The detailed structures of the volcanic edifice and plumbing system of the early Permian Tarim flood basalt were investigated by three-dimensional seismic imaging. The images show that the Tarim flood basalt erupted from central volcanoes distributed along major faults. The uppermost magma formed a single lava lobe with a volume of *0.74 km3 and an aspect ratio of 50,implying a sheet flow eruption with a high effusion rate. At the subsurface level, all central volcanoes, irrespective of size, had a separate pipe-like feeder vent. Only thirteen dikes were identified at shallow depths of \100 m below the lava surface; deeper dikes were even rarer. The pipelike plumbing system and the paucity of dilational dikes were different from the typical plumbing system of flood basalt provinces on Earth, which are normally buoyancycontrolled dike–sill networks. A gas-driven vigorous eruption can be inferred from the imaged structure, which means that the Tarim flood basalt may have carried and released a large proportion of volcanic gas, similar to some mafic volcaniclastic deposit-bearing continental flood basalt provinces.
