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Submarine Landslide Deposits of The Historical Lateral Collapse of Ritter Island, Papua New Guinea PDF
Submarine Landslide Deposits of The Historical Lateral Collapse of Ritter Island, Papua New Guinea PDF
Research paper
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: The March 13th 1888 collapse of Ritter Island in Papua New Guinea is the largest known sector collapse
Received 29 January 2015 of an island volcano in historical times. One single event removed most of the island and its western
Received in revised form submarine flank, and produced a landslide deposit that extends at least 70 km from the headwall of the
11 May 2015
collapse scar. We have mapped and described the deposits of the debris avalanche left by the collapse
Accepted 14 May 2015
using full-coverage multibeam bathymetry, side-scan sonar backscatter intensity mapping, chirp
Available online 22 May 2015
seismic-reflection profiles, TowCam photographs of the seafloor and samples from a single dredge.
Applying concepts originally developed on the 1980 Mount St. Helens collapse landslide deposits, we
Keywords:
Submarine landslide
find that the Ritter landslide deposits show three distinct morphological facies: large block debris
Debris avalanche avalanche, matrix-rich debris avalanche and distal debris flow facies. Restoring the island's land and
Ritter submarine topography we obtained a volume of 4.2 km3 for the initial collapse, about 75% of which is
Volcano collapse now forming the large block facies at distances less than 12 km from the collapse scar. The matrix-rich
Tsunami facies volume is unknown, but large scale erosion of the marine sediment substrate yielded a minimum
total volume of 6.4 km3 in the distal debris flow and/or turbidite deposits, highlighting the efficiency of
substrate erosion during the later history of the landslide movement. Although studying submarine
landslide deposits we can never have the same confidence that subaerial observations provide, our
analysis shows that well-exposed submarine landslide deposits can be interpreted in a similar way to
subaerial volcano collapse deposits, and that they can in turn be used to interpret older, incompletely
exposed submarine landslide deposits. Studying the deposits from a facies perspective provides the basis
for reconstructing the kinematics of a collapse event landslide; understanding the mechanisms involved
in its movement and deposition; and so providing key inputs to tsunami models.
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2015.05.017
0264-8172/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
420
Table 1
Historical lateral collapses and large landslides at island and coastal volcanoes in volcanic arcs for which written descriptions of both the source events and the resulting tsunamis are available. A. Large, deep-seated lateral
collapses. B. Small-volume, shallow-seated volcano flank landslides that produced damaging tsunamis. Note the recent dates of these events, the historical record may be incomplete for the period prior to 1900, compared to the
record of lateral collapses.
Date Volcano Landslide volume, if known Maximum local tsunami runup Distant tsunami runups Landslide type References
(examples)
Figure 1. Location of Umboi, Sakar and Ritter Islands over digital terrain model (DTM) constructed from multibeam data gridded at 24 m. Shaded-relief image of the topography is
from SRTM data. Inset shows location in the New Britain volcanic arc, northeast of Papua New Guinea. 60 of latitude ¼ 11.1 km.
tsunamis (Table 1). It produced a large, regionally destructive (Cooke, 1981; Johnson, 1987; Ward and Day, 2003). These data have
tsunami that was witnessed by literate observers who timed the provided us with a unique opportunity to analyze the deposits of a
waves with watches and provided detailed accounts (summarized submarine volcano collapse landslide in the context of independent
in Cooke, 1981). That data has been key to modeling the generation knowledge of the event that produced it and the associated
of the tsunami by the landslide and its later propagation (Ward and tsunami. Computer simulations illustrating the type of Ritter Island
Day, 2003). Understanding how submarine landslides from volcano landslide processes evidenced in this paper can be found here:
collapses generate these tsunamis is a key motivator for studying
their kinematics and ultimately their mechanics. There is a need for http://es.ucsc.edu/~ward/Ritter-new.mov.
detailed studies of young, well exposed landslide deposits on the http://es.ucsc.edu/~ward/Ritter-new-pn.mov.
ocean floor that are associated with known tsunamis in order to http://es.ucsc.edu/~ward/ritter-tube.mov.
provide a basis for the interpretation and modeling of older,
incompletely exposed landslide deposits from other island arc
volcanoes. 2. Ritter Island before 1888 and today
In this paper we describe the submarine landslide deposit from
the 1888 collapse of Ritter Island (Figs 1 and 2). We show that while 2.1. Field observations made on Ritter Island
the collapse was a single event, the deposit is subdivided into
distinct facies as a result of rheological transformations during Descriptions by Johnson et al. (1972) and our onshore field ob-
movement; and that the geometry of the deposit and associated servations in 2006 reveal that the subaerial exposed part of Ritter is
erosional features can be used to reconstruct the kinematics of a volcanic sequence dominated by rubbly or spatter-fed lavas with
landslide movement. Historical descriptions, sketches and mea- some massive flow cores, and intercalations of finer-grained scoria.
surements of pre-collapse Ritter Island define its geometry above Steeply east dipping sequences form the whole of the volcanic
sea level in more detail than for any other volcano lateral collapse, stratigraphy, from the rim of the collapse scar to the oldest sub-
and these descriptions also constrain the sequence of events aerial lavas, exposed adjacent to hyaloclastite tuffs with thin scoria
422 S. Day et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 67 (2015) 419e438
Figure 2. (Top) Photographs of Ritter taken in 2006, courtesy of John Holder. Left: view from the southwest. Right: view from the southeast. (Bottom left) Sketch of Ritter Island in
1835 looking from the south, modified from Jacobs (1844). Arrows show how the modern island was used to estimate the scale of the sketch. (Bottom right) Sketch of Ritter Island in
1835 looking from the south, modified from Woodworth (unpublished, courtesy of James Fairhead, University of Sussex, UK).
beds that are the structurally lowest and oldest unit of the The collapse produced tsunami waves that were recorded at
remaining subaerial part of the edifice. These rocks are cut by observation points between 100 and 600 km from the volcano
numerous irregular, broadly NeS striking dikes and outward dip- between about 6:30 am and 8:30 am local time on March 13th, and
ping sheet intrusions up to several meters thick, and some NW continued for 40e150 min with dominant wave periods around
striking dikes. Fumarolic alteration is present in the lower part of 3 min. No observer described more than one series of tsunami
the exposed sequence. The island is incised by gullies up to several waves. Ward and Day (2003) showed that the times of arrival and
tens of meters wide, with steep to vertical walls up to a few tens of durations of the tsunami at these different sites are consistent with
meters high. Similar gullies filled by lava flows and discrete boulder the propagation, and progressive frequency dispersion with dis-
brecciate units form minor unconformities within the pre-collapse tance, of ~3 min period tsunami waves produced by a single land-
volcanic sequence. However, there are no marked unconformities slide from Ritter Island. No further tsunamis were recorded at the
extending along the face of the collapse scar that would record past various observation points in the days to months immediately after
collapse events, nor are there flat lying, ponded lava flows that the event. The historic evidence is consistent with only one major
would indicate a collapse scar buried within the intact remnant of collapse or landslide event occurring in 1888.
the island, as seen elsewhere (Day et al., 1999; Carracedo et al., Earthquakes and submarine explosive activity immediately
1999, 2002). There is no evidence in the remaining part of the is- west of Ritter Island in 1972 and 1974 marked the growth of a new
land for recent but pre-1888 large lateral collapses of Ritter, com- submarine volcanic vent within the collapse scar (Cooke et al.,
parable to that which occurred in 1888. Historical indications of 1976; Cooke, 1981). Two small tsunamis occurred in these years,
much smaller pre-1888 landslides from the island are discussed the only ones to be recorded from Ritter between 1888 and the time
below. of our survey in 2004. Any young, large volume landslide deposits
in the area NW of Ritter Island are considered to be associated with
the single 1888 collapse.
