Collaborative Research: Co-operative Program: The Origin and Evolution of the Karoo Basalt Group, Southern Africa

本项目旨在确定非洲南部卡鲁大陆洪水玄武岩省的形成时间、成因和演化。将特别强调利用野外测绘和化学技术对玄武岩流的逐流地层及其相对和绝对年龄。这些数据将用于限制物理性质和这次特别大的火山事件的持续时间，将分散在纳米比亚南部、博茨瓦纳、莱索托和南非大片地区的卡鲁玄武岩的大量侵蚀残留物联系起来，并将流动与在非洲南部发现的众多卡鲁堤坝联系起来。对该省物理演化的进一步了解将与成分数据一起用于模拟玄武岩岩浆产生过程中的地幔熔化、分馏和地壳同化，并限制其来源的成分。

This project is to determine the timing, genesis, and evolution of the Karoo continental flood basalt province in Southern Africa. Particular emphasis will be placed on the flow-by-flow stratigraphy of the basalt flows using field mapping and chemical techniques, and their relative and absolute ages. These data will be used to constrain both the physical nature and the duration of this exceptionally large volcanic event, to correlate the numerous eroded remnants of Karoo basalt now scattered over large areas of southern Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, and South Africa, and to correlate the flows with the numerous Karoo dikes found across southern Africa. The increased knowledge of the physical evolution of the province will then be used in conjunction with the compositional data to model mantle melting, fractionation and crustal assimilation in the production of the basaltic magmas and to constrain the composition of their source.