The great mantle plume event
Superheated plumes rise from the deep mantle and resurface much of the planet in lava.
- When
- Known to
- ± 50 million years
- Era
- Neoarchean, Archean
Around 2.7 billion years ago Earth undergoes a worldwide pulse of igneous activity, producing komatiites — lavas so magnesium-rich they require mantle temperatures far above anything possible today. Komatiite eruption peaks in the Neoarchean and essentially ceases afterwards, making it a direct measure of a cooling planet. The pulse drives crustal growth, ore formation and, indirectly, the chemistry that follows.