Rapid extensive magmatism may have a profound effect on global climate by liberating and releasing greenhouse gases to the atmosphere through contact metamorphism of lithologically heterogeneous host rocks degassing magma associated lava flows. The high Arctic Archipelago Svalbard offers accessible, superbly exposed outcrops revealing Early Cretaceous with High Large Igneous Province (HALIP). I...

Findings of coesite and microdiamond in metamorphic rocks of supracrustal protolith led to the recognition of continental subduction to mantle depths. The crust-mantle interaction is expected to take place during subduction of the continental crust beneath the subcontinental lithospheric mantle wedge. This is recorded by postcollisional mafic igneous rocks in the Dabie-Sulu orogenic belt and it...

[1] Drilling during ODP Leg 209, dredging, and submersible dives have delineated an anomalous stretch of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge north and south of the 15 200N Fracture Zone. The seafloor here consists dominantly of mantle peridotite with gabbroic intrusions that in places is covered by a thin, discontinuous extrusive volcanic layer. Thick lithosphere (10–20 km) in this region inhibits magma fro...

The physical behavior of silicate melts during the final stages of intrusion in the earth's crust are poorly understood. In particular, the low temperature limit of igneous petrogenesis is poorly constrained. The extreme differentiates of granitic magmatism that lead to pegmatite genesis span a very large range of composition not normally considered to be within the domain of igneous melt compo...

[1] Recent spectroscopic detections of CH4 in the atmosphere of Mars are the first definitive observations of an organic compound on that planet. The relatively short photochemical lifetime of CH4 ( 300 years) argues for a geologically young source. We demonstrate here that lowtemperature alteration of basaltic crust by carbon-bearing hydrothermal fluid can produce the required CH4 flux of 1 10...