism in the solar system (Head & Coffin 1997). The high magma production rates (i.e. large eruption volume and high eruption frequency) involved in LIP magmatism cannot be accounted for by normal plate tectonic processes. Anomalously hot mantle often appears to be required, and this requirement has been a key consideration in the formulation of the currently favoured plume-head hypothesis in which LIPs are formed through rapid decompression and melting in the head of a newly ascended mantle plume (e.g. Richards et al. 1989; Campbell & Griffiths 1990). Eruption of enormous volumes of basaltic magma over short time intervals, especially in the subaerial environment, may have had significant effects on climate and the biosphere, and LIP formation has been proposed as one of the causes of mass extinctions (e.g. Wignall 2001).
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