The possibility of volcanism on Mercury has been a topic of discussion since Mariner 10 returned images of half the planet's surface showing widespread plains material. These plains could be volcanic or lobate crater ejecta. An assessment of the mechanics of the ascent and eruption of magma shows that it is possible to have widespread volcanism, no volcanism on the surface whatsoever, or some r...

Tutuila is a basaltic volcanic island within the east southeasterly trending Samoa Island chain in the Pacific Ocean. Potassium-argon ages on 38 whole rock samples oflavas and intrusives demonstrate that the main period of subaerial volcanism occurred over a relatively short interval of about 0.6 Ma in the Early Pleistocene. The major shield volcano, Pago, was built between about 1.54 and 1.28 ...

The Samoan volcanic lineament has many features that are consistent with a plume-driven hotspot model, including the currently active submarine volcano Vailulu’u that anchors the eastern extremity. Proximity to the northern end of the Tonga trench, and the presence of voluminous young volcanism on what should be the oldest (~5 my) western island (Savai’i) has induced controversy regarding a sim...

Large tectonic plates are known to be susceptible to internal deformation, leading to a range of phenomena including intraplate volcanism. However, the space and time dependence of intraplate deformation and its relationship with changing plate boundary configurations, subducting slab geometries, and absolute plate motion is poorly understood. We utilise a buoyancy-driven Stokes flow solver, BE...

[1] Putative mechanisms that have been proposed to explain intraplate “hotspot” volcanism extensively depart from the early plume theory, and many do not involve deep mantle flow. Here, we look for a relationship between hotspot volcanism and mantle flow using flow models excited by density anomalies inferred from seismic tomography. We show that previously identified major hotspots are prefere...

The Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) has long been proposed as having a causal relationship with the end-Triassic extinction event (∼201.5 Ma). In North America and northern Africa, CAMP is preserved as multiple basaltic units interbedded with uppermost Triassic to lowermost Jurassic sediments. However, it has been unclear whether this apparent pulsing was a local feature, or if pulses...

This work presents the volcanic geology of easternmost sector Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, including Serdán-Oriental basin and Cofre de Perote-Citlaltépetl range, two contrasting Quaternary fields. The first comprises dominant monogenetic volcanism bimodal composition isolated rhyolitic domes tuff rings, basaltic andesite maar volcanoes, cinder lava cones, an active caldera complex (Los Humeros...

Subduction-related volcanism in the northern part of the North Island of New Zealand shifted abruptly during the late Pliocene. This study focuses on the transition, in time and space, from the NNW-oriented Miocene–Pliocene Coromandel Volcanic Zone to the northeast-oriented active Taupo Volcanic Zone. The volcanic rocks marking this transition are exposed in the Tauranga Basin and adjacent Kaim...

the lut block in eastern iran is a micro-continental block within the convergent orogen between the arabian, eurasian and indian plates. large areas of the north-central, eastern, and western lut block are covered by volcanic rocks of paleogene, neogene and quaternary age.  peak volcanic activity took place in the north-central part of the lut block during the eocene, and then dramatically decr...