Eruptive History of Ikeda Caldera, Southern Kyushu, Japan

Abstract:

Ikeda caldera is a small-scale caldera (about 4 km in diameter), located in the southern tip of the Satsuma Peninsula, southern Kyushu, Japan. The information on the onset of the caldera-forming eruption is gone due to the catastrophic eruption, but Ikeda caldera is a relatively small-scale eruption that the information before the eruption may have been conserved. We conducted a geological research to understand the eruptive history of Ikeda caldera, including a study of the processes leading to the catastrophic eruption. Pre-caldera activity began at about 20 cal kBP by Iwamoto ash and the effusion of Senta lava, which may have similar composition as the caldera-forming eruption. The caldera-forming eruption began at 6.4 cal kBP with a phreatic explosion that produced the Ikezaki tephra. The phreatic eruption was followed by Osagari scoria, Mizusako scoria and Ikeda pumice plinian eruption. During the climactic stage, Ikeda ignimbrite was erupted and reclaimed the coastal area at that time, and formed the ignimbrite plateau along the coast. Immediately after this event, four maars were formed to the southeast of the caldera. Yamagawa maar, which is the largest and is located at the southeastern end of the fissure vent, erupted pumiceous base surge (Yamagawa base surge), but other maars ejected small amount of accidental materials. During the late stage of the Ikeda eruption, phreatomagmatic eruption occurred at the bottom of the caldera floor, and erupted the Ikedako ash which covered a wide area. The Central lava dome was generated at the late stage of this eruption. After Ikedako ash deposition, secondary explosion of Ikeda ignimbrite occurred mainly along the coastal area, generating small-scale base surge deposits. About two thousand years after the caldera-forming eruption at 4.8 cal kBP, new magmatic activity began on the margin of the caldera rim, and generated Nabeshimadake lava dome.