Shape and size of the starting Iceland plume swell

Emplacement of a large igneous province is usually accompanied by kilometre-scale uplift over an area of similar to10(6) km(2). We have developed a method for mapping the dynamically supported swell associated with the North Atlantic Igneous Province by inverting palaeo-topographic information from continental margins. In the forward model, latest Palaeocene palaeo-topography around Britain and Ireland is calculated by correcting present-day topography for global sea-level change, denudation and dynamic support. We initially assume a Gaussian, axially symmetric dynamic support profile. Modelled coastlines are compared with palaeo-coastlines mapped on 2D and 3D reflection seismic data. In the inverse model, the amplitude, width and centre of the dynamically supported swell are determined by minimising misfit between modelled and observed coastlines. Uncertainties associated with global sea-level variation and denudation have little effect on this calculation. The best-fit dynamic support profile from inverting palaeo-coastline positions is in good agreement with dynamic support estimates from subsidence anomalies measured in extensional sedimentary basins fringing Britain and Ireland. However, a circular planform of dynamic support cannot simultaneously account for palaeo-coastlines, subsidence anomalies and the spatial extent of the North Atlantic Igneous Province. In combination, these data suggest that the swell was more irregular in planform. This inference can be tested in future by modelling stratigraphic data from offshore Norway, Greenland and Canada. The large areal extent and short time interval for inflation of the dynamically supported swell are best explained by rapid convective emplacement of an abnormally hot mantle layer horizontally beneath the lithosphere, during the starting phase of the Icelandic convective system. We emphasise the need to interpret the igneous record jointly with the dynamic support history when discussing models of large igneous province formation and mantle convection. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.