Discussion of Thick and high velocity crust in the Emeishan large igneous province, SW China: Evidence for crustal growth by magmatic underplating/intraplating

Xu et al. write: “After having studied drainage patterns of three continental LIPs, Cox (1989) suggested topographic doming associated with plume activity can be preserved after ~200 Ma, and crustal thickening by magmatic underplating is the most likely cause for the persistence of such features. Although the work by Cox (1989) on the Deccan traps receives some criticism (Sheth, this volume), the link between underplating and persistant uplift remains valid.” One of the objectives of my paper (Sheth, this volume) was to show that major uplift in many flood basalts is significantly younger (tens of millions of years) than the flood volcanism and associated underplating. It is important to get the facts right. We are simply not seeing uplift commencing at or just prior to flood basalt volcanism and persisting for tens of hundreds of millions of years, as Cox (1989) imagined and which Xu et al. have quoted. Rather, we are seeing uplift commencing tens of millions of years after the flood volcanism and all underplating are over. See my paper in this volume for studies that have argued for major Neogene uplift of the Indian peninsula and western Indian rifted margin.