Study on Mantle Plume and Large Igneous Provinces in China: An Overview and Perspectives

This review paper starts with outlining some key research topics and methods in the field of Large Igneous Provinces(LIP) and mantle plumes.It is followed by an overview of the recent achievements and debates in the late Permian Emeishan continental flood basalt province in southwest China and early Permian Tarim traps in SW China.Data of various disciplines are evaluated by comparing observation against prediction of the plume hypothesis.It is shown that 7 out of 9 most convincing arguments in support of mantle plumes are met in the Emeishan LIP.In particular,sedimentologic data show unequivocal evidence for a lithospheric doming event prior to the Emeishan volcanism.These observations,the presence of high temperature magmas,emplacement of immense volume of magmas over a short time span and the spatial variation in basalt geochemistry,are all consistent with predictions of plume modeling,thus providing strong support for the validity of the mantle plume hypothesis.In the Tarim case,a two-stage dynamic model is proposed to account for the geochemical trend displayed by Tarim basalts.Finally some perspectives are made for the future studies in this field.