The Central Iapetus magmatic province (CIMP) was a

large igneous province A large igneous province (LIP) is an extremely large accumulation of igneous rocks, including intrusive ( sills, dikes) and extrusive (lava flows, tephra deposits), arising when magma travels through the crust towards the surface. The format ...

(LIP) that occurred during the

Ediacaran The Ediacaran ( ) is a geological period of the Neoproterozoic geologic era, Era that spans 96 million years from the end of the Cryogenian Period at 635 Million years ago, Mya to the beginning of the Cambrian Period at 538.8 Mya. It is the last ...

(615–550 ) between several ancient continents –

Laurentia Laurentia or the North American craton is a large continental craton that forms the Geology of North America, ancient geological core of North America. Many times in its past, Laurentia has been a separate continent, as it is now in the form of ...

and

Baltica Baltica is a paleocontinent that formed in the Paleoproterozoic and now constitutes northwestern Eurasia, or Europe north of the Trans-European Suture Zone and west of the Ural Mountains. The thick core of Baltica, the East European Craton, i ...

and, possibly, Amazonia – during the break-up of the supercontinent

Rodinia Rodinia (from the Russian родина, ''rodina'', meaning "motherland, birthplace") was a Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic supercontinent that assembled 1.26–0.90 billion years ago (Ga) and broke up 750–633 million years ago (Ma). wer ...

and resulted in the opening of the

Iapetus Ocean The Iapetus Ocean (; ) existed in the late Neoproterozoic and early Paleozoic eras of the geologic timescale (between 600 and 400 million years ago). It was in the southern hemisphere, between the paleocontinents of Laurentia, Baltica and Avalon ...

. With a potential radius of up to , the CIMP was one of the larger volcanic events on Earth, similar in size to the 200 Ma

Central Atlantic Magmatic Province The Central Atlantic magmatic province (CAMP) is the Earth's largest continental large igneous province, covering an area of roughly 11 million km2. It is composed mainly of basalt that formed before Pangaea broke up in the Mesozoic Era, near the ...

. Evidences for the CIMP have also been found in Mexico, Morocco, and Svalbard. The CIMP coincides with the Marinoan and Gaskiers glaciations and precedes the so-called Cambrian explosion, the evolution of modern lineages. The CIMP left extensive traces along the

Appalachians The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain ...

in eastern North America to which the Baltoscandian margin a conjugate. No traces of the CIMP have been found in Amazonia, however, and it is possible Laurentia and Amazonia separated during 1000 Ma-rifting events. Four pulses of magmatism associated with the CIMP have been identified: * The first pulse (615–610 Ma) left extensive traces in the Long Range dykes in Labrador, Canada, but also in the Sarek and Ottfjället dyke swarms of the Scandinavian Caledonides, possibly in Greenland. * Evidences of a second pulse (590 Ma) can be found in the Grenville- Rideau dykes in eastern Laurentia and the

Fen A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetland along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as mires ...

and Alnö complexes in Baltica. * A third pulse (560–570 Ma) left many traces along the Saint Lawrence rift system, for example the Sept Iles layered intrusion and the Catoctin volcanics, and the Labrador Sea-Baffin Bay Rift, including the Manitou Islands. * A fourth pulse (c. 550 Ma) left many traces in Laurentia and events in Baltica can be linked to it. It is unclear whether the CIMP was a single plume centre event or not. The first two pulses have a composition indicative of a LIP, while the last pulse contains ocean island basalts and can therefore be associated with the opening Iapetus Ocean.

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* * } {{Large igneous provinces Large igneous provinces