The Deccan Traps is a large igneous province located in west-central India and is one of the largest volcanic features on Earth. It consists of multiple layers of solidified flood basalt that together are more than 2,000 m thick and cover an area of 500,000 km². The name is derived from the Swedish word for steps which refer to the step like hills forming the landscape of the region. A large igneous province (LIP) is an extensive region of basalts resulting from flood basalt volcanism. ... This article is about volcanoes in geology. ... Earth is the third planet from the Sun. ... A flood basalt is a giant volcanic eruption that coats large stretches of land with basalt lava. ... To help compare orders of magnitude of different geographical regions, we list here surface areas between 100,000 km² and 1,000,000 km². ...

The Deccan Traps formed between 60 and 68 million years ago,[1][2] at the end of the Cretaceous period. The gases released in the process may have played a role in the extinction of the dinosaurs. Before it was reduced to its current size by erosion and continental drift, it is estimated that the original area covered by the lava flows was as large as 1.5 million km². The volume of basalt is estimated to have been 512,000 km³. The geologic time scale is used by geologists and other scientists to describe the timing and relationships between events that have occurred during the history of the Earth. ... The Cretaceous period is one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, reaching from the end of the Jurassic period, about 146 million years ago (Ma), to the beginning of the Paleocene epoch of the Tertiary period (65. ... In geology, a period or age is a time span of many millions of years that are assumed to have had similar characteristics. ... In biology and ecology, extinction is the ceasing of existence of a species or group of taxa. ... Orders & Suborders Saurischia Sauropodomorpha Theropoda Ornithischia Dinosaurs were vertebrate animals that dominated the terrestrial ecosystem for over 160 million years, first appearing approximately 230 million years ago. ... } Erosion is the displacement of solids (soil, mud, rock, and other particles) by the agents of wind, water, ice, movement in response to gravity, or living organisms (in the case of bioerosion). ... Portrayal of shifting continents The concept of continental drift was first proposed by Alfred Wegener. ... Look up lava, Aa, and pahoehoe in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

It is postulated that the Deccan Traps eruption is associated with a deep mantle plume or hotspot. The plume or hotspot, known as the Réunion hotspot, is suspected of causing both the Deccan Traps eruption and opening the rift that once separated the Seychelles plateau from India. Seafloor spreading at the boundary between the Indian and African Plates subsequently pushed India north over the hotspot, which now lies under Réunion island in the Indian Ocean, southwest of India. The mantle plume model has, however, been challenged (See Reference #1, below).[3] A mantle plume is a manifestation of a type of geological phenomenon originally proposed by W. Jason Morgan in 1971. ... In geology, a hotspot is a location on the Earths surface that has experienced active volcanism for a long period of time. ... The Réunion hotspot is a volcanic hotspot which presently lies under the Island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. ... Age of oceanic crust. ... The African plate is shown in pinkish-orange on this map The African Plate (sometimes referred to as the Nubian Plate) is a continental tectonic plate covering the continent of Africa and extending westward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. ...

A large impact crater has been recently reported in the sea floor off the west coast of India. Called the Shiva crater, it has also been dated at 65 million years, right at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) boundary. The researchers suggest that the impact may have been the triggering event for the Deccan Traps as well as contributing to the acceleration of the Indian plate in the early Tertiary. [4] However, opinion in the geologic community is not unanimous that this feature is actually an impact crater.[5] Also, the reported age is in the middle of the ages given for the Deccan rocks. The Shiva Crater is located in the Indian Ocean west of India. ... The Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T or KT) extinction event, also known as the KT boundary, was a period of massive extinction of species, about 65. ... The Tertiary period was previously one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, from the end of the Cretaceous period about 65 million years ago to the start of the Quaternary period about 1. ...

The planet Venus is also thought to undergo vast basaltic flood eruptions, but on an even greater scale than those at Deccan Traps. It is not known whether the mechanisms are similar; Venus appears to lack Earth's plate tectonics and its internal structure may differ in other ways as well. (*min temperature refers to cloud tops only) Atmospheric characteristics Atmospheric pressure 9. ... Plate tectonics (from the Greek word for one who constructs and destroys, τεκτων, tekton) is a theory of geology developed to explain the phenomenon of continental drift and is currently the theory accepted by the vast majority of scientists working in this area. ...

See also

• Deccan Plateau
• Siberian Traps
• Geology of Venus
• Geology of India

the word deccan may also have been originated from the sanskrit word "dakshin" means south. Introduction The Deccan Plateau is a vast plateau in India, encompassing most of Central and Southern India. ... The Siberian Traps form a large igneous province in Siberia. ... A global view of Venus made from a mosaic of radar images from the Magellan spacecraft, centred at 90 degrees longitude. ... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

References

1. The Deccan beyond the plume hypothesis
2. Geochronological Study of the Deccan Volcanism
3. 2003 GSA
4. Space daily Deep Impact