2.2. Historical observations from Ritter Island Despite the lack of large volume tephra falls associated with the
events of 1888, it was supposed for many years that an explosive
Cooke (1981) summarized the observations of activity at Ritter eruption and vertical caldera collapse had occurred at Ritter Island
Island from William Dampier's sighting of an eruption in 1700 in 1888 (Fisher, 1957; Cooke, 1981). Following the 1980 May 18th
through to the German colonization of northern New Guinea that Mount St. Helens lateral collapse and recognition of the importance
started in the 1880s. These accounts indicate that Ritter experi- of lateral collapses at volcanoes, the Ritter event was investigated
enced at most intermittent eruptive activity in the years just before by Johnson (1987). This single-beam echosounder survey of the
the collapse, but numerous accounts of fumaroles indicate hydro- immediate area of the island revealed a broadly west facing open
thermal activity. Later collection of reports from communities on horseshoe shaped collapse scar and large bathymetric highs,
Umboi Island indicated that the collapse of the volcano around 6 interpreted by Johnson as landslide blocks, allowing him to esti-
am on March 13th 1888 was preceded by explosions accompanied mate a collapse scar volume of 4e5 km3. However, the survey did
by earthquakes, but there was no mention of an eruption (Fisher, not extend far beyond the collapse scar and so the full run-out
1939, 1957). Thus, the collapse was most likely associated with distance, extent and structure of the deposits associated with the
phreatic activity, and would have been of the Bandai type in the collapse has been an important gap in knowledge of the 1888 Ritter
classification of Siebert et al. (1987). Island event.
S. Day et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 67 (2015) 419e438 423
2.3. Restoration of pre-collapse island topography island made on the same voyage in 1835 by Woodworth (Fig. 2)
confirms the overall steep slopes of the island. Both sketches sug-
The description of Ritter in 1700 (Dampier, 1729) shows the is- gest that the western side of the island (to the left in both cases)
land to have been a steep, gullied cone with a height about half of was steeper and perhaps had already experienced small landslides
the adjacent extinct volcano of Sakar Island that rises to 998 m. of less than 0.1 km3 comparable to those in Table 1B. Comparison
Accounts in the 19th Century emphasized the extremely steep- with data for similar events such as the 2002 Stromboli landslide
sided nature of the subaerial part of Ritter volcano with measure- (Bonaccorso et al., 2003) suggests that deposits from such land-
ments of about 780 m height and 1.83 km EeW width (Dumont slides would not have gone more than a few kilometers from Ritter
d’Urville, 1832), implying slopes significantly in excess of 45 . To and would therefore be either buried under the 1888 deposits or
estimate the island's dimensions we compared the sketch and would have been eroded and entrained into the 1888 debris
description of the island, made in early 1835 by Jacobs (1844), with avalanche. Our bathymetric data, discussed below, indicates that
the modern island and matched the present island's features to the submarine slopes of the volcano down to 700 m below sea level
gullies in Jacobs' sketch (Fig. 2). Scaling the sketch to the modern are mainly symmetrical and an upward extrapolation of these
island with a maximum height 140 m yields a pre-collapse height of slopes to sea level implies that the pre-collapse island had an NeS
around 750 m and an EeW width of around 1.5 km. These pre- length of a little over 2 km. We use this restoration of the pre-
collapse dimensions are consistent with the ~45 slope of the sur- landslide topography together with an extrapolation of the sub-
viving eastern flank of the island. Because the island is still about marine collapse scar in a later section to approximate the volume of
1.9 km long it must have been elongated NeS. Another sketch of the the sector of the island collapsed during the 1888 event.
Figure 3. Side-scan imagery of study area from MR-1 sonar data gridded at 16 m. White dotted line outlines landslide deposits. BS marks location of the black streak. Yellow lines
locate chirp seismic reflection profiles acquired and red lines locate segments of those shown in the paper. Transects using the underwater digital towed camera system “TowCam”
are marked with dashed blue line. Blue star show location of a dredge site. Low backscatter light and high backscatter dark. 60 of latitude ¼ 11.1 km. (For interpretation of the
references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
424 S. Day et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 67 (2015) 419e438
3. Methods
300 m of depth). This and other volcanic vents on the surface of the backscatter intensity extending from the base of the post collapse
landslide deposit are distinguishable from collapse blocks because edifice to the NW and SW may also be features of post collapse
they have conical shapes and low backscatter intensity (V in Fig. 5). eruptions, such as deposits from syneruptive volcaniclastic density
Because the volcanic vent within Ritter crater is at a shallow water currents (Fiske et al., 1998).
depth, we were able to compare it with the cone parameters given
by Mitchell et al. (2002). Representing the cone width versus its
5. Submarine landslide facies
height we obtained a very good fit for a submarine cone (see Fig. 4
in Mitchell et al., 2002), another argument to support its volcanic
Glicken (1991, 1996) subdivided the morphological and sedi-
origin. The summit vent of the large edifice within the collapse scar
mentological characteristics of the deposits from volcano collapses
is located at the sites of eruption plumes that broke the surface of
into distinct facies. He described the landslide facies of the Mount
the sea during the 1972 and 1974 explosive volcanic eruptions
St. Helens deposit in great detail, including block size distribution,
(Cooke et al., 1976). Eruptive activity inside the scar left by a lateral
abundances of discrete blocks in contrast with matrix material,
collapse is common because ascending magmas take advantage of
deposit thickness variations and depositional slopes. We compared
the weakened areas created by collapse structures, where there is
Glicken's landslide facies concepts to our submarine observations
also a loss of confining stress, erupting within it (e.g. the Lesser
and divided the deposit into three facies: large block avalanche,
Antilles, Boudon et al., 2007). The flanks of the main post-collapse
matrix-rich debris avalanche, and distal debris flow facies. In the
volcano are smooth, lacking discrete flank vents, and have uniform
following sections we describe and interpret the features of each of
moderate backscatter intensity. The smooth lobes of low
these distinct facies, before synthesizing the results into an overall
interpretation of the movement history of the landslide. Such an
approach will yield new insights into how submarine landslides
disintegrate and evolve downslope away from their source.
Figure 6. 3D image of Ritter insular margin. Letter B marks location of the largest Figure 7. Part of CHIRP seismic line 7/0 across the large block avalanche facies (from
debris avalanche block. Note how the large block facies has been confined near the shot point 900 to the NE). The collapse blocks produced strong seabed diffractions and
island by a constriction. Letter V marks location of the main post-collapse volcanic lack internal structures. Location of the lines is shown in Figure 3. TWT denotes two
cone. Vertical exaggeration is 2. way time.
