Claude Robin

Tungurahua Volcano, Ecuador : structure, eruptive history and hazards

Abstract Tungurahua, one of Ecuadors most active volcanoes, is made up of three volcanic edifices. Tungurahua I was a 14-km-wide andesitic stratocone which experienced at least one sector collapse followed by the extrusion of a dacite lava series. Tungurahua II, mainly composed of acid andesite lava flows younger than 14,000 years BP, was partly destroyed by the last collapse event, 2955±90 years ago, which left a large amphitheater and produced a ∼8-km3 debris deposit. The avalanche collided with the high ridge immediately to the west of the cone and was diverted to the northwest and southwest for ∼15 km. A large lahar formed during this event, which was followed in turn by dacite extrusion. Southwestward, the damming of the Chambo valley by the avalanche deposit resulted in a ∼10-km-long lake, which was subsequently breached, generating another catastrophic debris flow. The eruptive activity of the present volcano (Tungurahua III) has rebuilt the cone to about 50% of its pre-collapse size by the emission of ∼3 km3 of volcanic products. Two periods of construction are recognized in Tungurahuas III history. From ∼2300 to ∼1400 years BP, high rates of lava extrusion and pyroclastic flows occurred. During this period, the magma composition did not evolve significantly, remaining essentially basic andesite. During the last ∼1300 years, eruptive episodes take place roughly once per century and generally begin with lapilli fall and pyroclastic flow activity of varied composition (andesite+dacite), and end with more basic andesite lava flows or crater plugs. This pattern is observed in the three historic eruptions of 1773, 1886 and 1916–1918. Given good age control and volumetric considerations, Tungurahua III growths rate is estimated at ∼1.5×106 m3/year over the last 2300 years. Although an infrequent event, a sector collapse and associated lahars constitute a strong hazard of this volcano. Given the ∼3000 m relief and steep slopes of the present cone, a future collapse, even of small volume, could cover an area similar to that affected by the ∼3000-year-old avalanche. The more frequent eruptive episodes of each century, characterized by pyroclastic flows, lavas, lahars, as well as tephra falls, directly threaten 25,000 people and the Agoyan hydroelectric dam located at the foot of the volcano.

K-Ar dating on eastern Mexican volcanic rocks — Relations between the andesitic and the alkaline provinces

Abstract Eastern Mexico is characterized by two large magmatic provinces: the trans-Mexican volcanic belt, mainly of Miocene and Quaternary andesitic rocks, and the eastern alkaline province (oversaturated alkalic and subsaturated nephelinitic-type volcanic rocks) which appears to be Oligocene to Quaternary in age. Twenty-eight K-Ar analyses show the respective positions and the relationships between the two magmatic types: 1. (1) The data indicate that the trans-Mexican andesitic zone has had various important periods of volcanic activity since the Early Miocene: the major activity seems to have taken place about 20-15 m.y. and 9-6 m.y. ago. Ages of 3-0 m.y. are concentrated in the neovolcanic belt, the southern part (high volcanoes of Quaternary age), apparently more recent than the northern part (Atotonilco lavas). 2. (2) In the eastern alkaline province, the volcanism occurred from the Late Oligocene, with various phases, until the most recent volcanic episode. Activity has moved southwards from Tamaulipas to the Veracruz region. 3. (3) Alkaline basaltic lavas (“traps”), which occur in the fault zone of the Altiplano border, show a progression of the rifting, between 9 and 3 m.y. ago, from northern Hidalgo to Veracruz. 4. (4) The periods of alkaline magmatism were not contemporaneous with andesitic phases. The two types occur independently, the andesitic one having an east-west direction and the alkaline one a north-south orientation and north-south migrations. 5. (5) Such patterns lead to a crossing and interference of the two Pliocene and Quaternary fields of magmatism. It appears that the relations between the andesitic and the alkalic provinces is not in agreement with a classical scheme recognized in the Circum-Pacific.

