Refining the eruptive history of Ulleungdo and Changbaishan volcanoes (East Asia) over the last 86 kyrs using distal sedimentary records

Abstract

The eruptive histories of Ulleungdo (South Korea) and Changbaishan (North Korea/China border) volcanoes are not well constrained since their proximal stratigraphies are poorly exposed or largely inaccessible. However, determining the past behaviour of these volcanoes is critical since future eruptions are likely to disperse ash over some of the world’s largest metropolitan regions. Alkaline tephra deposits erupted from both centres are routinely identified in marine cores extracted from the Sea of Japan, as well as high-resolution lacustrine records east of the volcanoes. Here, we review the distal ash occurrences derived from Ulleungdo and Changbaishan and provide new data from the Lake Suigetsu (central Honshu, Japan) sediment core, in order to provide a more complete and constrained eruption framework. The intensely-dated Lake Suigetsu archive provides one of the most comprehensive distal eruption records for both centres, despite being located ca. 500km E of Ulleungdo and ca. 1000km SSE of Changbaishan. The Suigetsu record is utilised to precisely date and geochemically fingerprint (using major, minor and trace element glass compositions) ash fall events that reached central Honshu. Here, we identify a new non-visible (cryptotephra) layer in the Suigetsu sediments, which reveals a previously unreported explosive event from Changbaishan at 42,750 – 42,323 IntCal13 yrs BP (95.4 % confidence interval). This event is chronologically and geochemically distinct from the B-J (Baegdusan-Japan Basin) tephra reported in the Sea of Japan (ca. 50 ka). Furthermore, we also confirm that the widespread U-Ym tephra erupted from Ulleungdo reached central Japan, and is herein dated to 40,332 – 39,816 IntCal13 yrs BP (95.4 % confidence interval). This terrestrial 14C-derived age of the U-Ym can be used to constrain the chronology of marine records containing the same marker layer. This reviewed and integrated tephrostratigraphic framework highlights the pivotal role that distal sedimentary records can play in evaluating the eruptive histories and hazard potential of Ulleungdo and Changbaishan.