426 S. Day et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 67 (2015) 419e438
Figure 8. Side-scan image detail of matrix-rich debris avalanche facies from MR-1 sonar data gridded at 16 m. Low backscatter light and high backscatter dark. M for sediment
mesas with marked troughs around their margins in some cases. We interpret the mesas to be erosional features related to a landslide or flow moving from SE to W. M* for the best
example of a sediment mesa (see text for details). Line 24 in Figure 11 shows a chirp profile crossing two of the mesas, from shot points 100e250 and 750e1000, the latter being
mesa M*. M0 for sediment mesas along the SW margin of the facies deposit and without troughs developed around them. We attribute the latter to be the result of uneven upslope
retreat of scarps. BS marks location of the black streak. 60 of latitude ¼ 11.1 km.
is located in the mouth of the collapse scar and its asymmetry is 5.1.2. Erosional features
consistent with it being a displaced and back-rotated coherent On the lower slope of Umboi Island there is a laterally extensive
segment of the flank of the volcano. The majority of the other large region of uniform high backscatter intensity with a sharp upslope
blocks are concentrated toward the southern and western margins contact (named “Scours” in Fig. 5) sub-parallel to the 900 and 800
of the deposit. The high slopes and irregular surfaces of the blocks bathymetric contours. This contact undulates, curving upslope and
produced strong seabed diffractions and the characteristic lack of over a small ridge (R3 in Fig. 4) and reaching its maximum elevation
seismic penetration over blocks deposits. The absence of a sedi- at a depth of 700 m, which is 200 m above the level of the large
mentary cover over these large blocks in the seismic profiles (Fig. 7) block facies deposit (R1 in Fig. 4). The contact is continuous across
is consistent with the recent age of the landslide deposit. several fans of high backscatter material trending down the slope
The overall geometry of the large block facies deposit suggests from Umboi Island, but it is discontinuous where larger fans are
that it was ponded in the valley to the east of the constriction. This present. The high backscatter zone also extends over the crest of
ponding is similar to that seen in the large block facies of the Mount the larger ridge (R1 in Fig. 4) that bounds the large block facies
St. Helens landslide deposit (Glicken, 1991, 1996) and others like deposit at the constriction and downslope into the matrix rich
that of Mount Shasta (Crandall et al., 1984; Crandall, 1988). facies deposit area.
S. Day et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 67 (2015) 419e438 427
Figure 9. (Top) Chirp line 2/7 showing matrix-rich facies of Ritter debris avalanche and its transition towards the east to a layered sedimentation at the lower insular slope of Sakar
Island. (Middle) Continuation of Chirp Line 2/7 showing large blocks and a buried landslide deposit from Sakar Island. (Bottom) Line 3/1 across the insular slopes of Umboi and Sakar
Island showing the matrix-rich facies of Ritter and the channel eroded by Ritter debris avalanche. Diffractions related to hummocks. Location of the lines is shown in Figure 3. TWT
denotes two way time.
5.2. Matrix rich debris avalanche facies islands we observed well-layered reflections, interpreted as bedded
sediments. Diffractions are present in areas of high slope. The
The transition from block-rich to matrix-rich facies occurs thickness of acoustically laminated sediments varies depending on
where the gap between Umboi and Sakar is constricted between slope and location relative to the islands. Line 3/1 in Figure 9 shows
two ridges (R1 and R2 on Fig. 4). Similarly, the transition from large penetration up to 0.016 s two way travel time along the slope of
block facies to matrix-rich facies in the 1980 Mount St. Helens Umboi and 0.008 s two way travel time along the slope of Sakar.
debris avalanche deposit occurs at a constriction in the North Fork This acoustic penetration is equivalent to 12 and 6 m using a
Toutle River (Glicken, 1991, 1996). In this section we describe the nominal water velocity of 1500 m/s to convert for thickness.
nature of depositional and erosional features in this part of the A series of lobes with the characteristic speckled appearance in
landslide, the latter consisting of steep-sided mesas and grooved the backscatter intensity map occur at the downslope end of the
terrains to either side of the matrix-rich facies deposit itself. matrix rich facies deposit. These lobes are located in flat-floored
channels between steep-sided, flat-topped features referred to
here as mesas. TowCam images of these distal lobes show that they
5.2.1. Depositional features
are partly covered in fine-grained, bioturbated (hence soft and
The matrix rich facies is characterized by a distinctive speckled
unconsolidated) marine sediment. Hummock tops encountered
or mottled pattern in the backscatter intensity map (Fig. 8), and as a
along the TowCam lines 5 and 6 (Fig. 3) that run across the lobes are
coarse blocky and non-stratified mass in high-resolution seismic
a few tens of meters to several tens of meters across, and several
data (Shots 2800e3500 in Line 2/7, shots 700e1300 in Line 3/1
meters high, composed of poorly sorted, angular blocks mainly less
Fig. 9). The patches of high backscatter intensity are 100e300 m
than a meter across, but ranging in size from centimeters to over
across. Both features are typical of the irregular hummocky ter-
five meters long (Fig. 10aec). No banding or layering is observed in
rains, found in other submarine debris avalanche deposits
the blocks, nor are there any clear variations in block characteristics
(Holcomb and Searly, 1991; Moore et al., 1989, 1994; Watts and
at any one hummock or mound. Polygonal-section columnar
Masson, 1995). We interpret the high backscatter intensity
blocks, interpreted as being from a thick columnar-jointed sub-
patches to be areas where volcanic material is exposed on the
strate lava flow or sheet intrusion, are exposed in one of the
seabed, since high backscattering arises because the volcanic rock is
mounds of TowCam 5 (Fig. 10b), whereas other mounds in the same
rough at the scale of the acoustic wavelength, and also volcanic
TowCam line showed pitted clasts that appear to be coarsely ve-
blocks have high impedance contrast relative to the sediment de-
sicular lava or scoria (Fig. 10c). The clasts form a habitat for abun-
posits surrounding them.
dant sessile filter-feeding organisms like white sponges, soft corals,
The acoustic character, a lack of CHIRP penetration, and discrete
anemones and crinoids that require hard substrates for their at-
areas of diffractions allowed us to map the lateral extent of the
tachments and are not observed in sediment-draped areas. In
matrix rich facies, differentiating it from the sediments of the lower
summary, we interpret the mounds as debris avalanche hummocks
slopes of Umboi and Sakar Islands. Along the lower slope of the
428 S. Day et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 67 (2015) 419e438
5.2.2.2. The “Black Streak” feature. Between the distal lobes of the
debris avalanche deposit there is an elongated feature with very
high backscatter intensity that we informally named the “Black
Streak” (BS in Fig. 8). It is 1 km wide and rises 20 m above the
surrounding terrain. TowCam images over its crest show that it is
composed of angular clasts that are dark and pitted, appearing
vesicular or scoriaceous (Fig. 10d). An abundant and diverse fauna
of sponges, soft corals and crinoids is present, similar to that seen
on the debris avalanche blocks. Unlike the poorly sorted clasts in
the debris avalanche deposit, the clasts in the “black streak” are
uniform in size, 10e20 cm across. The CHIRP profile crossing it
shows its relief in cross-section, with strong echoes underlying
transparent facies and debris avalanche deposits covering its
eastern side (Line 24, Fig. 11).