Giant tuff cone and 12-km-wide associated caldera at Ambrym Volcano (Vanuatu, New Hebrides Arc)

Abstract Ambrym, in the New Hebrides arc, has been considered as an effusive, basaltic volcano. The present paper discusses the general structure of this edifice, which consists of a basal shield volcano topped by an exceptionally large tuff cone surrounding a 12-km-wide summit caldera. Dacitic pyroclastic flow deposits are exposed in the lower part of the tuff series; they grade upward into composite sequences of bedded surtseyan-type hyaloclastites, ash flow deposits, and fallout tephra which are essentially basaltic in composition, in such a way that the tuff cone may be considered as mainly basaltic. The relationship between the eruption of pyroclastics and the collapse event precludes a classical model of caldera formation at a basaltic volcano in which “quiet” subsidence (i.e. Kilauea type) is the dominant mechanism. Interpretation of the tuff series implies intervention of external water and suggests both explosive and collapse mechanisms. A model of caldera formation which assumes an enlargement of the ring fracture during a first plinian and dacitic, then essentially hydrobasaltic eruption is proposed.

A gigantic Bezymianny-type event at the beginning of modern volcan Popocatepetl

The history of volcan Popocatepetl can be divided into two main periods: the formation of a large primitive volcano — approximatively 30 km wide — on which is superimposed a modern cone (6–8 km in diameter and 1700m high). A major event of Bezymianny type marks the transition between these two dissimilar periods. The activity of the primitive volcano was essentially effusive and lasted several hundred thousands of years. The total volume of products ejected by the volcano is of the order of 500–600 km3. Its last differentiated magmas are dacitic. A gigantic debris flow (D.F.) spread on the southern side is related to the Bezymianny-type event which destroyed the summit area of the ancient edifice. An elliptical caldera (⋍ 6.5 × 11 km wide) was formed by the landslide. Its deposits, with a typical hummocky surface, cover 300 km2 for a volume of 28–30 km3. Numerous outcrops belonging to this debris flow show “slabs” of more or less fractured and dislocated rocks that come from the primitive volcano. These deposits are compared to two studied debris flows of similar extent and volume: the Mount Shasta and Colimas D.F. This eruption takes a major place in the volcanologic and magmatic history of Popocatepetl: pyroclastic products of surge-type with “laminites” and crude layers, ashflows, and pumiceous airfall layers are directly related to this event and begin the history of the modern volcano probably less than 50,000 years ago. In addition, a second andesitic and dacitic phase rose both from the central vent — forming the basis of modern Popo — and from lateral vents. The terminal cone is characterized by long periods of construction by lava flows alternating with phases of destruction, the duration of these episodes being 1000 to 2000 years. The cone is composed of two edifices: the first, volcan El Fraile, began with effusive activity and was partly destroyed by three periods of intense explosive activity. The first period occurred prior to 10.000 years B.P., the second from 10.000 to 8000 years B.P. and the third from ⋍ 5000 to ⋍ 3800 years B.P. Each period of destruction shows cycles producing collapsing pyroclastic flows or nuees of the St Vincent-type related to the opening of large craters, plinian air-fall deposits and minor lava flows. The second edifice, the summit Popo, produced lava flows until 1200 years B.P. and since that time, entered into an explosive period. Two cataclysmic episodes, each including major pyroclastic eruptions, occurred 1200 and 900–1000 years ago. During the Pre-Hispanic and historic times effusive activity was restricted entirely to the summit area alternating with plinian eruptions. Nevertheless, despite the quiet appearance of the volcano, the last period of pyroclastic activity which started 1200 years ago may not have ended and can be very dangerous for the nearby populations.

