Timing of Hot Spot—Related Volcanism and the Breakup of Madagascar and India
Year: 1995
Type: article
Abstract: Widespread basalts and rhyolites were erupted in Madagascar during the Late Cretaceous. These are considered to be related to the Marion hot spot and the breakup of Madagascar and Greater India. Seventeen argon-40/argon-39 age determinations reveal that volcanic rocks and dikes from the 1500-kilometer-long rifted eastern margin of Madagascar were emplaced rapidly (mean age = 87.6 +/- 0.6 million years ago) and that the entire duration of Cretaceous volcanism on the island was no more than 6 million years. The evidence suggests that the thick lava pile at Volcan de l'Androy in the south of the island marks the focal point of the Marion hot spot at approximately 88 million years ago and that this mantle plume was instrumental in causing continental breakup.
Source: Science
Authors: Michael Storey, John J. Mahoney, Andrew D. Saunders, Robert A. Duncan, Simon P. Kelley, Millard F. Coffin
Language: English
Subfield: Geochemistry and Petrology
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2063580659