Figure 11. Selection of CHIRP profiler images from different parts of the deposit. Line 24 is a profile across the matrix-rich debris avalanche showing the pre-avalanche sediments,
the “black streak” and sediment mesas. Lines 3/25, 2/4 and 2/5 are segments along the distal facies, while Line 22 shows a segment across it. Red bars mark thickness of the
avalanche, labeled in meters using a conservative velocity of 1500 m/s to calculate the thickness (if a velocity of 1600 m/s will be used, the values will increased by a 6.25%). Location
of the lines is shown in Figure 3. TWT denotes two way time. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this
article.)
scalloped suggesting that the grooves are cut into cohesive sedi- we discuss the depositional and erosional features of the distal
ment with significant strength (Fig. 10g). In rare cases, planar facies.
sedimentary bedding is visible in groove walls. A sessile fauna
dominated by near-transparent barrel-shaped sponges occurs on
some groove walls but the diverse fauna seen on the debris 5.3.1. Depositional features
avalanche deposit blocks is not present. There are sparse, scattered The distal landslide deposit consists of a laterally extensive
lithic angular clasts a few tens of centimeters across, in the floors of sheet extending over a broad, almost flat submarine plain with an
some of the grooves, also very similar to the clasts forming the average slope of 0.11, less than 10% of the slopes on which the
blocks of the matrix rich debris avalanche facies. Apart from these debris avalanche facies deposits were emplaced. Within the distal
clasts, the groove floors are largely covered by soft sediment. The deposit there are areas with differential high or low backscatter
best exposures of grooves are on top of the sediment mesas, intensity that correspond to variations on the slope but that do not
although they are also exposed in the intervening areas. Isolated show acoustic variations in the CHIRP profiles. The margins of the
high backscatter intensity features, several tens of meters across, deposit are ill-defined and in at least some places are covered by
are also present in the grooved terrain and may be comparable with more recent sediment (see below). It is likely that the distal deposit
the high backscatter intensity “speckles” produced by debris extends out of the northern limit of backscatter mapping beneath
avalanche hummocks in the matrix-rich debris avalanche facies. the “undivided marine sediments” unit of Figure 12. Figure 11
shows representative portions of seismic lines along and across
the distal facies, where the deposit is recognized as a transparent
unit beneath a strong echo and overlying a sedimentary sequence.
5.3. Distal debris flow facies In contrast to the matrix-rich debris avalanche facies, the distal
facies lacks the characteristic hummock facies typical of debris
The transition between the matrix rich debris avalanche facies avalanches. To estimate the thickness of the deposits it is necessary
and the distal deposits to the north appears sharp in the backscatter to use a velocity for the sediments, being a common value for debris
intensity map but is gradual without a sharp boundary that can be avalanche sediments between 1600 and 1800 m/s (eg. Urgeles et al.,
differentiated in the seismic data. In the latter, the hummocks that 1997; Collot et al., 2001). We used a velocity of 1500 m/s based on
characterized the matrix rich facies with presence of debris Hamilton's formulas (1985) for other volcanic forearcs in the Pacific
avalanche blocks decrease to leave a relatively flat seabed of Ocean, being a good choice for the top 40 m. The minimum thick-
acoustically transparent material in the distal deposits. This type of ness of the deposit is about 2 m in areas with somewhat greater
transition is common in debris avalanches that transform to debris slope. The deposit is 5e10 m thick in the areas where we recog-
flows, while in debris avalanche lobes where this transformation nized a reflection beneath the transparent acoustic facies, but in
does not occur the lobe has an abrupt front (Capra et al., 2002). We many areas it may be thicker, because the CHIRP system did not
mapped an approximate limit for the transformation, based on the image a reflection beneath the deposit.
difference in backscatter intensity. The distinction between the two The TowCam images across the distal deposits show that the
facies is also supported by comparison of TowCam images from seabed exposes areas of soft sediment, as indicated by the presence
tows 5 and 6 (matrix facies) with tows 3 and 4 (distal facies). Here of bioturbation and the lack of sessile epifauna, and areas with
430 S. Day et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 67 (2015) 419e438
Figure 12. Morphological interpretation of Ritter insular margin and adjacent areas. See inserted legend for interpretation of the different morphological features.
abundant dark, rounded clasts 10e20 cm across partially covered 5.3.2. Erosional features
by lighter sediment (Fig. 10h,i). In the transitions from areas with No erosional features were observed over the main area of the
low to high clast abundance, we observed clast alignments and distal deposit. However, its southern margin extends along the foot
concentrations in ridges. The clast alignments are oriented SW to of the line of sediment mesas discussed in the previous section,
NE on the seabed (Fig. 10h) parallel to a fabric seen in the back- while its western margin is located at the foot of a scarp some tens
scatter intensity data for the same area. The dredge indicates that of meters high eroded into marine sediments that was partly
the clasts are cohesive silt-grade sediment (Fig. 10j, see Fig. 3 for imaged in TowCam 4 (Fig. 3) crossing that margin. Scalloped fea-
location of the dredge). The size of the clasts in the dredge is tures at the crest of the scarp, similar to those seen in the grooved
comparable to the size of the dark clasts in the camera images. terrain, were imaged in TowCam 4 (Fig. 10k). It is therefore possible
Comparison with the sizes of the scallops seen in the grooved that the southern part of the distal deposit covering an area
terrain and an inferred similarity between the silt-grade sediments 15e20 km (EeW) by about 10 km (NeS) lies within an area where
in the clasts found in the dredge and the cohesive sediments seen in mass erosion or failure of sediment in the substrate excavated the
the grooved terrain and the walls of the sediment mesas suggests seafloor to a depth of up to 20e40 m (the height of the highest
that the distal deposits contain a high proportion of sediments sediment mesas above their surroundings).
eroded by the landslide. In contrast, only four small lithic clasts
were present in dredge sample: a reworked dacitic pumice pebble, 6. Volume estimates
two clasts of andesitic and dacitic composition and a basaltic clast
with Mg-rich olivine and chrome spinel phenocrysts. This last clast 6.1. Volume of the scar
is more primitive in composition than any of the basalts known
from the adjacent volcanic islands (Johnson et al., 1972). The initial volume of a volcanic island flank collapse can be
Near the northwestern margin of the distal deposit we mapped estimated, where a well-defined escarpment or amphitheater ex-
a series of features in the backscatter that were recognized as ists, by subtracting a grid of the present topography from a grid of
sediment waves (Figs. 3 and 12; Hoffman et al., 2008). Varied the calculated pre-collapse surface. The latter is usually obtained by
backscatter strength defines the eastern edge of the deposit. The extrapolating the topographic and bathymetric contours across the
orientation of some features, including a small field of sediment embayment (e.g., Urgeles et al., 1997). For the Ritter collapse, where
waves, suggest currents associated with Dampier Strait to the SE most of the subaerial part of the island and the inferred convex
are responsible for transporting sediment and reworking the sea- submarine flank has disappeared in a single event, it is essential to
floor in this region (Fig. 3). restore the pre-collapse topography.
S. Day et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 67 (2015) 419e438 431
Figure 13. A) Topographic and bathymetric reconstruction of Ritter Island and its insular margin before its collapse on March 13th, 1888. B) Topography of Ritter Island and insular
margin after its collapse but without the post-collapse volcanic vents. C) Thickness of displaced slide mass, obtained by subtracting the latter to the former reconstructions.
