Emplacement mechanisms of the South Kona slide complex,Hawaii Island: sampling and observations by remotely operated vehicle Kaiko

Emplacement of a giant submarine slide complex, offshore of South Kona, Hawaii Island, was investigated in 2001 by visual observation and in-situ sampling on the bench scarp and a megablock, during two dives utilizing the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Kaiko and its mother ship R/V Kairei. Topography of the bench scarp and megablocks were defined in 3-D perspective, using high-resolution digital bathymetric data acquired during the cruise. Compositions of 34 rock samples provide constraints on the landslide source regions and emplacement mechanisms. The bench scarp consists mainly of highly fractured, vesiculated, and oxidized aa lavas that slumped from the subaerial flank of ancestral Mauna Loa. The megablock contains three units: block facies, matrix facies, and draped sediment. The block facies contains hyaloclastite interbedded with massive lava, which slid from the shallow submarine flank of ancestral Mauna Loa, as indicated by glassy groundmass of the hyaloclastite, low oxidation state, and low sulfur content. The matrix facies, which directly overlies the block facies and is similar to a lahar deposit, is thought to have been deposited from the water column immediately after the South Kona slide event. The draped sediment is a thin high-density turbidite layer that may be a distal facies of the Alika-2 debris-avalanche deposit; its composition overlaps with rocks from subaerial Mauna Loa. The deposits generated by the South Kona slide vary from debris avalanche deposit to turbidite. Spatial distribution of the deposits is consistent with deposits related to large landslides adjacent to other Hawaiian volcanoes and the Canary Islands.     

Volcanic features of the North Rockall Trough: application of visualisation techniques on 3D seismic reflection data

Understanding the volcanic processes operating during continental break-up is hampered by the subsequent burial of the majority of the volcanic pile beneath thick sedimentary sequences currently located in bathymetrically deep offshore regions. Although portions of these volcanic systems are currently exposed on land, a full understanding of the volcanic structure, the eruptive styles and their evolution is not possible as these localities have been partially eroded. Furthermore, as the onshore exposure represents a volumetrically minor part of the entire system, the documented eruptive styles may not be representative. The increasing availability of 3D seismic reflection data has the potential to significantly enhance our understanding of break-up related volcanism, as it allows direct access to detailed information from the buried volcanic succession. However, conventional seismic interpretation methodologies cannot determine lava flow morphologies, and as a result, eruptive styles and their evolution are still largely based on extrapolation from the accessible onshore outcrop data. New 3D seismic volume visualisation techniques allow the buried basalt morphologies to be examined for the first time in a manner similar to outcrop, aerial photographic or satellite-based observations. Applying this new approach for 3D seismic data to the North Rockall Trough, U.K. Atlantic margin, demonstrates that a range of volcanic features indicative of eruptive style can be determined. The data reveal a complex terrain containing lava flows originating from discrete volcanic centres, contemporaneous normal faults, linear fissures a few kilometres long, radial fissures and inflation ridges. Lava flow morphologies that are indicative of tube-fed inflated sheetflows, intracanyon flows and elongate subaerial flows that enter water downslope to produce a large hyaloclastite delta are observed.Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at .Editorial responsibility: J. Stix     

Geomorphology of subglacial volcanoes in the Azas Plateau, the Tuva Republic, Russia

The Azas Plateau volcanic field is located in the Tuva Republic of the Russian Federation. The compositions of the Azas Plateau volcanics include low-viscosity trachybasalt and basanite. Volcanic edifices of Middle-Late Pleistocene age are widely distributed in the southeastern part of the volcanic field. There are subglacial volcanoes among the volcanic edifices, and their formation coincided with extensive ancient glaciations in the region. The dominant subglacial volcanoes in the area are tuyas. The general shapes of the tuyas (flat-tops with steep sides) are due to eruptions into meltwater lakes and confinement of ice walls, and effusive subaerial eruptions of basaltic lavas. There are also non-flat-topped subglacial volcanoes and at least one subaerial volcanic edifice in the area. Degradation appears to have modified the primary shapes of the tuya edifices, and such processes seem to include failures of over-steepened slopes, gully formation due to stream runoff and debris flows, cirque/valley glaciation, and modification by rock glaciers. The estimated thicknesses of the ice sheets covering the subglacial volcanoes during their eruptions range 300–600 m on average.     

Products and processes in Pliocene–Recent, subaqueous to emergent volcanism in the Antarctic Peninsula: examples of englacial Surtseyan volcano construction

 Pliocene–Recent volcanic outcrops at Seal Nunataks and Beethoven Peninsula (Antarctic Peninsula) are remnants of several monogenetic volcanoes formed by eruption of vesiculating basaltic magma into shallow water, in an englacial environment. The diversity of sedimentary and volcanic lithofacies present in the Antarctic Peninsula outcrops provides a clear illustration of the wide range of eruptive, transportational and depositional processes which are associated with englacial Surtseyan volcanism. Early-formed pillow lava and glassy breccia, representing a pillow volcano stage of construction, are draped by tephra erupted explosively during a tuff cone stage. The tephra was resedimented around the volcano flanks, mainly by coarse-grained sediment gravity flows. Fine-grained lithofacies are rare, and fine material probably bypassed the main volcanic edifice, accumulating in the surrounding englacial basin. The pattern of sedimentation records variations in eruption dynamics. Products of continuous-uprush eruptions are thought to be represented by stacks of poorly bedded gravelly sandstone, whereas better bedded, lithologically more diverse sequences accumulated during periods of quiescence or effusive activity. Evidence for volcano flank failure is common. In Seal Nunataks, subaerial lithofacies (mainly lavas and cinder cone deposits) are volumetrically minor and occur at a similar stratigraphical position to pillow lava, suggesting that glacial lake drainage may have occurred prior to or during deposition of the subaerial lithofacies. By contrast, voluminous subaerial effusion in Beethoven Peninsula led to the development of laterally extensive stratified glassy breccias representing progradation of hyaloclastite deltas. Received: 5 February 1996 / Accepted: 17 January 1997     

