Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/95327
Title: Most recent eruption of the mono craters, eastern central California
Authors: Sieh, Kerry
Bursik, Marcus
Keywords: DRNTU::Science::Geology::Volcanoes and earthquakes
Issue Date: 1986
Source: Sieh, K., & Bursik, M. (1986). Most recent eruption of the mono craters, eastern central California. Journal of Geophysical Research, 91(B12), 12539-12571.
Series/Report no.: Journal of geophysical research
Abstract: The most recent eruption at the Mono Craters occurred in the fourteenth century A.D. Evidence for this event includes 0.2 km 3 of pyroclastic fall, flow, and surge deposits and 0.4 km3 of lava domesa nd flows. These rhyolitic deposits emanated from aligned vents at the northern end of the volcanic chain. Hence we have named this volcanic episode the North Mono eruption. Initial explosions were Plinian to sub-Plinian events whose products form overlapping blankets of air fall tephra. Pyroclastic flow and surge deposits lie upon these undisturbed fall beds within several kilometers of the source vents. Extrusion of five domes and coulees, including Northern Coulee and Panurn Dome, completed the North Mono eruption. Radiocarbon dates and dendrochronological considerations constrain the eruption to a period between A.D. 1325 and 1365. The lack of lacustrine laminae or aeolian and fluvial beds between individual pyroclastic beds suggests that the explosive phases of the eruption took place over a period of not more than several months. Within the resolution of the available radiocarbon and dendrochronologic dates, the North Mono eruption is contemporaneous with the latest eruption of the Inyo volcanic chain, about 20 km to the south. However, the Inyo tephra blanket clearly overlies, and thus postdates, all North Mono tephra. Minor disturbance of the North Mono tephra prior to deposition of the Inyo tephra indicates that the period of time between the North Mono and Inyo eruptions was probably no more than a year or two. This near contemporaneity of the two eruptions suggests a genetic relationship. Liquefaction of North Mono sands on the floor of Mono Lake occurred twice during the waning stages of the North Mono eruption and 3 times immediately before and after pulses of the Inyo eruption. This is evidence that five earthquakes of M L > 5.5 occurred during the North Mono and Inyo eruptions. The chemical and textural similarity of the erupted products and their nearly simultaneous evacuation from aligned vents indicates that the North Mono eruption resulted from intrusion of a dike beneath the northern 6 km of the volcanic chain. Several observations suggest that dike intrusion beneath the Mono Craters has replaced normal faulting as the mechanism for elastic rebound and permanent extension of the crust at this latitude. However, dike widths compatible with relief of purely tectonic strains (<3 m) are probably too narrow to have allowed the North Mono magma to erupt. Overpressurtzation of the Mono Craters magma reservoir by another mechanism, perhaps magma mixing, appears necessary as well. The gradually diminishing explosiveness of the North Mono eruption probably resulted from a decrease of water content downward in the dike. The pulsating nature of the early, explosive phase of the eruption may represent the repeated rapid drawdown of slowly rising vesiculated magma to about the saturation depth of the water within it.
URI: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/95327
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/8652
ISSN: 0148-0227
DOI: 10.1029/JB091iB12p12539
Rights: © 1986 the American Geophysical Union. This paper was published in Journal of Geophysical Research and is made available as an electronic reprint (preprint) with permission of the American Geophysical Union. The paper can be found at the following official DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/JB091iB12p12539. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic or multiple reproduction, distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modification of the content of the paper is prohibited and is subject to penalties under law.
Fulltext Permission: open
Fulltext Availability: With Fulltext
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