Large igneous province (LIP) record of Venus: insights from giant radiating Graben-Fissure systems, and comparison with earth

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On a frequent basis, the Earth 'belches' and there is a sudden and major release of magma (molten rock) from the Earth's interior, which rises into the Earth's crust and partly spills out on the surface as lava flows. These Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) are truly immense in scale. The largest has a volume of magma of 80 million cubic kilometres, but they more typically encompass about 1 million cubic kilometres. LIPs consist of a single pulse or multiple pulses lasting a million years or less, and occur in an intraplate setting; in other words they are not related to any plate boundaries. LIPs cause extinction events, break up super-continents, and are the hosts for rich ore deposits. These events are so prominent in Earth history that they represent kind of a "Heartbeat" or "Pulse of the Earth" (www.nuna2007.ca; www.largeigneousprovinces.org).