Explosive destruction of a Pliocene hot lava dome underwater: Dogashima (Japan)

Abstract

Transition from effusive to explosive volcanism is common during subaerial eruptions, and here we demonstrate that this behavior is also possible underwater. The pyroclastic facies produced underwater are distinctive and can be used to distinguish subaqueous from subaerial eruptions and depositional settings. The Pliocene Dogashima Formation (Izu Peninsula, Japan) is a pumice-rich succession originally deposited in an open-marine, below wave-base setting (Jutzeler et al., 2014a). A thick, clast-supported, gray andesite breccia composed of very coarse, dense andesite clasts with quenched margins was sourced from disintegration of an active lava dome. Overall, the gray andesite breccia is gradationally to sharply overlain by thick, graded, clast-supported white pumice breccia chiefly composed of angular pumice clasts and free broken crystals. Regional setting and distinctive facies show that this succession was produced by a fully underwater, magmatic volatile-driven, pumice-forming explosive eruption. The gradational contact between the two breccias, compositional similarities, rare mingled clasts, and fluidal textures in the gray andesite clasts suggest that the explosive eruption destroyed a hot lava dome and generated an eruption-fed, high-concentration density current. In most places, the coarsest hot lava dome fragments were deposited first, followed by the lower density white pumice clasts. The low amount of fine (<2mm) components, well-developed hydraulically controlled grading and sorting, clast angularity, and very coarse dome-derived clasts, some including well-defined quenched margins and common fluidal textures, distinguish the products of subaqueous effusive-to-explosive eruptions from their subaerial counterparts.