Restoration of the pre-collapse topography of Ritter together 6.2. Volume of the deposits
with an extrapolation of the submarine collapse scar as a single
curved surface approximates the initial pre-collapse shape of the In comparing collapse scar and deposit volumes, it is important
island and its submarine failed flank (Fig. 13a). To create the pre- to recognize the occurrence of dilation during failure and landslide
collapse grid it was necessary to remove the landslide blocks, the movement. The deposits of the well constrained 1980 Mount St.
post-collapse volcanic eruptions and to smooth the erosion of the Helens debris avalanche were estimated to have experienced
submarine valley assumed to have been excavated during the around 20% dilation over their pre-collapse volume (Glicken, 1996).
event. Subtracting the reconstructed slide surface (Fig. 13b) from Gridding the inferred thickness of the large block facies in the
the reconstructed pre-collapse topography we obtained a total avalanche within the limits of the Ritter deposit as mapped pro-
volume of 4.2 km3 for the slide mass involved in the collapse of vides a volume of 4 km3. By correcting the latter value for 20%
Ritter. The contoured difference between these two surfaces used dilation during the collapse and using Glicken's method, we
to calculate the volume is shown in Figure 13c. This also provides conclude that a volume of 3.2 km3 of the initial collapse material
the initial wedge-and-cone shape of the landslide mass at the start would have been necessary to form the large block debris
of its movement. avalanche facies. Since we have obtained a volume of 4.2 km3 for
432 S. Day et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 67 (2015) 419e438
Table 2
Main characteristics of selected landslides of different sizes for comparison of average thickness with Ritter landslide. Silver et al. (2009) calculated a thickness of 46 m for the
large block part of the avalanche. In this work we obtained an average of 7e10 m of thickness for the distal deposit. The available data does not allow us to estimate the
thickness of the matrix rich part of the landslide.
the Ritter Island subaerial and submarine scar, we infer that a frequency CHIRP seismic data taken over the distal facies (Fig. 11)
fraction of about 76% of the initial landslide material never got show thicknesses of 7e10 m for much of the region for which we
beyond the constriction in the valley between Sakar and Umboi have data. If we assume a conservative average thickness of 8 m, the
Islands, and is now emplaced as the large block facies deposit. Only minimum volume of the distal deposit should be 6.4 km3. This
about a quarter of the initial landslide material from Ritter itself conservative value would imply that at most 15% of the distal de-
reached farther downslope to contribute to the matrix-rich debris posit is composed of lithic clasts originating from the initial
avalanche facies and to the distal deposit. collapse of the Ritter Island edifice, and likely less because of the
We also examined other reconstructions of pre-collapse finite although unknown volume of the matrix-rich debris
topography. Our most unrealistic assumptions did not result in avalanche facies deposit. It follows that the small part of the initial
more than a factor of 1.5 change to our resulting estimate of slide landslide that reached as far downslope as the mouth of the valley
volume, but did result in a factor of 2 change in our estimate of large between Sakar and Umboi, and the basin plain beyond, was highly
block facies deposit volume. The latter is in itself unrealistic, since efficient in eroding and mobilizing the sediment substrate over
there is an upper limit on the physically possible porosity of the which it moved.
large-block facies deposit, at about 35%, that also limits its dilation.
Therefore, we consider it very likely that the true slide volume falls
7. Discussion
between 0.8 and 1.25 times our preferred estimate, and the true
deposit volume falls between 0.8 and 1.5 times our estimate.
7.1. Instability and triggering of edifice collapse
However, quantifying the actual uncertainty in our estimate is
beyond the scope of available data.
Our data do not provide direct evidence on the processes that
Estimates of the volume of the matrix rich debris avalanche
triggered the March 13th 1888 lateral collapse of Ritter Island, but
facies deposit and of the volume of material eroded by the passage
they provide potential controls on the geometry of the collapse and
of the landslide before its emplacement are uncertain because none
hence factors that may have made the edifice susceptible to failure.
of the chirp lines provided deposit thickness in this area. We infer
The collapse differs from most subaerial volcano collapses in that
that most of the distal deposit is largely not from the initial collapse
the scar cuts down to the base of the edifice and perhaps into the
but rather from entrained sediment, which is consistent with the
substrate. Subaerial lateral collapses typically cut part way down to
low abundance (<1%) of lithic clasts in the dredge sample. Esti-
the base of the pre-collapse edifice, like the 1980 Mount St. Helens
mation of the volume of the distal deposit is complicated by the
collapse (Siebert et al., 1987). In a few subaerial volcanoes and other
sediment cover on the eastern margin and by its uncertain north-
submarine or island volcanoes, the failure occurs at the base of the
ern limit. It is possible that the distal deposit extends out of the
edifice or in the substrate. At the Socompa volcano, it has been
northern limit of backscatter mapping (Fig. 3). Within the mapped
argued that the reason for failure at the base of the volcano lies in
region the deposit area is about 800 km2.
pre-collapse deformation of weak, water-saturated sediments at
The thickness of the Ritter debris avalanche deposit varies
the base of the edifice (Francis et al., 1985; Van Wyk de Vries et al.,
within the mapped region. Silver et al. (2009) estimated an average
2001). This deformation is manifested in a series of anticlines
thickness of 46 m for the block-rich part of the debris avalanche
extending beyond the foot of the volcano, the crests of which form
deposit. For comparison, examples of thickness estimated by other
ridges that now project through the landslide deposit (Van Wyk de
authors in selected landslides can be found in Table 2. High
Vries et al., 2001). The Ritter volcano was most likely built upon
S. Day et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 67 (2015) 419e438 433
marine sediments that could have provided a weak basal layer that collapse event, but we cannot exclude the possibility that lateral
localized the failure at the base of the volcano, although we did not collapse at Ritter involved successive blocks beginning to move tens
find any direct evidence of pre-collapse deformation in the sur- of seconds apart. Retrogressive failures with blocks beginning to
viving submarine flanks of the volcano. Other examples of vol- move a few tens of seconds apart and successive failures a few
canoes cutting down to the base of the edifice are the failure of minutes apart have been directly observed by eyewitnesses at
Unzen in 1792 (Siebert et al., 1987) and the 1888 collapse scar at Mount St. Helens in 1980 (Voight, 1981) and Stromboli in 2002
Bandai, that also cuts unusually deep into the edifice (Siebert et al., (Bonaccorso et al., 2003) respectively, but the effects in the deposits
1987). Both of these lateral collapses were associated with phreatic are subtle and ambiguous (Glicken, 1996; Ward and Day, 2006).
hydrothermal explosions, similar to those at Ritter before its Evidence that the collapse at Ritter Island began as a single failure
collapse, and hot groundwater discharges, rather than magmatic or as a rapid sequence of retrogressive failures no more than a few
eruptions. tens of seconds apart, is principally provided by the single tsunami
There is no evidence that tectonic triggers such as large-scale that it produced (Cooke, 1981; Ward and Day, 2003).
fault movements or gravitational settling-related faulting initi-
ated the Ritter landslide. Environmental factors such as high-
intensity rainstorms, which can cause a reduction in strength of 7.2. Erosion by the landslide
the edifice due to saturation (McGuire, 2003), were also absent. An
example of this is the recorded aseismic movement of the Hilina 7.2.1. Scouring
Slump coinciding with a major rainstorm (Cervelli, 2002). The The undulating high backscatter feature found on the slope of
collapse lacked an associated large-volume magmatic eruption, but Umboi Island (Fig. 5) lacks a distinct bathymetric expression and
was likely associated with phreatic or phreatomagmatic explosions, the upslope boundary of the very high backscatter zone has no
because observations of vapor emission at Ritter were reported expression in the chirp profile that crosses it, unlike the boundaries
only a week before the collapse (Cooke, 1981), indicating that a of the other deposits that we associate with the 1888 Ritter Island
shallow hydrothermal system was present within the edifice collapse in this paper. Similarly, it appears unlikely that it is a de-
(Siebert et al., 1987). The Bandai and Unzen types of lateral collapse posit originating from farther upslope, since all other such deposits
may be triggered by pore fluid pressurization deep within the evident in the backscatter data from Umboi and also Sakar trend
edifice due to fluid input and/or heating from magmatic intrusions down the slope. Furthermore, it is not an artifact due to the angle
emplaced well below the base of the edifice, rather than within the relative to the sonar beam, because in that case the upslope of the
edifice as in the case of the 1980 Mount St. Helens cryptodome contact would then have the higher backscatter not the lower one.
