Abstract
This review is intended to highlight recent exciting advances in the study of distal (>100 km from the source) tephra and cryptotephra deposits and their potential application for volcanology. Geochemical correlations of tephra between proximal and distal locations have extended the geographical distribution of tephra over tens of millions square kilometers. Such correlations embark on the potential to reappraise volume and magnitude estimates of known eruptions. Cryptotephra investigations in marine, lake and ice-core records also give rise to continuous chronicles of large explosive eruptions many of which were hitherto unknown. Tephra preservation within distal ice sheets and varved lake sediments permit precise dating of parent eruptions and provide new insight into the frequency of eruptions. Recent advances in analytical methods permit an examination of magmatic processes and the evolution of the whole volcanic belts at distances of hundreds and thousands of kilometers from source. Distal tephrochronology has much to offer volcanology and has the potential to significantly contribute to our understanding of sizes, recurrence intervals and geochemical make-up of the large explosive eruptions.
Highlights
Modern humankind has limited experience of living through a large explosive volcanic eruption
For the Quaternary time, this effort is largely undertaken by geographers and archeologists in their pursuit of distal tephra and cryptotephra deposits in areas that are remote to the active volcanoes
Several recent papers provide a review of the significance of tephra for paleoenvironmental and archeological studies (e.g., Lowe, 2011; Riede and Thastrup, 2013; Lane et al, 2014; Lowe and Alloway, 2014; Davies, 2015), and the quickly developing field of cryptotephra studies has been considered a revolution in correlation and precision dating of Quaternary deposits (Davies, 2015)
Summary
Modern humankind has limited experience of living through a large explosive volcanic eruption. Of the ∼30 largest explosive eruptions known to have occurred in the last 2000 years (Brown et al, 2014) only a few were described by witnesses (e.g., AD 1883 Krakatau or AD 1815 Tambora) and only one (1991 Pinatubo) was monitored with the help of ground-based, air- and satellite-borne instruments. Pinatubo was not the largest in this list as its tephra production was an order of magnitude less than that of Tambora (Wiesner et al, 2004; Kandlbauer and Sparks, 2014). Pinatubo magma volume was roughly estimated at 4.8–6 km (Wiesner et al, 2004) and that of Tambora—at ∼41 km (Kandlbauer and Sparks, 2014), and so based on magma volume these eruptions were one and two orders of magnitude larger than Eyjafjallajökull, respectively
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