Eruptive history of the Colima volcanic complex (Mexico)

Abstract The evolution of the Colima volcanic complex can be divided into successive periods characterized by different dynamic and magmatic processes: emission of andesitic to dacitic lava flows, acid-ash and pumice-flow deposits, fallback nuees ardentes leading to pyroclastic flows with heterogeneous magma, plinian air-fall deposits, scoriae cones of alkaline and calc-alkaline nature. Four caldera-forming events, resulting either from major ignimbrite outbursts or Mount St. Helens-type eruptions, separate the main stages of development of the complex from the building of an ancient shield volcano (25 × 30 km wide) up to two summit cones, Nevado and Fuego. The oldest caldera, C1 (7–8 km wide), related to the pouring out of dacitic ash flows, marks the transition between two periods of activity in the primitive edifice called Nevado I: the first one, which is at least 0.6 m.y. old, was mainly andesitic and effusive, whereas the second one was characterized by extrusion of domes and related pyroclastic products. A small summit caldera, C2 (3–3.5 km wide), ended the evolution of Nevado I. Two modern volcanoes then began to grow. The building of the Nevado II started about 200,000 y. ago. It settled into the C2 caldera and partially overflowed it. The other volcano, here called Paleofuego, was progressively built on the southern side of the former Nevado I. Some of its flows are 50,000 y. old, but the age of its first outbursts is not known. However, it is younger than Nevado II. These two modern volcanoes had similar evolutions. Each of them was affected by a huge Mount St. Helens-type (or Bezymianny-type) event, 10,000 y. ago for the Paleofuego, and hardly older for the Nevado II. The landslides were responsible for two horseshoe-shaped avalanche calderas, C3 (Nevado) and C4 (Paleofuego), each 4–5 km wide, opening towards the east and the south. In both cases, the activity following these events was highly explosive and produced thick air-fall deposits around the summit craters. The Nevado III, formed by thick andesitic flows, is located close to the southwestern rim of the C3 caldera. It was a small and short-lived cone. Volcan de Fuego, located at the center of the C4 caldera, is nearly 1500 m high. Its activity is characterized by an alternation of long stages of growth by flows and short destructive episodes related to violent outbursts producing pyroclastic flows with heterogeneous magma and plinian air falls. The evolution of the primitive volcano followed a similar pattern leading to formation of C1 and then C2. The analogy between the evolutions of the two modern volcanoes (Nevado II–III; Paleofuego-Fuego) is described. Their vicinity and their contemporaneous growth pose the problem of the existence of a single reservoir, or two independent magmatic chambers, after the evolution of a common structure represented by the primitive volcano.

Kuwae (≈ 1425 A.D.): the forgotten caldera

In Vanuatu, Tongoa and Epi islands once formed part of a larger landmass, Kuwae, which was partly destroyed during a cataclysmic seismo-volcanic event that is recorded in local folklore. It led to the formation of a 12-kmlong and 6-km-wide oval-shaped submarine caldera with two distinct basins and a total area of - 60 km2 at the level of the rim. The age ofthis eniption, 1420-1430 A.D., and the structure of the related collapse are discussed and a composite log ( 143 m) of the pyroclastics surrounding the caldera is presented. They comprise thick hydromagmatic deposits belonging to a terminal hydromagmatic phase of the pre-caldera edifice, which grade upwards into two major sequences of pyroclastic flow deposits, clearly related to the caldera event. Collapse near the caldera edge was at least in the range 650 to 950 m, and may have been as much as 800 to 1100 m. The volume of rocks engulfed during the caldera formation is - 32-39 km3, suggesting the same volume of magma was erupted. Even if two coalescent collapse structures were formed, it is worth noting that the Kuwae caldera is not a reactivated structure, but the result of a single event of short duration which occurred in the first half of the Fifteenth century. This event is one of the seven biggest caldera-forming events during the last 10,000 years, and is comparable with the Santorini Minoan eruption and the Crater Lake eruption.

