Science, Vol.284, No.5414, 616-618, 1999
Extensive 200-million-year-old continental flood basalts of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province
The Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) is defined by tholeiitic basalts 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 area of 2.5 million square kilometers in north and central Brazil, and the total aerial extent of the magmatism exceeded 7 million square kilometers in a few million years, with peak activity at 200 million years ago. The magmatism coincided closely in time with a major mass extinction at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary.
Keywords:PASSIVE MARGINS;UNITED-STATES;NORTH-AMERICA;AGE;BASIN;PLUME;THOLEIITES;EXTINCTION;EVOLUTION;BRAZIL