Extensive 200-Million-Year-Old Continental Flood Basalts of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province

1999/04/23 by Andrea Marzoli, Paul R. Renne, E. M. Piccirillo +3 · 25 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Geological and Geochemical Analysis #Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils #Geological formations and processes

paper · doi:10.1126/science.284.5414.616

openalex publication_date 1999/04/23 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) is defined by tholeiitic basalts that crop out in once-contiguous parts of North America, Europe, Africa, and South America and is associated with the breakup of Pangea. 40Ar/39Ar and paleomagnetic data indicate that CAMP magmatism extended over an area of 2.5 million square kilometers in north and central Brazil, and the total aerial extent of the magmatism exceeded 7 million square kilometers in a few million years, with peak activity at 200 million years ago. The magmatism coincided closely in time with a major mass extinction at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary.

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