The Siberian Traps represent one of the most voluminous flood basalt provinces on Earth. Laser-heating (40)Ar/(39)Ar data indicate that the bulk of these basalts was erupted over an extremely short time interval (900,000 +/- 800,000 years) beginning at about 248 million years ago at mean eruption rates of greater than 1.3 cubic kilometers per year. Such rates are consistent with a mantle plume ...

To understand the impact cratering record on Venus, we investigate two distinct resurfacing styles: localized, thin flows and large shield volcanoes. We statistically analyze the size-frequency distribution of volcanically modified craters and, using Monte Carlo simulations, their spatial distribution. Lava flows partially fill most craters, darkening their floors in radar images. We find that ...

Using data from the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment, we show that four regions of the Moon previously described as "red spots" exhibit mid-infrared spectra best explained by quartz, silica-rich glass, or alkali feldspar. These lithologies are consistent with evolved rocks similar to lunar granites in the Apollo samples. The spectral character of these spots is distinct from surrounding mare...

We report partial melting of an ultrahigh pressure eclogite in the Mesozoic Sulu orogen, China. Eclogitic migmatite shows successive stages of initial intragranular and grain boundary melt droplets, which grow into a three-dimensional interconnected intergranular network, then segregate and accumulate in pressure shadow areas and then merge to form melt channels and dikes that transport magma t...

Continental flood basalt eruptions have resulted in sudden and massive accumulations of basaltic lavas in excess of any contemporary volcanic processes. The largest flood basalt events mark the earliest volcanic activity of many major hot spots, which are thought to result from deep mantle plumes. The relative volumes of melt and eruption rates of flood basalts and hot spots as well as their te...

Mantle seismic structure beneath the United States spanning from the active western plate margin to the passive eastern margin was imaged with teleseismic P and S wave traveltime tomography including USArray data up to May 2014. To mitigate artifacts from crustal structure 5–40 s, Rayleigh wave phase velocities were used to create a 3-D starting model. Major features of the final P and Smodels ...

Most geophysical processes impart a characteristic thermal signature to the crust that can be preserved in the form of isotopic variations in radiogenic minerals. Reading the record of these events using thermochronology permits unprecedented insights into the timing and rates of key dynamic processes, such as rifting, thrust faulting, tectonic denudation, erosion/incision, and magmatism, that ...