The Location of the Tail of Emeishan Mantle Plume

This paper discusses the tail of Emeishan mantle plume and suggests that it locates in Miyi—Yongren area, southern Sichuan—northern Yunnan. On the basis of the classic mantle plume theory, the estimated diameter of Emeishan plume tail was 65~105km when it reached the upper mantle. Picrite distributions and sedimentary responses showed that the center zone of the Emeishan plume was ca. 260~300km wide. Eruption and outcropping of flood basalts were constrained by deep-seated faults and paleogeomorphology, which resulted in the concentration of picrite in the west of the Emeishan large igneous province.