ALBERT

Description: The geological record contains evidence of volcanic eruptions that were as much as two orders of magnitude larger than the most voluminous eruption experienced by modern civilizations, the A.D. 1815 Tambora (Indonesia) eruption. Perhaps nowhere on Earth are deposits of such supereruptions more prominent than in the Snake River Plain–Yellowstone Plateau (SRP-YP) volcanic province (northwest United States). While magmatic activity at Yellowstone is still ongoing, the Heise volcanic field in eastern Idaho represents the youngest complete caldera cycle in the SRP-YP, and thus is particularly instructive for current and future volcanic activity at Yellowstone. The Heise caldera cycle culminated 4.5 Ma ago in the eruption of the ∼1800 km3 Kilgore Tuff. Accessory zircons in the Kilgore Tuff display significant intercrystalline and intracrystalline oxygen isotopic heterogeneity, and the vast majority are 18O depleted. This suggests that zircons crystallized from isotopically distinct magma batches that were generated by remelting of subcaldera silicic rocks previously altered by low-δ18O meteoric-hydrothermal fluids. Prior to eruption these magma batches were assembled and homogenized into a single voluminous reservoir. U-Pb geochronology of isotopically diverse zircons using chemical abrasion–isotope dilution–thermal ionization mass spectrometry yielded indistinguishable crystallization ages with a weighted mean 206Pb/238U date of 4.4876 ± 0.0023 Ma (MSWD = 1.5; n = 24). These zircon crystallization ages are also indistinguishable from the sanidine 40Ar/39Ar dates, and thus zircons crystallized close to eruption. This requires that shallow crustal melting, assembly of isolated batches into a supervolcanic magma reservoir, homogenization, and eruption occurred extremely rapidly, within the resolution of our geochronology (103–104 yr). The crystal-scale image of the reservoir configuration, with several isolated magma batches, is very similar to the reservoir configurations inferred from seismic data at active supervolcanoes. The connection of magma batches vertically distributed over several kilometers in the upper crust would cause a substantial increase of buoyancy overpressure, providing an eruption trigger mechanism that is the direct consequence of the reservoir assembly process.

Description: The origin of coastal and high-elevation marine gravels on the Hawaiian islands of Lanai and Molokai is controversial, because the vertical tectonics of these islands is poorly constrained. The gravels are either from eustatic highstands or were left by massive tsunamis from offshore giant landslides. In contrast, at Kohala on the island of Hawaii, where continuous subsidence is well established, lithofacies analysis and dating of a fossiliferous marine conglomerate 1.5–61 m above present sea level support a tsunami origin and indicate a runup of 〉400 m 〉6 km inland. The conglomerate age, 110 ± 10 ka, suggests a tsunami caused by the ca. 120 ka giant Alika 2 landslide from nearby Mauna Loa volcano.

Description: Monowai is an active submarine volcanic centre in the Kermadec Arc, Southwest Pacific Ocean. Multi-beam data acquired during expedition SO225 aboard R/V SONNE in December 2012 indicates that the topography of the main stratocone has evolved significantly since the last survey in June 2011. Bathymetric measurements of the edifice reveal differences of up to 42 m in seafloor depth and indicate a net volume increase of ∼0.037 km3 across the summit area. Explosive volcanism observed onsite during the SO225 mapping campaign could be linked to a 20h-long swarm of unusually coherent T phase arrivals, suggesting that Monowai is a prime source of broadband seismic noise in the Southwest Pacific region during times of activity. Our findings further document the dynamic nature of volcanic processes at Monowai and have implications for future expedition planning.