Rift-related Jurassic basaltic phreatomagmatic volcanism in the central Transantarctic Mountains: precursory stage to flood-basalt effusion

 The Middle Jurassic Kirkpatrick flood basalts and comagmatic Ferrar intrusions in the Transantarctic Mountains represent a major pulse of tholeiitic magmatism related to early stages in the breakup of Gondwana. A record of the volcano-tectonic events leading to formation of this continental flood-basalt province is provided by strata underlying and only slightly predating the Kirkpatrick lavas. In the central Transantarctic Mountains, the lavas rest on widespread (≥7500 km²) tholeiitic pyroclastic deposits of the Prebble Formation. The Prebble Formation is dominated by lahar deposits and is an unusual example of a regionally developed basaltic lahar field. Related, partly fault-controlled pyroclastic intrusions cut underlying strata, and vents are represented by the preserved flanks of two small tephra cones associated with a volcanic neck. Lahar and air-fall deposits typically contain 50–60% accidental lithic fragments and sand grains derived from underlying Triassic – Lower Jurassic strata in the upper part of the Beacon Supergroup. Juvenile basaltic ash and fine lapilli consist of nonvesicular to scoriaceous tachylite, sideromelane, and palagonite, and have characteristics indicating derivation from hydrovolcanic eruptions. The abundance of accidental debris from underlying Beacon strata points to explosive phreatomagmatic interaction of basaltic magma with wet sediment and groundwater, which appears to have occurred in particular where rising magma intersected upper Beacon sand aquifers. Composite clasts in the lahar deposits exhibit complex peperitic textures formed during fine-scale intermixing of basaltic magma with wet sand and record steps in subsurface fuel-coolant interactions leading to explosive eruption. The widespread, sustained phreatomagmatic activity is inferred to have occurred in a groundwater-rich topographic basin linked to an evolving Jurassic rift zone in the Transantarctic Mountains. Coeval basaltic phreatomagmatic deposits of the Mawson and Exposure Hill Formations, which underlie exposures of the Kirkpatrick Basalt up to 1500 km to the north along strike in Victoria Land, appear to represent other parts of a regional, extension-related Middle Jurassic phreatomagmatic province which developed immediately prior to rapid outpouring of the flood basalts. This is consistent with models which assign an important role to lithospheric stretching in the generation of flood-basalt provinces. Received: 28 August 1995 / Accepted: 18 April 1996     

Geology and hazard implications of the Maraunot notch in the Pinatubo Caldera,Philippines

The 1991 Pinatubo eruption left 5–6 km³ of debris on the volcano slopes, much of which has been mobilized into large lahars in the following rainy seasons. Also during the eruption, collapse, localized in part along preexisting faults, left a caldera 2.5 km in diameter that almost immediately began to accumulate a 1.6 × 10⁸ m³ lake. By 2001, the water had risen to the fault-controlled Maraunot Notch, the lowest, northwestern portion of the caldera rim comprising the physiographic sill of the Caldera Lake. That year, a narrow artificial canal dug into an old volcanic breccia underlying the outlet channel failed to induce a deliberate lake breakout, but discharge from heavy rains in July 2002 rapidly deepened the notch by 23 m, releasing an estimated 6.5 × 10⁷ m³ of lake water that bulked up into lahars with a volume well in excess of 1.6 × 10⁸ m³. Lakes in other volcanoes have experienced multiple breakouts, providing practical motivation for this study. Fieldwork and high-resolution digital elevation models reveal andesites and ancient lacustrine deposits, strongly fractured and deformed along a segment of the Maraunot Fault, a prominent, steeply dipping, left-lateral fault zone that trends N35°–40°W within and parallel to the notch. Seismicity in 1991 demonstrated that the Maraunot Fault is still active. The fault zone appears to have previously been the erosional locus for a large channel, filled with avalanche or landslide deposits of an earlier eruption that were exhumed by the 2002 breakout floods. The deformed lacustrine sediments, with an uncalibrated ¹⁴C age of 14,760 ± 40 year BP from a single charcoal sample, attest to the existence of an earlier lake, possibly within the Tayawan Caldera, rim remnants of which survive as arcuate escarpments. That lake may well have experienced one or more ancient breakouts as well. The 2002 event greatly reduced the possibility of another such event by scouring away the erodible breccia, leaving less erodible fractured andesites and lacustrine rocks, and by enlarging the outlet channel and its discharge capacity. Several lines of evidence indicate, however, that future lahar-generating lake breakouts at the notch may keep populations of Botolan municipality downstream at risk: (1) a volume of 9.5 × 10⁷ m³ of lake water remains perched 0.8 km above sea level; (2) seismicity in 1991 demonstrated that the Maraunot Fault is still active and movements of sufficient magnitude could enlarge the outlet and the discharge through it; (3) more likely, however, with or without earthquake activity, landslides from the steep to overhanging channel walls could block the channel again, and a major rainstorm could then cause a rise in lake level and sudden breakouts; (4) intrusion of a new dome into the bottom of the lake, possibly accompanied by phreatic explosions, could expel large volumes of lahar-generating water.     