(Day, 1996; Reid, 2004). In these cases, the locus of pressurization, Instead, in the light of the undulating nature of the upslope contact
deformation and failure may be in low permeability layers near or and the way it passes upslope over of the small ridge, an alternative
at the base of the volcano: this could be another mechanism by interpretation is that it is an erosional scour feature comparable to
which a substrate of compacted deep marine sediments could ac- the scouring of the walls of Coldwater creek by a fast-moving lobe
count for the geometry of the 1888 Ritter Island collapse structure. of the 1980 Mount St. Helens debris avalanche (Voight et al., 1981;
There is no geological evidence in our data for multiple or Fisher et al., 1987; Glicken, 1996). The two are shown in Figures 5
retrogressive failures of the Ritter Island volcano within the 1888 and 14 respectively.
Figure 14. Photograph and accompanying interpretation of the scouring walls of Coldwater creek eroded by the fast moving lobe of the 1980 Mount St. Helens debris avalanche
(taken in 2004). We interpret that the scouring mark found in the slope of Umboi Island was formed by the fast moving lobe of the Ritter avalanche, analogous to the scouring of
Coldwater creek.
434 S. Day et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 67 (2015) 419e438
Such an interpretation also explains why a similar undulating regular and linear than the ones that we observe in the Ritter, and
backscatter feature is not seen at the same elevations on the slopes are at least partly produced by spatial variations in sedimentation.
of Sakar, as would be the case if it was a “high tide” mark reflecting The latter is indicated by consistent development of coarser sedi-
the maximum thickness of a slow-moving landslide. The 1888 ments in the furrows, contrasting with finer grained sediment in
collapse scar is orientated oblique to the valley, pointing more to- the inter-furrow areas; and by development of rippled sediment on
wards Umboi and away from Sakar. Therefore, as it moved west- the furrow margins in some cases. In contrast, the Ritter grooves
ward at high velocity, the leading part of the landslide would have have steep and scalloped walls exposing bedded cohesive sedi-
obliquely impacted the side of Umboi, running up the slope and ment. The only distinctive sediment in the groove floors of Ritter,
reaching its greatest height as it passed over small ridges on the draped with later sediment, is formed by a scattering of lithic clasts
slope. Similar deflections of the scour line over small ridges are comparable to blocks in the imaged hummocks in the matrix rich
seen in Coldwater Creek (Fig. 14), providing a further point of facies deposit of the landslide.
similarity between the two features.
7.3. Inferred landslide kinematics
7.2.2. Black Streak
The very high intensity backscatter character of this unit, The 1888 collapse of Ritter left a deposit composed of three
together with its differential relief in the bathymetry and the uni- different facies, a division that implies three distinct stages in the
formity of the size clasts imaged with the photographs (in strong movement and rheological evolution of the landslide. As was done
contrast to the wide variation in clast sizes seen in debris avalanche by Glicken (1991, 1996) for the 1980 Mount St Helens collapse de-
deposits, but typical of scoriaceous volcanic deposits), lead us to posits, we use the distribution of these facies and the different
interpret the Black Streak as a volcanic unit. We infer that this types of erosional structure, together with the overall geometry of
feature is the core of an in-situ submarine volcanic vent whose top the deposit to reconstruct the movement and evolution of the
was eroded off by the leading part of the landslide. Ritter landslide.
The grooved terrain and the sediment mesas indicate the
7.2.3. Mesas occurrence of extensive erosion, of at least the top 20 m of the
The development of scarps and troughs in the mesas located to existing sediment sequence in these areas. The association of the
either side of the distal lobes of the matrix-rich debris avalanche grooved terrain with isolated debris avalanche blocks, the occur-
deposit (M in Fig. 9) lead us to interpret them as erosional features rence of scattered lithic clasts in the smaller grooves imaged with
related to a flow moving from SE to NW, along the groove trend the TowCam, and the channelization of the debris avalanche lobes
seen to the SE. The formation of the mesas must predate between the sediment mesas, indicate that the erosion took place
emplacement of the matrix-rich debris avalanche facies lobes in the during the landslide, and that deposition of the matrix rich facies
troughs between the mesas, but the association between them debris avalanche deposit took place after the substrate erosion. We
indicates that they are both related to the Ritter landslide event. conclude that the erosional features were produced by the fast
However, the mesas and troughs located along the SW margin of moving leading part of the landslide that, after being deflected off
the matrix rich facies deposit (M0 in Fig. 9, Line 3/1 in Fig. 10) may the submarine slope of Umboi in a “bobsled” fashion similar to that
not have originated by a flow moving down-slope, but instead they seen in some subaerial landslides in mountain valleys (Evans et al.,
may be the result of uneven upslope retreat of scarps developed at 1989), reached beyond the constriction and spread out over a front
the lateral margin of the moving debris avalanche, as a result of up to 10 km wide (corresponding to the width of the grooved
undermining the foot of the slope by erosion along the valley axis, terrain and the line of sediment mesas). The distribution of the
followed by development of progressive slumping upslope. We grooved terrain and the sediment mesas indicate that it was this
consider the formation of the other mesas further below in the part of the landslide that generated the substrate erosion and the
context of the formation of the distal debris flow (section 7.4). debris flow. In contrast the matrix rich debris avalanche was
deposited from the slower, trailing part that was confined to the
7.2.4. Grooved terrain axis of the valley between Umboi and Sakar.
The TowCam images discussed in section 5.2.2 indicate that the The landslide created a tsunami that devastated the coast of
grooved terrain was incised into weak but cohesive marine sedi- Sakar and Umboi Islands to more than 15 m of elevation (Cooke,
ments. Similar scalloped, but overall linear, grooves eroded in 1981) implying high landslide velocities (Ward and Day, 2003).
