The results of their expedition will shed new light on how and when continents formed and broke apart millions of years ago.
LIPs are areas where magma wells up from deep beneath Earth's surface and forms molten rock.
Using evidence from fossils as well as terrestrial plant remains, the scientific team constrained the time period during which the Kerguelen LIP formed. They found that the southern Kerguelen Plateau, only hundreds of kilometers from Antarctica, formed approximately 110 million years ago. To the north, the central Kerguelen Plateau and the once-contiguous Broken Ridge formed between 85 and 95 million years ago. In contrast, the northern Kerguelen Plateau is much younger, having formed less than 35 million years ago. These results indicate that several intense episodes of volcanism formed this large plateau over a long time period, rather than from a single massive volcanic event.