Driving Global Change One LIP at a Time

Abstract

Earth’s history has been punctuated by extraordinary magmatic events that produced large igneous provinces (LIPs). Many LIPs induced global changes, including millennial-scale warming, terrestrial and oceanic mass extinctions, oceanic anoxic events, and even glaciations. Research over the past 20 years has shown that shallow crustal degassing is an important factor contributing to the environmental impact of LIPs. Contact metamorphism in sedimentary basins can generate huge gas volumes, and operates as a function of magma volume and the architecture of LIP plumbing systems. Numerous open questions remain concerning the role of LIPs in triggering rapid and lasting changes, whose answers require collaboration across geoscientific disciplines. In this issue, we present the status of five key research themes and discuss potential ways forward to better understanding these large-scale phenomena.