cohesive water-saturated sediment have been produced experi- Run-up of landslides onto valley walls can be also used to estimate
mentally by high velocity water flows simulating tidal flows over landslide velocities, by equating the potential energy gained in the
littoral muds (Winterwerp and Van Kesteren, 2004). The grooves run-up to the minimum kinetic energy of the moving material at
imaged in our work are very similar to those produced in these the base of the slope. This argument was applied to landslides by
experiments in the intermediate-stress bulk erosion regime. We Heim (1882) and had notable applications to the debris avalanche
infer that the grooved terrain was generated by bulk erosion of of Mount St. Helens (Voight et al., 1983) and to the Osceola mudflow
older marine sediments at the base of a high velocity component of at Rainier (Vallance and Scott, 1997). In Ritter, some landslide ma-
the Ritter debris avalanche that extended over a wider front than terial ran up onto the submarine slope of Umboi, implying that it
that part which deposited the matrix-rich debris avalanche deposit. had sufficient kinetic energy to climb uphill. Assuming that the
This inference is consistent with the occurrence in the photo- general level of the landslide was at 900 m and, applying this cri-
graphed groove floors of sparse, scattered lithic angular clasts a few terion, it suggest that the material that climbed up to 200 m over
tens of centimeters across, very similar to the clasts in the matrix the small ridge (Fig. 4) would have had a speed of 63 m/s. This is
rich debris avalanche facies (Fig. 10); and of the isolated mound actually a high estimate because of the fact that it neglects the
features, several tens of meters across and with high backscatter particleeparticle interaction within the debris avalanche that
intensity, that are also present in the grooved terrain and which we would tend to push particles up the slope. Ward and Day (2003)
interpret as isolated debris avalanche blocks. obtained a more conservative average velocity of at least 40 m/s
Similar grooved features have been described in the continental for Ritter landslide from their tsunami modeling. However, the
slope off New Jersey (Farre and Ryan, 1985) and in Lake Superior 63 m/s estimated velocity is not necessarily that of the landslide as
(Viekman et al., 1992). However, those others were much more a whole, since it is likely to have fragmented much earlier in its
S. Day et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 67 (2015) 419e438 435
motion and the front may have been traveling significantly faster Alternatively, Talling et al. (2007) showed how debris flows
than the tail. could deposit very little sediment and be locally very erosive in
large areas far from the sources, and then sediment deposition
7.4. Transformation from debris avalanche to debris flow could be triggered by a remarkably small but abrupt decrease in
sea-floor gradient from 0.05 to 0.01. In this case, our data show
The SWeNE orientation of clast alignments seen on the seabed that there is an order of magnitude reduction in slope between the
of the distal facies (TowCam line 3, Fig. 3) parallel to a fabric seen in area of debris avalanche (1.6e2.1 ) and the area of debris flow
the backscatter intensity data, probably follows the landslide deposition (0.1 ).
movement direction in this area and indicates pervasive shearing The coincidence of the facies transition and the break in slope
during deposition (Fig. 10g). These clast alignments may be anal- could indicate that the debris-flow deposition started due to rapid
ogous to ridges developed near the margins of experimental water- deceleration of the flow, because deceleration reduces the turbu-
saturated debris flows (Major, 1997) and to longitudinal shear lent mixing and sand settles more rapidly, as interpreted by Talling
structures identified in backscatter intensity data (but not imaged et al. (2007); however, this process does not explain the onset of
with photographs) from the Saharan debris flow by Masson et al. mass failure at the break in slope. The two mechanisms may not be
(1993). These morphological similarities, together with the thin mutually exclusive, because conservation of momentum requires
margins of the deposit, overall low thickness/length and thickness/ that a sudden bulking of the landslide due to mass failure of the
width ratios of the deposit and the low slope angle of the plain substrate would be accompanied by a reduction in its velocity.
upon which the distal facies deposits were emplaced, indicate that Finally we note that the distal end of the landslide may have
the distal facies was emplaced as a high mobility debris flow or a extended farther north and out of the area that we mapped, further
series of flow lobes. enhancing the contrast in mobility between the debris avalanche
Debris flow deposits extending downslope from debris facies and the debris flow facies. Debris flow and turbidite deposits
avalanche deposits or other types of landslide have been identified associated with 1888 Ritter collapse may be found farther to the
in many studies (for example, Piper et al., 1999; Gee et al., 1999; north and west in the Bismarck Sea Basin than the area mapped,
Scott et al., 2001), implying rheological transformations. These similarly to what has been identified associated with the 1929
transformations often occur by erosion and entrainment of water Grand Banks continental slope failure (Piper et al., 1985) and with
rich sediments, glacier ice and other debris from the substrates over the Canary (Talling et al., 2007; Hunt et al., 2011) and Hawaii
which the landslides move. Where there is abundant substrate that (Kanamatsu et al., 2002) landslides.
is easily entrained, as in the floors of glaciated valleys, the total
volume of both volcanic and non volcanic landslides can increase 7.5. Comparison of the submarine and subaerial collapse deposits
by more than 1000% over the initial failure volume (Plafker and
Ericksen, 1978; Scott et al., 2001; Erismann and Abele, 2001; Kaab Comparison of submarine and subaerial debris avalanche de-
et al., 2003), a process known as bulking (Scott et al., 2001). Bulk- posits is not straightforward, but instead fairly difficult and un-
ing increases the total landslide runout distance and the landslide common because: 1) The submarine deposits have to be really fresh
mobility, given by the decrease in drop height/run-out distance and largely unsedimented, therefore from recent events. In older
ratio and commonly interpreted as effective friction coefficient. deposits the sediment drape obscures small-scale features and only
Understanding the development of landslide facies and the role of large blocks are seen projecting above the seabed. For example, if
bulking is therefore key to the understanding of landslide we compare the Ritter deposits with the older debris avalanche
mechanics. deposits that Silver et al. (2009) found along the Bismarck arc, none
The transformation of the leading part of the Ritter debris of them have matrix-rich facies deposits or distal debris flow units
avalanche into the debris flow was also related to substrate erosion exposed on the seabed, probably because they are buried. Also, in
and entrainment, as suggested by the dominance of sediment older deposits often the collapse scar itself has been buried by
intraclasts in the dredge sample and in the TowCam images, in subsequent volcano growth, or grossly modified by erosion, not
contrast to the lithic clast dominated mounds seen in the matrix allowing seeing the proximal area deposits. 2) Studies of subaerial
rich debris avalanche facies. The exposed areas of substrate erosion deposits commonly focus on small-scale (<~10 m across, or <100 m
in the grooved terrain and the sediment mesas upslope of the across) features exposed both on deposit tops in recent deposits
present transition from debris avalanche deposit to debris flow and in cross-section in outcrops incised into older deposits. There is
deposit are likely sources of some of the entrained sediment. In therefore a scale disconnecting these outcrop scale studies and
addition, the scarps along the western margin of the deposit indi- both the large-scale (typically remote sensing based) studies of
cate that another source is the 20 km by 10 km area bounded by the morphologically fresh deposits such as Socompa and especially
scarp to the west and the sediment mesas to the southeast and now Mount St. Helens 1980, with our data set. 3. Comparisons should be
covered by the upslope, proximal parts of the debris flow deposit made among subaerial and submarine deposits of either valley-
itself (Fig. 12). The lack of distinct raised sediment mesas within the confined or unconfined debris avalanches. In subaerial studies,
latter area implies that such erosion may have involved complete there is a clear recognition that valley-confined debris avalanche
removal of the substrate by mass failure, the most complete and deposits show a range of morphological differences to laterally
highest shear stress regime mechanism of substrate erosion iden- unconfined debris avalanche deposits (e.g. Glicken, 1991 for a
tified by Winterwerp and Van Kesteren (2004). review).