Pyroclast/snow interactions and thermally driven slurry formation. Part 1: Theory for monodisperse grain beds

Received: 15 March 1999 / Accepted: 9 December 1999     

Modeling of the Guagua Pichincha volcano (Ecuador) lahars

Lahars, here defined as debris flows of volcanic origin, are rapid mass movements that pose a serious threat to cities located in the vicinity of many volcanoes. Quito, capital city of Ecuador and placed at the foot of the Pichincha volcano complex, is exposed to serious inundation hazard as part of the city is built on numerous deposits of large lahars that have occurred in the last 10,000 years.The objective of this paper is to model the potential lahars of the Pichincha volcano to predict inundation areas within the city of Quito. For this purpose two models that apply different approaches were utilized and their results were compared.The programs used were LAHARZ, a semi-empirical model conceived by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and FLO-2D, a hydraulic model distributed by FLO Software Inc. LAHARZ is designed as a rapid, objective and reproducible automated method for mapping areas of potential lahar inundation (Proc. First Int. Conf. on Debris Flow Hazards Mitigation, San Francisco, USA, ASCE, 1998, p. 176). FLO-2D is a two-dimensional flood routing model for simulating overland flow on complex surfaces such as floodplains, alluvial fans or urbanized areas (FLO-2D Users manual, version 99.2). Both models run within geographical information systems (GIS).Fieldwork was focused on collecting all available information involved in lahar modeling. A total of 49 channel cross-sections were measured along the two main streams and stratigraphic investigations were carried out on the fans to estimate the volume of previous events. A global positioning system was utilized to determine the coordinates of each cross-section. Further data collection concerned topography, rainfall characteristics and ashfall thicknesses. All fieldwork was carried out in cooperation with the Instituto Geofisico of the Escuela Politecnica Nacional.Modeling in a GIS environment greatly aided the exportation of results for the creation of thematic maps and facilitated model comparison. Evaluation of the models was performed by comparing simulation results against each other and against the geometry of existing lahar deposits.     

Empirical modelling of the May 1998 small debris flows in Sarno (Italy) using LAHARZ

The catastrophic events that occurred in May 1998 in the area of Sarno (Southern Italy) highlight the destructive potential of debris flows, even when they are of relatively low magnitude. More than 130 people were killed and severe property damage took place when volcaniclastic debris flows triggered by heavy rainfall inundated various towns located in piedmont areas. This work investigates the suitability of LAHARZ, a GIS-assisted method for the automatic delineation of lahar inundation areas, for reproducing the May 1998 flows at Sarno. It was found that recalibration of the empirical relationship employed by LAHARZ is required in order to realistically hind-cast the inundation areas of considered events. The potential for further improvements in prediction outputs for this type of geomorphic setting is discussed, taking into account the observed lower mobility of these small volcaniclastic debris flows as compared to lahars of similar size.     

Statistical Analysis of Landslide Events in Central America and their Run-out Distance

Statistical analyses of landslide deposits from similar areas provide information on dynamics and rheology, and are the basis for empirical relationships for the prediction of future events. In Central America landslides represent an important threat in both volcanic and non-volcanic areas. Data, mainly from 348 landslides in Nicaragua, and 19 in other Central American countries have been analyzed to describe landslide characteristics and to search for possible correlations and empirical relationships. The mobility of a landslide, expressed as the ratio between height of fall (H) and run-out distance (L) as a function of the volume and height of fall; and the relationship between the height of fall and run-out distance were studied for rock falls, slides, debris flows and debris avalanches. The data show differences in run-out distance and landslide mobility among different types of landslides and between debris flows in volcanic and non-volcanic areas. The new Central American data add to and seem consistent with data published from other regions. Studies combining field observations and empirical relationships with laboratory studies and numerical simulations will help in the development of more reliable empirical equations for the prediction of landslide run-out, with applications to hazard zonation and design of optimal risk mitigation measures.     

