Sumisu volcano,Izu-Bonin arc,Japan: site of a silicic caldera-forming eruption from a small open-ocean island

Sumisu volcano was the site of an eruption during 30–60 ka that introduced ∼48–50 km³ of rhyolite tephra into the open-ocean environment at the front of the Izu-Bonin arc. The resulting caldera is 8 × 10 km in diameter, has steep inner walls 550–780 m high, and a floor averaging 900 m below sea level. In the course of five research cruises to the Sumisu area, a manned submersible, two ROVs, a Deep-Tow camera sled, and dredge samples were used to study the caldera and surrounding areas. These studies were augmented by newly acquired single-channel seismic profiles and multi-beam seafloor swath-mapping. Caldera-wall traverses show that pre-caldera eruptions built a complex of overlapping dacitic and basaltic edifices, that eventually grew above sea level to form an island about 200 m high. The caldera-forming eruption began on the island and probably produced a large eruption column. We interpret that prodigious rates of tephra fallback overwhelmed the Sumisu area, forming huge rafts of floating pumice, choking the nearby water column with hyperconcentrations of slowly settling tephra, and generating pyroclastic gravity currents of water-saturated pumice that traveled downslope along the sea floor. Thick, compositionally similar pumice deposits encountered in ODP Leg 126 cores 70 km to the south could have been deposited by these gravity currents. The caldera-rim, presently at ocean depths of 100–400 m, is mantled by an extensive layer of coarse dense lithic clasts, but syn-caldera pumice deposits are only thin and locally preserved. The paucity of syn-caldera pumice could be due to the combined effects of proximal non-deposition and later erosion by strong ocean currents. Post-caldera edifice instability resulted in the collapse of a 15° sector of the eastern caldera rim and the formation of bathymetrically conspicuous wavy slump structures that disturb much of the volcano’s surface.     

Evolution of West Rota Volcano, an extinct submarine volcano in the southern Mariana Arc: Evidence from sea floor morphology, remotely operated vehicle observations and 40Ar–39Ar geochronological studies

Abstract West Rota Volcano (WRV) is a recently discovered extinct submarine volcano in the southern Mariana Arc. It is large (25 km diameter base), shallow (up to 300 m below sealevel), and contains a large caldera (6 × 10 km, with up to 1 km relief). The WRV lies near the northern termination of a major NNE‐trending normal fault. This and a second, parallel fault just west of the volcano separate uplifted, thick frontal arc crust to the east from subsiding, thin back‐arc basin crust to the west. The WRV is distinct from other Mariana Arc volcanoes: (i) it consists of a lower, predominantly andesite section overlain by a bimodal rhyolite‐basalt layered sequence; (ii) andesitic rocks are locally intensely altered and mineralized; (iii) it has a large caldera; and (iv) WRV is built on a major fault. Submarine felsic calderas are common in the Izu and Kermadec Arcs but are otherwise unknown from the Marianas and other primitive, intraoceanic arcs. ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar dating indicates that andesitic volcanism comprising the lower volcanic section occurred 0.33–0.55 my ago, whereas eruption of the upper rhyolites and basalts occurred 37–51 thousand years ago. Four sequences of rhyolite pyroclastics each are 20–75 m thick, unwelded and show reverse grading, indicating submarine eruption. The youngest unit consists of 1–2 m diameter spheroids of rhyolite pumice, interpreted as magmatic balloons, formed by relatively quiet effusion and inflation of rhyolite into the overlying seawater. Geochemical studies indicate that felsic magmas were generated by anatexis of amphibolite‐facies meta‐andesites, perhaps in the middle arc crust. The presence of a large felsic volcano and caldera in the southern Marianas might indicate interaction of large normal faults with a mid‐crustal magma body at depth, providing a way for viscous felsic melts to reach the surface.