Journal article

Bushveld superplume drove Proterozoic magmatism and metallogenesis in Australia

Marco L Fiorentini, Craig O'Neill, Andrea Giuliani, Eunjoo Choi, Roland Maas, Franco Pirajno, Stephen Foley

SCIENTIFIC REPORTS | NATURE RESEARCH | Published : 2020

Abstract

Large-scale mantle convective processes are commonly reflected in the emplacement of Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs). These are high-volume, short-duration magmatic events consisting mainly of extensive flood basalts and their associated plumbing systems. One of the most voluminous LIPs in the geological record is the ~ 2.06 billion-year-old Bushveld Igneous Complex of South Africa (BIC), one of the most mineralised magmatic complexes on Earth. Surprisingly, the known geographic envelope of magmatism related to the BIC is limited to a series of satellite intrusions in southern Africa and has not been traced further afield. This appears inconsistent with the inferred large size of the BIC even..

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Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council through the Centre of Excellence for Core


Funding Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship, the Australian Research Council through the Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems (CE1100001017), as well as the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia. The authors acknowledge the technical, and the scientific assistance from the Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Research Facility at the Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation & Analysis of The University of Western Australia. EC acknowledges the support of the University of Western Australia through a RTS scholarship. Richard Ernst and an anonymous reviewer are thanked for their insightful and constructive reviews.