Magma plumbing system at the beginning of repeated caldera eruption: A case study on Aso-1 erupted about 270 ky ago from Aso caldera, SW Japan

Abstract:

In order to understand the commencement of magma plumbing system of a polygenetic caldera, we started petrological study on the earliest eruptive product of Aso caldera, SW Japan. Aso caldera is one of the active volcano in Japan which have produced four stages (Aso-1, -2, -3, -4) of large-scale pyroclastic flow deposits 270 to 90 ky. ago.

A suite of samples were collected from the bottom of Aso-1 pyroclastic flow deposit and from the underlying tephra layer (Ono et al., 1979). The tephra comprises more than 10 pumice fall units inter-layered by dark gray volcanic ash. For whole rock chemistry, coarser pumice fragments were separated. For mineral and glass chemistry, phenocrysts and glass particles were handpicked from the sieved 500-1000 um fractions under a binocular microscope. This fraction consist of plagioclase, orthopyroxene, variably vesiculated volcanic glass fragments, and clinopyroxene phenocrysts. They were analyzed using an electron micro-probe.

The suite of samples are similar and major temporal change is the chemical composition of orthopyroxenes; those from upper horizon are relatively Mg rich. Anorthite content of plagioclase phenocryst is bimodal 49-53 mol. % (major) and 57-70 mol. % (minor). Silica content of matrix glass fall in a narrow range 68-70 wt. %. Temperature and oxygen fugacity were estimated to be 865-905 deg-C and FMQ+2 log unit, respectively, using ILMAT (Lepage, 2003). Pressure and water content of the magma are estimated to be 5-7 kbar and 0.5-1 wt. % H2O, respectively, using rhyolite-MELTS (Gualda et al., 2012) on the most undifferentiated tholeiitic basalt of Aso 4KC-03 (Hunter, 1998) to reproduce the observed composition of matrix glass (68-70 wt. % SiO2) and plagioclase (An 49-53 mol. %). The calcic plagioclase (An 57-70 mol. %), however, suggest that the basalt was initially hydrous and require magma degassing before the differentiation. If we assume degassing by magma convection in a conduit (Kazahaya et al., 1994), the amount of rhyolite magma potentially produced via crystallization of the degassed magma equivalent to 500-1000 ton/day SO2 emission is estimated to be 18 km^3 / ky.

This research project has been conducted as the regulatory supporting research funded by the Secretariat of Nuclear Regulation Authority (Secretariat of NRA), Japan