Tsunami generation by pyroclastic flow during the 3500-year B.P. caldera-forming eruption of Aniakchak Volcano, Alaska

Bulletin of Volcanology
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Abstract

A discontinuous pumiceous sand, a few centimeters to tens of centimeters thick, is located up to 15 m above mean high tide within Holocene peat along the northern Bristol Bay coastline of Alaska. The bed consists of fine-to-coarse, poorly to moderately well-sorted, pumice-bearing sand near the top of a 2-m-thick peat sequence. The sand bed contains rip-up clasts of peat and tephra and is unique in the peat sequence. Major element compositions of juvenile glass from the deposit and radiocarbon dating of enclosing peat support correlation of the pumiceous sand with the caldera-forming eruption of Aniakchak Volcano. The distribution of the sand and its sedimentary characteristics are consistent with emplacement by tsunami. The pumiceous sand most likely represents redeposition by tsunami of climactic fallout tephra and beach sand during the approximately 3.5 ka Aniakchak caldera-forming eruption on the Alaska Peninsula. We propose that a tsunami was generated by the sudden entrance of a rapidly moving, voluminous pyroclastic flow from Aniakchak into Bristol Bay. A seismic trigger for the tsunami is unlikely, because tectonic structures suitable for tsunami generation are present only south of the Alaska Peninsula. The pumiceous sand in coastal peat of northern Bristol Bay is the first documented geologic evidence of a tsunami initiated by a volcanic eruption in Alaska.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Tsunami generation by pyroclastic flow during the 3500-year B.P. caldera-forming eruption of Aniakchak Volcano, Alaska
Series title Bulletin of Volcanology
DOI 10.1007/s004450050220
Volume 60
Issue 2
Year Published 1999
Language English
Publisher Springer
Contributing office(s) Alaska Science Center, Alaska Volcano Observatory, Volcano Science Center
Description 15 p.
First page 110
Last page 124
Country United States
State Alaska
Other Geospatial Aniakchak Volcano
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