Multi-stage volcanic island flank collapses with coeval explosive caldera-forming eruptions.

ABSTRACT: Volcanic flank collapses and explosive eruptions are among the largest and most destructive processes on Earth. Events at Mount St. Helens in May 1980 demonstrated how a relatively small (<5 km³) flank collapse on a terrestrial volcano could immediately precede a devastating eruption. The lateral collapse of volcanic island flanks, such as in the Canary Islands, can be far larger (>300 km³), but can also occur in complex multiple stages. Here, we show that multistage retrogressive landslides on Tenerife triggered explosive caldera-forming eruptions, including the Diego Hernandez, Guajara and Ucanca caldera eruptions. Geochemical analyses were performed on volcanic glasses recovered from marine sedimentary deposits, called turbidites, associated with each individual st

SUBMITTER: Hunt JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5773679 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature