Skagerrak-Centered Large Igneous Province

The Skagerrak-Centered Large Igneous Province (SCLIP), also known as the European-Northwest African Large Igneous Province (EUNWA),[1] and Jutland LIP, is a 300 million year old (Ma) large igneous province (LIP) centered on what is today the Skagerrak strait in north-western Europe (57°50′N 9°04′E, paleocoordinates[2] 11°N 16°E (south of Lake Chad)). It was named by Torsvik et al. 2008.

The SCLIP covered an area of at least 0.5×10^6 km2 (0.19×10^6 sq mi) and includes the Oslo and Skagerrak grabens, areas in south-western Sweden, Scotland, northern England, and the central North Sea. The SCLIP erupted at 297±4 Ma.[3] It produced 228,000 km² of currently exposed volcanic material that can be found in Skagerrak, the Oslo Fjord, central North Sea, North-east Germany; 14,000 km² of sills in Scotland, England, Germany, The Netherlands, and Sweden; and 3,353 km total length of dykes in Scotland, Norway, and Sweden.[4] The period of eruptions comprised a relatively short time span, perhaps less than 4 Ma, but magma propagated more than 1,000 km (620 mi) from the plume centre.[5]

Plumes derived from a superplume (or Large Low Shear Velocity Province (LLSVP)) overlay the boundary of the superplume at the core-mantle boundary (CMB).[6] To test whether the SCLIP met these criteria, Torsvik et al. used a shear-wave tomographic model of the mantle, in which the SCLIP indeed do project down to the margin of the African superplume at the CMB at a depth of 2800 km.[2] A series of LIPs are associated with the African superplume, of which the SCLIP is the oldest: SCLIP (300 Ma), Bachu (275 Ma), Emeishan (260 Ma), Siberian (250 Ma), and Central Atlantic (200 Ma). Its possible that these plumes together caused the break-up of Pangaea and therefore play an important role in the supercontinent cycle.[7]

The SCLIP is associated with the Moscovian and Kasimovian stages of the Carboniferous rainforest collapse around 296-310 Ma together with the Siberian Barguzin-Vitim LIP. [8]

See also

References
  1. E.g. Doblas et al. 1998, Abstract; Bryan & Ferrari 2013, Fig. 1, p. 1054
  2. Torsvik et al. 2008, Relationship of the Skagerrak LIP eruption site to the deep mantle, pp. 447–448
  3. Torsvik et al. 2008, The Skagerrak-Centered Large Igneous Province, pp. 444–445
  4. Torsvik et al. 2008, Fig. 1, p. 445
  5. Torsvik et al. 2008, Conclusions, p. 451
  6. Torsvik et al. 2008, Was the SCLIP generated by a mantle plume?, pp. 445-446
  7. Li & Zhong 2009, Superplume record during the Pangean cycle, pp. 146–147
  8. Kravchinsky 2012, Table 1, p. 33

Bibliography
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