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. 40Ar/39Ar 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.
The evolution of life on Earth is marked by catastrophic extinction events, one of which occurred ca. 200 Ma at the transition from the Triassic Period to the Jurassic Period (Tr-J boundary), apparently contemporaneous with the eruption of the world's largest known continental igneous province, the Central Atlantic magmatic province. The temporal relationship of the Tr-J boundary and the province's volcanism is clarified by new multi-disciplinary (stratigraphic, palynologic, geochronologic, paleomagnetic, geochemical) data that demonstrate that development of the Central Atlantic magmatic province straddled the Tr-J boundary and thus may have had a causal relationship with the climatic crisis and biotic turnover demarcating the boundary
The Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) is one of the largest igneous provinces on Earth, with an areal extent exceeding 10 7 km 2 . Here we document the geochemical characteristics of CAMP basalts fromTriassic^Jurassic basins in northeastern USA and Nova Scotia (Canada). The CAMP rocks occur as lava flows, sills and dykes. All of our analysed samples show chemical characteristics typical of CAMP basalts with low titanium content, which include enrichment in the most incompatible elements and negative Nb anomalies. All the basalts also show enriched Sr^Nd^Pb initial201 Ma) isotopic compositions ( 206 Pb/ 204 Pb ini. ¼ 18•1551 8•691, 207 Pb/ 204 Pb ini. ¼ 15•616^15•668, 208 Pb/ 204 Pb ini. ¼ 38•160^38•616, 143 Nd/ 144 Nd ini. ¼ 0•512169^0•512499). On the basis of stratigraphy, rare earth element (REE) chemistry and SrN d^Pb isotope composition, three chemical groups are defined. The Hook Mountain group, with the lowest La/Yb ratios, initial 206 Pb/ 204 Pb ini. 418•5 and 143 Nd/ 144 Nd ini. 40•51238, comprises all the lastest and upper stratigraphic units. The Preakness group, with intermediate La/Yb ratios, 206 Pb/ 204 Pb ini. 418•5 and
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