Extensive 200-million-year-old continental flood basalts of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province

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