What is a Large Igneous Province (LIP)?
Large igneous province (LIP) implies a province of igneous origin that is large. Clearly, the term LIP should cover large volcanic and intrusive igneous provinces, of whatever emplacement mechanism and composition. However, the term LIP has been applied to and used only for “flood basalt” provinces that have been the subject of great interest and extensive research recently (e.g., Macdougall, 1988; Mahoney & Coffin, 1997; Sheth & Pande, 2004; Kerr et al., 2005; Foulger et al., 2005; Saunders, 2005; see www.largeigneousprovinces.org). They represent the eruption of enormous volumes of mantle-derived magma on the Earth’s surface in relatively short time periods. These provinces (e.g., Deccan, Fig. 1, and Siberian Traps) are unquestionably LIPs in the broadest sense of the term. However, large-volume felsic provinces such as the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico are also LIPs, as are the huge granodioritic batholiths of the world, such as those of Tibet-Himalaya, western North America, or