Stratigraphic framework of Holocene volcaniclastic deposits, Akutan Volcano, east-central Aleutian Islands, Alaska

 Akutan Volcano is one of the most active volcanoes in the Aleutian arc, but until recently little was known about its history and eruptive character. Following a brief but sustained period of intense seismic activity in March 1996, the Alaska Volcano Observatory began investigating the geology of the volcano and evaluating potential volcanic hazards that could affect residents of Akutan Island. During these studies new information was obtained about the Holocene eruptive history of the volcano on the basis of stratigraphic studies of volcaniclastic deposits and radiocarbon dating of associated buried soils and peat. A black, scoria-bearing, lapilli tephra, informally named the "Akutan tephra," is up to 2 m thick and is found over most of the island, primarily east of the volcano summit. Six radiocarbon ages on the humic fraction of soil A-horizons beneath the tephra indicate that the Akutan tephra was erupted approximately 1611 years B.P. At several locations the Akutan tephra is within a conformable stratigraphic sequence of pyroclastic-flow and lahar deposits that are all part of the same eruptive sequence. The thickness, widespread distribution, and conformable stratigraphic association with overlying pyroclastic-flow and lahar deposits indicate that the Akutan tephra likely records a major eruption of Akutan Volcano that may have formed the present summit caldera. Noncohesive lahar and pyroclastic-flow deposits that predate the Akutan tephra occur in the major valleys that head on the volcano and are evidence for six to eight earlier Holocene eruptions. These eruptions were strombolian to subplinian events that generated limited amounts of tephra and small pyroclastic flows that extended only a few kilometers from the vent. The pyroclastic flows melted snow and ice on the volcano flanks and formed lahars that traveled several kilometers down broad, formerly glaciated valleys, reaching the coast as thin, watery, hyperconcentrated flows or water floods. Slightly cohesive lahars in Hot Springs valley and Long valley could have formed from minor flank collapses of hydrothermally altered volcanic bedrock. These lahars may be unrelated to eruptive activity. Received: 31 August 1998 / Accepted: 30 January 1999     

Ice-melt collapse pits and associated features in the 1991 lahar deposits of Volcán Hudson,Chile: criteria to distinguish eruption-induced glacier melt

In subaerial volcaniclastic sequences structures formed by ice blocks can provide information about a volcano's history of lahar generation by glacier melt. At Volcán Hudson in Chile, catastrophic lahars were initiated by eruption-induced melting of glacier ice in August and October 1991. They transported large ice blocks 50 km down the Rio de los Huemules valley to the sea. Large current crescents with lee-side lenses were formed where ice blocks were deposited during waning stages of the flood. When stranded blocks of ice melted, they left cone-shaped and ring-shaped heaps of ice-rafted debris on the sediment surface. Several hundred ice blocks were completely buried within the aggrading lahar sediment, and when these melted circular collapse pits formed in the sediment. Collapse types included subsided coherent blocks of sediment bounded by an outward-dipping ring-fracture, trapdoor structures with horseshoe-shaped fractures, downsag pits with centroclinal dips locally up to 60°, pits with peripheral graben and crevasses, piecemeal (highly fragmented) collapse structures and funnel-shaped pits containing disaggregated sediment. A sequence of progressive collapse is inferred in which initial downsag and subsidence on an outward-dipping ring fracture produces a small diameter pit. This is followed by widening of the pit by progressive development of concentric ring fractures and downsag outside the early formed pit, and by collapse of overhanging pit walls to produce vertical to inward-dipping walls and aprons of collapse debris on the pit floor. The various structures have potential for preservation even in regions prone to high rainfall and flooding, and they can be used to indicate that former lahars contained abundant blocks of ice.     

Updating channel morphology in digital elevation models: lahar assessment for Tenenepanco-Huiloac Gorge, Popocatépetl volcano, Mexico

In contrast to dramatic flow regime changes by less frequent large-scale volcanic eruptions, those caused by more frequent small-scale processes in volcanic landscapes may also drastically change the direction and dynamics of flow in a drainage system formed solely by fluvial processes. During such periods of channel morphology change, it is necessary to frequently update channel flow parameters to assess preventive measures for civil protection purposes. Often aerial photography is impracticable, since parts of the channels are covered by dense vegetation, while total station and laser topographic surveys are often too slow and costly, particularly during a high frequency of events. This article introduces and validates a new methodology for updating the representation of channel morphology in Digital Elevation Models (DEM) used specifically for assessing the dangers of frequently occurring lahars along gorges in volcanic landscapes during eruptive and non-eruptive periods. The updating of channel cross-sections was achieved by inserting more detailed representative profiles of homogeneous channel sectors in DEMs derived from existing less detailed topographic maps. The channel profiles were surveyed along the thalweg in equidistant points according to Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) (x,y) coordinates and elevation derived from the existing DEM. The proposed technique was applied at Tenenepanco-Huiloac Gorge on Popocatépetl volcano, Mexico, in an area affected by major lahars during the volcano’s most recent eruptive period from 1994 to 2005. The proposed method can reduce the cost and person-hours of a regular channel topographic survey dramatically and the enhanced DEM can determine volume parameters and flood zones associated with the 1 July 1997 and 21 January 2001 lahars, respectively. In addition, the updated DEM with better channel representation allowed a more realistic fluid flow and lahar simulation with the process-based TITAN2D model.     

Pyroclast/snow interactions and thermally driven slurry formation. Part 2: Experiments and theoretical extension to polydisperse tephra

Received: 15 March 1999 / Accepted: 9 December 1999