Structure of hakone caldera as revealed by drilling

Hakone caldera, now 8 by 12 km in diameter, was formed by collapse of a center of a volcano probably 2700 m high. The collapse took place at two separate periods each of which was followed by periods of deep denudation. The central part of the caldera has been covered by a thick pile of lavas of post-caldera cones and domes. For the purpose of finding thermal spring, drilling to depths of a few hundred to one thousand meters was carried out at various points within the caldera except for its central region. The study of the drill cores revealed that the average amount of subsidence at points 2 and 3 km away from the base of the present caldera wall is 600 m and 1200 m respectively, and probably more than 1800 m in the middle of the caldera. Within the caldera, the pre-caldera lavas and pyroclastic rocks are either lacking or much thinner than would be expected. It is concluded therefore that the present topographic depression of the caldera owed its origin to both subsidence and denudation. It is inferred that the subsidence took place along a complicated system of concentric faults combined with tilting of individual fault blocks toward the middle of the caldera. The magma reservoir into which the fault blocks sank probably had a shape of a cupola with a diameter comparable to or a little smaller than the diameter of the caldera.