A. Segev, Synchronous magmatic cycles during the fragmentation of Gondwana: radiometric ages from the Levant and other provinces, TECTONOPHYS, 325(3-4), 2000, pp. 257-277
Reliable and acceptable radiometric ages (mainly Ar-40/Ar-39) of igneous wh
ole rocks from the Levant, representing non-orogenic igneous provinces, tog
ether with six igneous provinces of Gondwana, reveal 17 synchronous global
magmatic events, including flood basalts. Their starting ages in the course
of the last 205 million years (in Ma) are: 202, 190, 184, 169, 160, 145, 1
38, 125, 112, 97, 83, 69, 56, 44, 32, 17 and 5. The chronology of these eve
nts in Gondwana igneous provinces points to short-term magmatic cycles, con
sisting of magmatic events plus intermagmatic intervals, with an average du
ration of ca 13 m.y. The suggested synchronous events, which conform to geo
logical periods and stage boundaries, probably reflect cycles of high-rate
upper mantle upwellings that played a major role in the periodic ascent of
melts across the lithosphere. The common geodynamic evolution of Gondwana i
gneous provinces was extension of the continental lithosphere, thinning, up
lifting, breakup, massive igneous activity, spreading and drifting. All the
se provinces were affected by upwelling of lower mantle thermal anomalies.
The chronology of magmatic events in each igneous province, which extended
over thousands of kilometers and includes the plume provinces, suggests tha
t the life-span (magmatic period) of these provinces averages 58 m.y., and
in many cases, the first-term magmatic cycles are longer (11-17 m.y.) and m
ore intensive.
The periodic magmatism, which followed the breakup and dispersal of Gondwan
a, suggests an evolutionary scenario for the development of oceanic spreadi
ng centers by the ascent of one or more (coexisting) large plume heads acro
ss the upper mantle. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.