Identification of the ca. 720 Ma Irkutsk LIP and its plume centre in southern Siberia: The initiation of Laurentia-Siberia separation

Widespread 720 Ma magmatism has been linked with the break-up of Rodinia and the onset of the Sturtian ‘Snowball Earth’ event. We report a new U-Pb baddeleyite age from the Baikal dyke subswarm in southern Siberia which increases the known extent of the 720 Ma Irkutsk LIP and confirms a previous hypothesis that the Baikal and Sayan subswarms converge at the southern tip of the Irkutsk promontory. Together they define a mantle plume centre with direct links to the 720 Ma Franklin plume centre of northern Laurentia, thus constraining the paleo-reconstruction of southern Siberia and northern Laurentia. It is inferred that this combined 720 Franklin – Irktusk LIP event is associated with the breakup of southern Siberia from northern Laurentia during fragmentation of the Rodinia supercontinent. Expansion of 720 Ma magmatism into Siberia greatly increases the scale of the Franklin-Irktusk LIP.