Mount Dutton volcano, Alaska: Aleutian arc analog to Unzen volcano, Japan

Abstract

Holocene eruptions from Mount Dutton, a small Late Quaternary volcano near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula, bear strong physical and petrologic similarities to the 1990–1995 Unzen Fugendake eruption in Japan. The volcano had a protracted phase of effusive calcalkaline andesitic (54–59 wt.% SiO 2) cone-building in the late Pleistocene followed by an abrupt switch to more silicic (∼65 wt.% SiO 2) lavas, emplaced as a central summit cluster of steep-sided domes beginning in the early Holocene. The flanks of the volcano are mantled by pyroclastic flows, debris flows, and talus formed as a result of gravitational dome collapse. Disequilibrium mineral assemblages, including coexisting quartz and olivine in eruptive episodes ranging from the initial cone-building basaltic andesite lavas to the latest Holocene dacite domes, suggest extensive magma mixing. In addition, up to meter-sized, pillow-like cognate mafic enclaves of hornblende+plagioclase+glass are common in the latest of the summit dacite domes. Mineralogical evidence and bulk chemical data indicate the enclaves represent a high-alumina basalt parent with variable and subordinate reservoir contaminant, and the host lava is reservoir magma with variable and subordinate basaltic contaminant. Mount Dutton's history and petrology can be interpreted as reflecting the monotonous repetitive intrusion of mantle-derived mafic magma into a silicic crystal-rich crustal reservoir. During the Holocene, these injections resulted in the extrusion of partially crystallized, viscous, `sticky' central domes which typically failed by collapse resulting in small volume Merapi-type flowage deposits. We speculate that slow introduction of mafic magma into the silicic chamber leads both to enclave formation and to the effusive eruption style. Mount Dutton volcano experienced severe shallow earthquake swarms in 1984, 1988, and to a lesser extent in 1991; although none of these swarms resulted in an eruption, their epicenter distribution and volcanic–tectonic character indicate they recorded the movement of magma at shallow depth beneath the volcano. The lessons of Unzen and Montserrat suggest that, despite limited tephra production, these small volcanic centers with central dome complexes present a serious hazard to life and property.