Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 7, 2026

Simulation of the Planetary Interior Differentiation Processes in the Laboratory
Published on: November 16, 2013
Petrological evidence for secular cooling in mantle plumes
Claude Herzberg1, Esteban Gazel
1Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Rutgers University, 610 Taylor Road, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-8066, USA. herzberg@rci.rutgers.edu
Abstract:
Geological mapping and geochronological studies have shown much lower eruption rates for ocean island basalts (OIBs) in comparison with those of lavas from large igneous provinces (LIPs) such as oceanic plateaux and continental flood provinces. However, a quantitative petrological comparison has never been made between mantle source temperature and the extent of melting for OIB and LIP sources. Here we show that the MgO and FeO contents of Galapagos-related lavas and their primary magmas have decreased since the Cretaceous period. From petrological modelling, we infer that these changes reflect a cooling of the Galapagos mantle plume from a potential temperature of 1,560-1,620 degrees C in the Cretaceous to 1,500 degrees C at present. Iceland also exhibits secular cooling, in agreement with previous studies. Our work provides quantitative petrological evidence that, in general, mantle plumes for LIPs with Palaeocene-Permian ages were hotter and melted more extensively than plumes of more modern ocean islands. We interpret this to reflect episodic flow from lower-mantle domains that are lithologically and geochemically heterogeneous.
Related Concept Videos
Global Climate Change
Phase Transitions: Sublimation and Deposition
Isothermal Processes
An ideal gas can also undergo isothermal expansion or compression.
For example, consider 1 mole of an ideal gas inside an isolated cylinder at initial volume V...
Atomic Spectroscopy: Effects of Temperature
At thermal equilibrium, the relative populations of excited and ground state atoms can be estimated using the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution. For example, an increase in temperature from...

