Hotspots and large igneous provinces (LIPs) display marked fluctuations in magma supply, composition, and eruptive temporality—from million-year pulsing to the timescale of eruptions—yet the origins of this variability remain debated and their consequences are poorly studied. This session explores how mantle dynamics (e.g., plume pulsations, plume–ridge interaction, lithospheric architecture) and crustal processes (storage, recharge, assimilation) generate temporal patterns in magmatism, and how these patterns propagate to Earth’s surface systems and biota.
We welcome contributions that integrate numerical modeling (from the scale of mantle processes that can affect the source location and the timing of magmas, to those of melt transport), as well as case studies on specific hotspots tracks, continental and oceanic LIPS, and rifted margins including new geochronology, stratigraphy, petrological, geochemical, and isotopic constraints. We also welcome contributions linking magmatic pulsations to environmental and biogeographic change—e.g., climatic perturbations, nutrient fluxes, habitat creation and fragmentation, island and seamount corridor dynamics, and macroevolutionary turnovers. The goal of this session is to build a mechanistic framework for the temporality of hotspot/LIP magmatism and to quantify its cascading effects on plate tectonics, ecosystems, and biogeographic patterns through Earth history.