Volcan popocatepetl (Mexico): Structure, petrology and risks

Volcan Popocatepetl, which lies 70 km southeast of Mexico City, is one of the most famous andesite composite volcanoes in the world. With 5,450 m of elevation, it is the second highest peak of Mexico. Located 320 km north of the Middle America Trench, at the centre of the Mexican Volcanic Belt, Volcano Popocatepetl forms the southern active part of a northsouth volcanic complex, the northern part consisting of the eroded Volcano Iztaccihuatl.Since its earliest reported eruption in 1519, Volcano Popocatepetl has had a continuous fumarolic activity in its crater, and in frequent small eruptions (1720, 1802–1804, 1920). In contrast with this light activity, C14 data indicate pre-historical cycles of intense volcanism with paroxysmal pyroclastic eruptions (ash and pumice-flows) alternating with effusive phases and plinian air-fall deposits.The results of a volcanological study and the petrological characteristics of the main volcanic units show that Volcano Popocatepetl is composed of a primitive composite-volcano on which a recent summit cone is superimposed. It has been built during 2 very dissimilar volcanic periods linked by a transitional phase.Volcan Popocatepetl, which lies 70 km southeast of Mexico City, is one of the most famous andesite composite volcanoes in the world. With 5,450 m of elevation, it is the second highest peak of Mexico. Located 320 km north of the Middle America Trench, at the centre of the Mexican Volcanic Belt, Volcano Popocatepetl forms the southern active part of a northsouth volcanic complex, the northern part consisting of the eroded Volcano Iztaccihuatl.

Transition from calc-alkalic to adakitic magmatism at Cayambe volcano, Ecuador: Insights into slab melts and mantle wedge interactions

In volcanic arcs, two main types of magmatism are recognized: (1) widespread calc-alkalic magmatism, generated by hydrous partial melting of a metasomatized mantle wedge, and (2) less common adakitic volcanism produced by subducted-slab melting. The Cayambe volcanic complex in Ecuador shows a progressive temporal change from an older calc-alkalic volcano (Viejo Cayambe) to a younger adakitic edifice (Nevado Cayambe). This evolution may be related to the unusual geodynamic setting of the Ecuadorian Andes, controlled mainly by the subduction of the Nazca plate, including the Carnegie Ridge thickened oceanic crust. The Viejo Cayambe magmas appear to be generated from a mantle-wedge source, slightly metasomatized by slab-derived melts. Conversely, the Nevado Cayambe magmas imply either stronger and more advanced interactions between slab melts and mantle peridotite, or that adakitic magma could reach the surface due to higher degrees of slab melting. Fractional crystallization, assimilation, and mixing processes also contributed to lava diversity. We propose that the magmatic evolution of the Cayambe volcanic complex is due to increasing efficiency of interaction between slab melts and the mantle wedge, because of higher degrees of slab melting in response to the subduction of the Carnegie Ridge.

