Continental Flood Basalts

Continental flood basalts have been receiving considerable scientific attention lately. Recent publications have focused on several particular flood‐basalt provinces (Brito‐Arctic, Karoo, Parana', Deccan, and Columbia Plateau), and much attention has been given to the proposed connection between flood‐basalt volcanism, bolide impacts, and mass extinctions. The editor of Continental Flood Basalts, J. D. Macdougall, conceived the book to assemble in a single volume, from a vast and scattered literature, an overview of each major post‐Cambrian flood‐basalt province. Continental Flood Basalts has 10 chapters; nine treat individual flood‐basalt provinces, and a summary chapter compares and contrasts continental flood‐basalts and mid‐oceanic ridge basalts. Specifically, the chapters address the Columbia River basalt, the northwest United States including the Columbia River basalt, the Ethiopian Province, the North Atlantic Tertiary Province, the Deccan Traps, the Parana' Basin, the Karoo Province, the Siberian Platform, and Cenozoic basaltic rocks in eastern China. Each chapter is written by one or more individuals with an extensive background in the province.