page_title: High Arctic Large Igneous Province
section_title: Sverdrup Basin
hierarchical_section_title: High Arctic Large Igneous Province / Magmatic provinces / Sverdrup Basin
caption_attribution_description: Dragon CliffsDragon Cliffs, Nunavut
context_page_description: The High Arctic Large Igneous Province is a Cretaceous large igneous province in the Arctic. The region is divided into several smaller magmatic provinces. Svalbard, Franz Josef Land, Sverdrup Basin, Amerasian Basin, and northern Greenland are some of the larger divisions. Today, HALIP covers an area greater than 1,000,000 km², making it one of the largest and most intense magmatic complexes on the planet. However, eroded volcanic sediments in sedimentary strata in Svalbard and Franz Josef Land suggest that an extremely large portion of HALIP volcanics have already been eroded away.
context_section_description: The Sverdrup Basin province spreads across the Canadian Arctic Islands. The region is characterized by the presence of a radiating dike swarm across the Queen Elizabeth Islands that seems to suggest the presence of a mantle plume beneath the Alpha Ridge. This province contains igneous rocks of both tholeiitic and alkaline composition. There are also a respectable number of sills and flood basalts in the province. The flood basalts in the Canadian Arctic Islands are similar to those of the Columbia River flood basalts in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The Sverdrup Basin Magmatic Province covers an area of 550,000 km² (210,000 sq mi).
caption: Flood basalt layers exposed in Dragon Cliffs  on western Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut, Canada
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