Sangay volcano, Ecuador: structural development, present activity and petrology

Abstract Sangay (5230 m), the southernmost active volcano of the Andean Northern Volcanic Zone (NVZ), sits ∼130 km above a >32-Ma-old slab, close to a major tear that separates two distinct subducting oceanic crusts. Southwards, Quaternary volcanism is absent along a 1600-km-long segment of the Andes. Three successive edifices of decreasing volume have formed the Sangay volcanic complex during the last 500 ka. Two former cones (Sangay I and II) have been largely destroyed by sector collapses that resulted in large debris avalanches that flowed out upon the Amazon plain. Sangay III, being constructed within the last avalanche amphitheater, has been active at least since 14 ka BP. Only the largest eruptions with unusually high Plinian columns are likely to represent a major hazard for the inhabited areas located 30 to 100 km west of the volcano. However, given the volcanos relief and unbuttressed eastern side, a future collapse must be considered, that would seriously affect an area of present-day colonization in the Amazon plain, ∼30 km east of the summit. Andesites greatly predominate at Sangay, there being few dacites and basalts. In order to explain the unusual characteristics of the Sangay suite—highest content of incompatible elements (except Y and HREE) of any NVZ suite, low Y and HREE values in the andesites and dacites, and high Nb/La of the only basalt found—a preliminary five-step model is proposed: (1) an enriched mantle (in comparison with an MORB source), or maybe a variably enriched mantle, at the site of the Sangay, prior to Quaternary volcanism; (2) metasomatism of this mantle by important volumes of slab-derived fluids enriched in soluble incompatible elements, due to the subduction of major oceanic fracture zones; (3) partial melting of this metasomatized mantle and generation of primitive basaltic melts with Nb/La values typical of the NVZ, which are parental to the entire Sangay suite but apparently never reach the surface and subordinate production of high Nb/La basaltic melts, maybe by lower degrees of melting at the periphery of the main site of magma formation, that only infrequently reach the surface; (4) AFC processes at the base of a 50-km-thick crust, where parental melts pond and fractionate while assimilating remelts of similar basaltic material previously underplated, producing andesites with low Y and HREE contents, due to garnet stability at this depth; (5) low-pressure fractionation and mixing processes higher in the crust. Both an enriched mantle under Sangay prior to volcanism and an important slab-derived input of fluids enriched in soluble incompatible elements, two parameters certainly related to the unique setting of the volcano at the southern termination of the NVZ, apparently account for the exceptionally high contents of incompatible elements of the Sangay suite. In addition, the low Cr/Ni values of the entire suite—another unique characteristic of the NVZ—also requires unusual fractionation processes involving Cr-spinel and/or clinopyroxene, either in the upper mantle or at the base of the crust.

Formation of the mid-fifteenth century Kuwae caldera (Vanuatu) by an initial hydroclastic and subsequent ignimbritic eruption

In the mid-fifteenth century, one of the largest eruptions of the last 10 000 years occurred in the Central New Hebrides arc, forming the Kuwae caldera (12x6 km). This eruption followed a late maar phase in the pre-caldera edifice, responsible for a series of alternating hydromagmatic deposits and airfall lapilli layers. Tuffs related to caldera formation (≈ 120 m of deposits on a composite section from the caldera wall) were emitted during two main ignimbritic phases associated with two additional hydromagmatic episodes. The lower hydromagmatic tuffs from the precaldera maar phase are mainly basaltic andesite in composition, but clasts show compositions ranging from 48 to 60% SiO2. The unwelded and welded ashflow deposits from the ignimbritic phases and the associated intermediate and upper hydromagmatic deposits also show a wide compositional range (60–73% SiO2), but are dominantly dacitic. This broad compositional range is thought to be due to crystal fractionation. The striking evolution from one eruptive style (hydromagmatic) to the other (magmatic with emission of a large volume of ignimbrites) which occurred either over the tuff series as a whole, or at the beginning of each ignimbritic phase, is the most impressive characteristic of the caldera-forming event. This strongly suggests triggering of the main eruptive phases by magma-water interaction. A three-step model of caldera formation is presented: (1) moderate hydromagmatic (sequences HD 1–4) and magmatic (fallout deposits) activity from a central vent, probably over a period of months or years, affected an area slightly wider than the present caldera. At the end of this stage, intense seismic activity and extrusion of differentiated magma outside the caldera area occurred; (2) unhomogenized dacite was released during a hydromagmatic episode (HD 5). This was immediately followed by two major pyroclastic flows (PFD 1 and 2). The vents spread and intense magma-water interaction at the beginning of this stage decreased rapidly as magma discharge increased. Subsequent collapse of the caldera probably commenced in the southeastern sector of the caldera; (3) dacitic welded tuffs were emplaced during a second main phase (WFD 1–5). At the beginning of this phase, magma-water interaction continued, producing typical hydromagmatic deposits (HD 6). Caldera collapse extended to the northern part of the caldera. Previous C14 dates and records of explosive volcanism in ice from the south Pole show that the climactic phase of this event occurred in 1452 A.D.