Shishimuta caldera, the buried source of the Yabakei pyroclastic flow in the Hohi volcanic zone, Japan

Abstract

Drill-hole, geochronologic, and gravity data identify the buried Shishimuta caldera beneath post-caldera lava domes and lacustrine deposits in the center of the Hohi volcanic zone. The caldera is the source of the Yabakei pyroclastic flow, which erupted 1.0 Ma ago with a bulk volume of 110 km3. The caldera is a breccia-filled funnel-shaped depression 8 km wide and > 3 km deep with a V-shaped negative Bouguer gravity anomaly up to 36 mgal. Neither ring vents nor resurgence was recognized; instead, post-caldera monogenetic volcanism in an extensional setting dominated the area. The andesitic breccia has a relatively low density and fills the caldera; it possibly formed by fragmentation of disrupted roof rock during the violent Yabakei eruption and related collapse. Fewer normal faults and shallow microearthquakes occur inside the caldera than around it, possibly because rocks beneath the caldera are structurally incoherent. A profile of Shishimuta caldera may be more elongated vertically, and have a more intensely fractured zone, than that of a Valles-type caldera.