Central Atlantic magmatic province
CAMP | |
---|---|
Location | Central North Atlantic Ocean, northwest Africa, southwest Europe, northeast South & southeast North America |
Offshore water bodies | Atlantic Ocean |
Age | latest Triassic-Early Jurassic |
Orogeny | Break-up of Pangea |
Area | |
• Total | 11,000,000 km2 (1.2×1014 sq ft) |
Dimensions | |
• Length | 5,000 km (3,100 mi) |
• Width | 2,500 km (1,600 mi) |
Last eruption | Hettangian |
The Central Atlantic magmatic province (CAMP) is the Earth's largest continental large igneous province, covering an area of roughly 11 million km2. It is composed mainly of basalt that formed before Pangaea broke up in the Mesozoic Era, near the end of the Triassic and the beginning of the Jurassic periods. The subsequent breakup of Pangaea created the Atlantic Ocean, but the massive igneous upwelling provided a legacy of basaltic dikes, sills, and lavas now spread over a vast area around the present central North Atlantic Ocean, including large deposits in northwest Africa, southwest Europe, as well as northeast South America and southeast North America (found as continental tholeiitic basalts in subaerial flows and intrusive bodies). The name and CAMP acronym were proposed by Andrea Marzoli (Marzoli et al. 1999) and adopted at a symposium held at the 1999 Spring Meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
The CAMP volcanic eruptions occurred about 201 million years ago and split into four pulses lasting for over ~600,000 years. The resulting large igneous province is, in area covered, the most extensive on Earth. The volume of magma flow of between two and six million cubic kilometres makes it one of the most voluminous as well.[1][2]
This geologic event is associated with the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event.[3][1]