Major Cretaceous Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs, e.g., Kerguelen and Ontong
Java) show Aptian magmatic peaks and are linked to global mantle overturnin
g and anomalous surface conditions. Widespread Cretaceous igneous activity
in the High Arctic has recently been identified as a LIP. Exposed component
s on Svalbard, Franz Josef Island, adjacent shelf areas, Axel Heiberg and E
llesmere Islands, and perhaps North Greenland, cover several hundred thousa
nd square kilometers and were peripheral to a LIP center at the Alpha Ridge
. Manifestations of LIP development on Svalbard include (1) extensive sills
, rare dikes, and extrusives in the east, (2) slow regression within the up
per part of thick, black shales punctuated by locally abrupt uplift, with o
verlying coastal plain sandstones, (3) development of a regional, Late Cret
aceous, low-angle unconformity associated with a second regression, and (4)
a widespread Early Aptian transition from quartz arenites to lithic arenit
es and feldspathic sandstones reflecting new northern volcanic source terra
nes. The unconformity likely reflects LIP thermal doming with >1 km of eros
ion. The sedimentologic record provides important insight into this LIP sin
ce much of it is inaccessible or eroded. Analysis of published geochronolog
y indicates magmatism within a 135-90 Ma window, with more detailed interpr
etations being problematic. Two regressions suggest two pulses of igneous a
ctivity (Barremian and Albian). Multiple pulses have been documented for ot
her LIPs and may result from a deep and large plume. Present evidence that
magmatism was coeval in Svalbard and Franz Josef Land is inconsistent with
a hotspot track hypothesis and suggestive of a large initial plume head.