Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:15:35.477Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The volcanological significance of deep-sea ash layers associated with ignimbrites

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

R. S. J. Sparks  and
T. C. Huang
R. S. J. Sparks
Affiliation:
Department Mineralogy and Petrology, University of Cambridge, Downing Place, Cambridge, U.K.
T. C. Huang
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, R.I. 02881, U.S.A.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Many volcanic ash layers preserved in deep-sea sediments are the products of large magnitude ignimbrite eruptions. The characteristics of such co-ignimbrite ash-fall deposits are illustrated by two layers from the Eastern Mediterranean: the Minoan ash, Santorini, and the Campanian ash, Italy. These layers are divisible into a coarse lower unit and a fine upper unit in proximal cores. Both layers also show striking bimodal grain size distributions in more distal cores. The coarser mode decreases in median diameter with distance from source whereas the finer mode shows no lateral variation. These features are interpreted in terms of a model for ignimbrite formation by eruption column collapse. Comparable volumes of ignimbrite and associated air-fall ejecta are produced.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 117 , Issue 5 , September 1980 , pp. 425 - 436
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bailey, R. A., Dalrymple, G. B. & Lamphere, M. A. 1976. Volcanism, structure, and geochronology of Long Valley Caldera, Mono County, California. J. Geophys. Res. 81, 725–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barberi, F., Innocenti, F., Lirer, L., Munno, R., Pescatore, T. & Santacroce, R. 1978. The Campanian Ignimbrite: a major prehistoric eruption in the Naples area (Italy). Bull. Volcanol. 41, 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, A. & Sparks, R. S. J. 1976. The Minoan eruption of Santorini, Greece. J. geol. Soc. Lond. 132, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cita, M. B., Vergnaud-Grazzini, C., Robert, C., Chamley, H., Ciaranfi, N. & D'Onofrio, S. (1977). Paleoclimatic Record of a Long Deep Sea Core from the Eastern Mediterranean. Quat. Res. 8, 205–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capaldi, G., Civetta, L. & Gasparini, P. 1977. Volcanic history of the Island of Ischia (South Italy). Bull. Volcanol. 40, 11–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di Girolamo, P. & Keller, J. 1972. Zur Stellung des grauen Campanichen Tuffs, innerhalb des quartaren Vulkanismus Campaniens (Sud Italien). Ber. Natur. Ges. Freiburg., Br. 61/62, 85–92.Google Scholar
Hahn, G. A., Rose, W. I. Jr. & Meyer, T. 1979. Geochemical correlation of genetically related rhyolite ash-flow and air-fall ashes, central and western Guatemala and equatorial Pacific. Geol. Soc. Am. Spec. Paper 180 on Ash-flow Tuff (ed. Chapin, C. and Elston, W.).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hay, R. L. 1959. Formation of the crystal-rich glowing avalanche deposits of St Vincent, B.W.I. J. Geol. 67, 540–562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inman, D. L. 1952. Measures for describing the size distribution of sediments. J. sedim. Petrol. 22, 125–45.Google Scholar
Keller, J., Ryan, W. B. F., Ninkovich, D. & Altherr, R. 1978. Explosive volcanic activity in the Mediterranean over the past 200,000 years as recorded in deep-sea sediments. Bull. geo. Soc. Am. 89, 591–604.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipman, P. W. 1967. Mineral and chemical variations within an ash-flow sheet from Aso caldera, south western Japan. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 16, 300–327.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luce, J. V. 1976. Thera and the devastation of Minoan Crete: a new interpretation of the evidence. Am. J. Archeology 80, 9–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Machida, H. & Arai, F. 1976. The very widespread tephra: the Aira-Tn ash. Kaguku, 46, 339–47.Google Scholar
Mellis, O. 1954. Volcanic ash-horizons in deep-sea sediments from the eastern Mediterranean. Deep Sea Res. 2, 89–92.Google Scholar
Ninkovich, D. 1968. Pleistocene volcanic eruptions in New Zealand recorded in deep-sea sediments. Earth and Planet. Sci Letts. 4, 89–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ninkovich, D. & Heezen, B. C. 1965. Santorini tephra. Proc. Seventeenth Symposium of the Colston Research Society, University of Bristol (U.K.), no. XVII, 413–52.Google Scholar
Ninkovich, D., Shackleton, N. J., Abdel-Monem, , Obradovich, J. D. & Izett, G. 1978. K-Ar dating of a Late Pleistocene Toba Tuff (North Sumatra). Nature, Lond. 276, 574–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richardson, D. & Ninkovich, D. 1976. Use of K2O, Rb, Zr, and Y versus SiO2 in volcanic ash layers of the eastern Mediterranean to trace their source. Bull. geol. Soc. Amer. 87, 110–116.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sparks, R. S. J. 1976. Grain size variations in ignimbrites and implications for the transport of pyroclastic flows. Sedimentology 23, 147–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sparks, R. S. J., Self, S. & Walker, G. P. L. 1973. The products of ignimbrite eruptions. Geology 1, 115–118.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sparks, R. S. J. & Walker, G. P. L. 1977. The significance of vitric-enriched air-fall ashes associated with crystal-enriched ignimbrites. J. Volcanol. Geothermal Res. 2, 329–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sparks, R. S. J., Wilson, L. & Hulme, G. 1978. Theoretical modelling of the generation, movement and emplacement of pyroclastic flow by column collapse. J. Geophys. Res. 83, 1727–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thunell, R., Federman, A., Sparks, R. S. J. & Williams, D. F. 1980. The age, origin and volcanological significance of the Y-5 ash layer in the Mediterranean. Quat. Res. (in the press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, G. P. L. 1972. Crystal concentration in ignimbrites. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 36, 135–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watkins, N. D., Sparks, R. S. J., Sigurdsson, H., Huang, T. C., Frederman, A., Carey, S. & Ninkovich, D. 1978. Volume and extent of the Minoan tephra from Santorini volcano: new evidence from deep-sea sediments cores. Nature, Lond. 271, 122–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilcox, R. E. 1965. Volcanic ash chronology. In The Quaternary of the U.S., Review volume for VLI Congress of International Association of Quaternary Research, 807–816. Princeton Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, H. & Goles, G. 1968. Volume of the Mazama ash-fall and the origin of Crater Lake caldera. Bull. Ore. Dept. Geol. Ind. 62, 37–41.Google Scholar