We identify two possible causes for the transition from mass The Mount St. Helens 1980 and the Ritter 1888 are a great
erosion to mass failure. First, the coincidence of this change from subaerial/submarine pair of deposits to compare because they are
mass erosion in the grooved terrain, to mass failure around and to the best exposed recent cubic-kilometer volume class deposits in
the N of the sediment mesas, with the margin of the near-flat plain their respective categories, they are both valley-confined and of a
on which the debris flow was deposited, may be due to a transition similar scale. Even the height differences between upslope and
from stronger or coarser sediment on the submarine slopes of downslope deposit limits are very similar: Large block facies:
Umboi and Sakar to weaker, finer grained sediment on the plain 1150 me700 m elevation at Mount St. Helens, 800 m water depth to
that was more susceptible to failure under the impact of shear 1200 m water depth at Ritter; Matrix rich facies: 700 me350 m
stresses from the fast-moving leading part of the landslide. elevation at Mount St. Helens, 1200 m water depth to 1700 m water
436 S. Day et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 67 (2015) 419e438
depth at Ritter. The transition may be so sharp in both cases submarine landslides tend to create larger block sizes than sub-
because of the involvement of a constriction in the valley walls. The aerial ones until there are many more detailed descriptions of block
difference between the two is the distal debris flow at Ritter, that size distributions in submarine volcano lateral collapse deposits
we believe is due to the contrast between substrates: almost from island arc stratovolcanoes.
entirely bedrock at Mount St. Helens, whereas the Ritter debris
avalanche transforms into the debris flow as soon as it encounters a 8. Conclusions
thick sequence of easily eroded basin-floor sediments on a flat
basin floor. This could be evidence of a hydraulic jump or it might 1) The collapse of Ritter Island in 1888 removed most of the island
be due to a change in the substrate or it might be due to a poorly and was probably associated with phreatic or phreatomagmatic
understood change in the dynamics of the debris avalanche as the explosions. Based on our mapping, the collapse scar cut down
slope changes, and we do not have data to support either of those into the base of the edifice. We conclude that the collapse
possibilities. resulted from a single event because we found no field evidence
Our detailed analysis of the Ritter landslide deposits revealed either onshore or offshore that more than one collapse occurred
that if looking at its broad aspects, they are not that different as the then or in the past. Historical accounts and tsunami modeling
deposits of the Mt. St. Helens event. Maybe some retarding effect on also are consistent with a single event.
the initial movement could be expected in Ritter, since the tsunami 2) The deposits of the landslide generated by the collapse compose
generation represents a transfer of energy to the water column, three distinct facies, distinguished by their morphological
which doesn't occur subaerially, air being much less dense. How- characteristics in our various datasets: large block debris
ever, Ward & Day (2003) showed that only a small fraction, about avalanche, matrix-rich debris avalanche and debris flow distal
8%, of the potential energy released by the landslide, is required to facies. The transitions from large block to matrix-rich facies and
generate the observed Ritter Island 1888 tsunami. At the high but from the latter to distal facies are related to major changes in the
subcritical (Froude number <1 but not <<1) velocities inferred for slopes and to the constriction in the valley at the western end of
the landslide in that paper, this wave-making energy will be the the large block facies deposit.
dominant component of the energy transferred from the landslide 3) TowCam photographs of the sea-bottom provided important
to the water column. All of the rest of its energy is dissipated in constraints on the acoustic imaging and are very useful for
internal work (fragmentation of the landslide), substrate erosion studying landslide facies in subdued areas. Characteristics seen
and entrainment, and basal friction. These latter processes are in the photos provided valuable information for mapping the
common to both subaerial and submarine landslides, hence they facies of the avalanche including: morphology of the deposit,
would produce broadly similar deposits if they involved similar clasts aspect, distribution and abundance, presence/absence and
materials and initial geometries. Work done in substrate erosion type of benthic organisms indicative of substrate strength, and
and entrainment is dependent upon the nature and erodibility of signs of erosion such as scalloped walls.
the substrate and the main difference is that submarine landslides 4) Volumetric calculations based on the restoration of a modeled
are much more likely to encounter easily eroded substrates; hence, original topography led to a total volume estimate of 4.2 km3 for
in the Ritter example, the presence of the distal debris flow deposit the initial Ritter Island collapse. After correcting for dilation, we
with abundant sediment intraclasts, in contrast to the minimal infer that about 75% of the material from the initial collapse now
development of entrainment and debris flow deposits at Mount St. forms the large block facies at distances of less than 12 km from
Helens. the collapse scar, filling an area between the islands of Umboi
An interesting comparison between the deposits of subaerial and Sakar and topographically constricted by volcanic ridges
and submarine deposits comes from looking at if the block fields from those islands. The volume of the matrix-rich facies is un-
are any different or indistinguishable in both cases. For instance, known, but the distal debris flow facies deposits have a mini-
the blocks of the Canary island landslide deposits were found to be mum volume of 6.4 km3, as a result of bulking of the landslide
significantly larger than the blocks seen in subaerial collapses through sediment entrainment. This bulking highlights the ef-
(Mitchell et al., 2002). The latter authors explained as a function of ficiency of substrate erosion during the later history of the
ambient water pressure, because opening a block rapidly would landslide movement, when much of its original volume had
involve work against hydrostatic pressure, while slow opening, in already been deposited in the large block facies deposits
contrast, would allow water to permeate and pressurize fluid in upslope.
cracks. The largest blocks in the large block facies of the Ritter Is- 5) Recent and well-exposed submarine landslide deposits can be
land deposit are an order of magnitude larger than those in the interpreted in terms of morphological facies and transitions in
Mount St Helens 1980 deposit, but are comparable to the largest similar ways to subaerial volcano collapse deposits. In turn,
blocks seen in other subaerial stratovolcano lateral collapse de- these deposits can provide a basis for the interpretation of older
posits, such as Socompa (van Wyk de Vries et al., 2001). It would be and incompletely exposed landslide deposits. Understanding
expected that a broad correlation should exist between block size the mechanisms and kinematics of collapse events can improve
and the dimensions of lateral collapses, not only because the latter tsunami modeling.
limit the maximum possible sizes of blocks but perhaps also
because rates of change in slope within and at the lip of the collapse Acknowledgments
scar, which affect the bending forces that blocks experience as they
go over these changes in slope, may be less in the larger collapse This work was supported by National Science Foundation grant
structures. However, it seems that there is a very wide scatter in the OCE-0327004 to Eli Silver and Steve Ward, and grant OCE-0328278
ratio between maximum block size and collapse scar dimensions to Neal Driscoll. Participation of Pilar Llanes was possible thanks to
both in subaerial and submarine lateral collapses of different sizes. grants “Becas del Amo 2008” from Universidad Complutense de
This may reflect both the lithologies and strength characteristics of Madrid and “Movilidad para Profesores 2011” from Caja Madrid
the materials making up the slide mass, but also the pore fluid Foundation. We thank Dan Fornari for the use of TowCam. We are
pressure distribution within it (Day, 1996), which may differ sys- also grateful for the advice and support of many people in carrying
tematically between stratovolcanoes and ocean island volcanoes out this research, including Bruce Appelgate, Jennifer Engels, Steve
(with, typically, rift zone lateral collapses). It will be hard to assess if Saunders, Hugh Davies, James Robins, and Amilia Lyons. We are
S. Day et al. / Marine and Petroleum Geology 67 (2015) 419e438 437
indebted to the officers, crew, and scientific party of the R/V Kilo Francis, P.W., Gardeweg, M., Ramirez, C.F., Rothery, D.A., 1985. Catastrophic debris
avalanche deposit of Socompa volcano, northern Chile. Geology 13, 600e603.
Moana for their cooperation at sea. Figures 1, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 13 were
Gee, M.J.R., Masson, D.G., Watts, A.B., Allen, P.A., 1999. The Saharan debris flow: an
drawn using GMT software (Wessel and Smith, 1995). Constructive insight into the mechanics of long runout debris flows. Sedimentology 46,
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