Building the Record of late Miocene to Pleistocene Explosive Activity in the Kurile-Kamchatka Volcanic Arc: Initial Results and Challenges

Large explosive eruptions are among the most extreme natural events and can produce hemispheric or even global catastrophic effects. One of the prerequisites of predicting future giant eruptions is the understanding of sizes and recurrence times of past similar events. Volcanism of the North Pacific arcs is highly explosive, which is attested by large nested calderas and numerous tephra layers in marine and terrestrial sediments..

TephraKam: geochemical database of glass compositions in tephra and welded tuffs from the Kamchatka volcanic arc (northwestern Pacific)

Tephra layers produced by volcanic eruptions are widely used for correlation and dating of various deposits and landforms, for synchronization of disparate paleoenvironmental archives, and for reconstruction of magma origin. Here we present our original database TephraKam, which includes chemical compositions of volcanic glass in tephra and welded tuffs from the Kamchatka volcanic arc. The database contains 7049 major element analyses obtained by electron microprobe and 738 trace element analyses obtained by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) on 487 samples collected in proximity of their volcanic sources in all volcanic zones in Kamchatka. The samples characterize about 300 explosive eruptions, which occurred in Kamchatka from the Pliocene until historic times. Precise or estimated ages for all samples are based on published 39Ar/40Ar dates of rocks and 14C dates of host sediments, statistical age modelling and geologic relationships with dated units. All data in TephraKam is supported by information about source volcanoes and analytical details. Using the data, we present an overview of geochemical variations of Kamchatka volcanic glasses and discuss application of this data for precise identification of tephra layers, their source volcanoes, temporal and spatial geochemical variations of pyroclastic rocks in Kamchatka