Cooling rates of hyaloclastites: applications of relaxation geospeedometry to undersea volcanic deposits

 Glass fragments from three different hyaloclastites have been used to evaluate the range of cooling rates experienced by undersea volcanic deposits. We found that the glass fragments retain structures with a range of apparent quench rates from 25 to 0.15 K min^–1. The most rapid cooling rates are interpreted to be those resulting from cooling of the lava near the water interface. Simple conductive cooling models produce a range of quench rates comparable to those of the more rapidly cooled samples. The very slow apparent quench rates are unlikely to result from simple linear cooling through the glass transition, because of the onset of crystallization; instead, they are indicators of a more complex thermal history that involves the annealing of glasses at temperatures within the glass transition interval for a dwell time sufficient to allow the relaxation of the glass to lower temperature structures. The thermal history recorded in these samples illustrates the complexity of eruptive processes and demonstrates that quench rates for natural glasses retain information relevant to more complex cooling models. Received: 10 February 1999 / Accepted: 9 September 1999     

Applied volcanology in geothermal exploration in Iceland

In an active spreading area like Iceland, where the regional geothermal gradient is in the range 50–150°C/km, it is normally not a problem to find high enough temperature with deep drilling, but the difficulties arise with finding permeable layers at depth within the strata. Various volcanological methods can be applied in the search for aquifers and geothermal reservoir rocks. The flow pattern (as deduced from deuterium studies) indicates that the thermal water flows preferentially along high porosity stratiform horizons and dyke swarms from the recharge areas in the highlands to the hot spring areas in the lowlands. The primary porosity of the volcanic strata is dependent on the chemical composition and the mode of eruption of the volcanic units. Both the reservoir rocks and the flow channels forming the geothermal plumbing system are thought to vary from the Tertiary to the Quaternary provinces due to environmental conditions at the eruptive sites.     

Silicic lava dome growth in the 1934–1935 Showa Iwo-jima eruption, Kikai caldera, south of Kyushu, Japan

The 1934–1935 Showa Iwo-jima eruption started with a silicic lava extrusion onto the floor of the submarine Kikai caldera and ceased with the emergence of a lava dome. The central part of the emergent dome consists of lower microcrystalline rhyolite, grading upward into finely vesicular lava, overlain by coarsely vesicular lava with pumice breccia at the top. The lava surface is folded, and folds become tighter toward the marginal part of the dome. The dome margin is characterized by two zones: a fracture zone and a breccia zone. The fracture zone is composed of alternating layers of massive lava and welded oxidized breccia. The breccia zone is the outermost part of the dome, and consists of glassy breccia interpreted to be hyaloclastite. The lava dome contains lava with two slightly different chemical compositions; the marginal part being more dacitic and the central part more rhyolitic. The fold geometry and chemical compositions indicate that the marginal dacite had a slightly higher temperature, lower viscosity, and lower yield stress than the central rhyolite. The high-temperature dacite lava began to effuse in the earlier stage from the central crater. The front of the dome came in contact with seawater and formed hyaloclastite. During the later stage, low-temperature rhyolite lava effused subaerially. As lava was injected into the growing dome, the fracture zone was produced by successive fracturing, ramping, and brecciation of the moving dome front. In the marginal part, hyaloclastite was ramped above the sea surface by progressive increments of the new lava. The central part was folded, forming pumice breccia and wrinkles. Subaerial emplacement of lava was the dominant process during the growth of the Showa Iwo-jima dome.Editorial Responsibility J. McPhie     

Non-explosive magma–water interaction in a continental setting: Miocene examples from the Eastern Cordillera (central Andes; NW Argentina)

The Middle-Upper Miocene Las Burras–Almagro-El Toro (BAT) igneous complex within the Eastern Cordillera of the central Andes (∼24°S; NW Argentina) has revealed evidence of non-explosive interaction of andesitic magma with water or wet clastic sediments in a continental setting, including peperite generation. We describe and interpret lithofacies and emplacement mechanisms in three case studies. The Las Cuevas member (11.8 Ma) comprises facies related to: (i) andesite extruded in a subaqueous setting and generating lobe-hyaloclastite lava; and (ii) marginal parts of subaerial andesite lava dome(s) in contact with surface water, comprising fluidal lava lobes, hyaloclastite, and juvenile clasts with glassy rims. The Lampazar member (7.8 Ma) is represented by a syn-volcanic andesite intrusion and related peperite that formed within unconsolidated, water-saturated, coarse-grained volcaniclastic conglomerate and breccia. The andesite intrusion is finger-shaped and grades into intrusive pillows. Pillows are up to 2 m wide, tightly packed near the intrusion fingers, and gradually become dispersed in the host sediment ≥50 m from the parent intrusion. The Almagro A member (7.2 Ma) shows evidence of mingling between water-saturated, coarse-grained, volcaniclastic alluvial breccia and intruding andesite magma. The resulting intrusive pillows are characterized by ellipsoidal and tubular shape and concentric structure. The high-level penetration of magma in this coarse sediment was unconfined and irregular. Magma was detached in apophyses and lobes with sharp contacts and fluidal shapes, and without quench fragmentation and formation of a hyaloclastite envelope. The presence of peperite and magma–water contact facies in the BAT volcanic sequence indicates the possible availability of water in the system between 11–7 Ma and suggests a depositional setting in this part of the foreland basin of the central Andes characterized by an overall topographically low coastal floodplain that included extensive wetlands.