Deep mantle origin of large igneous provinces and komatiites.

Large igneous provinces (LIPs) resulted from intraplate magmatic events mobilizing volumes of magma up to several million cubic kilometers. LIPs and lavas with deep mantle sources have compositions ranging from komatiites found in Archean greenstone belts to basalts and picrites in Phanerozoic flood basalt and recent oceanic islands. In this study, we identify the mantle conditions appropriate to each type of lava based on an experimental study of the melting of pyrolite.

Solid-liquid iron partitioning in Earth's deep mantle.

Melting processes in the deep mantle have important implications for the origin of the deep-derived plumes believed to feed hotspot volcanoes such as those in Hawaii. They also provide insight into how the mantle has evolved, geochemically and dynamically, since the formation of Earth. Melt production in the shallow mantle is quite well understood, but deeper melting near the core-mantle boundary remains controversial.