Late Pleistocene and Holocene tephrostratigraphy of interior Alaska and Yukon: Key beds and chronologies over the past 30,000 years

Abstract

Abstract The Aleutian Arc-Alaska Peninsula and Wrangell volcanic field are the main source areas for tephra deposits found across Alaska and northern Canada, and increasingly, tephra from these eruptions have been found further afield in North America, Greenland, and Europe. However, there have been no broad scale reviews of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene tephrostratigraphy for this region since the 1980s, and this lack of data is hindering progress in identifying these tephra both locally and regionally. To address this gap and the variable quality of associated geochemical and chronological data, we undertake a detailed review of the latest Pleistocene to Holocene tephra found in interior Alaska and Yukon. This paper discusses nineteen tephra that have distributions beyond southwest Alaska and that have the potential to become, or already are, important regional markers. This includes three ‘modern’ events from the 20th century, ten with limited data availability but potentially broad distributions, and six that are widely reported in interior Alaska and Yukon. Each tephra is assessed in terms of chronology, geochemistry and distribution, with new Bayesian age estimates and geochemical data when possible. This includes new major-element geochemical data for Crater Peak 1992, Redoubt 1989–90, and two andesitic tephra from St Michael Island (Tephra D), as well as revised age estimates for Dawson tephra, Oshetna, Hayes set H, Aniakchak CFE II, and the White River Ashes, northern and eastern lobes.