Volcanic

Geomorphology
GGP4010 Geomorp.
& Hydrol.

Raikoke Volcano
(Kuril Islands)
eruption 2019
Flat plume tops
indicate height at
tropopause
Outline
• Cumbre Vieja 2021
eruption
• Introduction
• What is a volcano
• Magma chemistry
• Eruptive products
• Lava, pyroclast,
gases
• Eruption Size & Styles
• Volcanic Landscapes
• Felsic, basaltic,
erosional, human
uses
Lava flow from
Cumbre Vieja volcano
La Palma, Spain
23 Sept 2021
As of 17 Dec 2021
Flow area: 1241 ha
Destroyed 2998 buildings
Eruption has ceased
 11-12
Ages Ma
20-21
<2
9-10
14-15
Taburiente

• Taburiente
caldera – 5 km,
2 Ma Cumbre
• Cumbre Nueva 1430/40
Nueva

200 km3 1949 Cumbre

landslide scar, 1585 Vieja
560 ka 1712 1949

→ triggered
mega tsunami 1646

• You: 0.02 ka 1677

1971
Volcanic Landscape - Introduction
• Eruption creates distinctive, high elevation
landforms
• By relative weak, often unconsolidated materials
• Forms new crust
• Covers pre-existing landscapes
• Rearrange drainage, provide sediment load to rivers
• Non-uniform spatial distribution on Earth
• Concentrates along plate margins & hot-spot tracks
• Generate earthquakes, lava flows & landslides
• Eruptive emissions to atmosphere created atmosphere
itself & affects climate
 Volcanoes
• Landforms created magma reaches • Eruptions are short lasting, but
Earth’s surface via zone of weakness lasting geomorphic processes
in lithosphere continues to work on volcanic
• Eruption style → Variation in landforms
eruptive products & resultant • Erosion of volcano, volcano-river
landforms interactions, biologic
• Effusive – lava producing colonization of new land
• Explosive – pyroclast producing
 Anatomy of A crater is circular/ oval
Edifice of a shield
volcano is
depression <1 km in
a volcano diameter
composed of layers
of solidified lava
Crater
Edifice
Main vent
Lava
Conduit / pipe

Secondary vent

Rock
layers in Magma
Earth’s chamber
crust

Magma
 Eruption Viscosity Silica
Lava
temp. (C) analogy content
Magma Basaltic
(Mafic)
1200 Ketchup 45 – 52

Chemistry Andesitic
(Intermediate)
Smooth
peanut butter
53 – 63

Dacitic
• Gas content, water & (Felsic)
63 – 68

amount of silica Rhyolitic

650 Tar 69 – 77
(Felsic)
• Determines eruptive style
• Less viscous (flow easily)
• Hotter
• Fewer crystals Cone-shaped
• Less silica (basaltic) structure

• Influences flow thickness,

slope of volcanic edifices
• Viscous lava, thicker & flow
on steeper slopes
• Structure of edifice defines
types of volcanoes
Chemical Classification of Volcanic Rocks
Solidified lava

Dark Grey Light / Tan / Pinkish

Exsolution
• Highly viscous, silica-
rich magma prevents
escape of gases &
water
• Magma come up to
surface, pressure ↓,
solubility of gases in
magma ↓
• Gases exsolve – come
out (exit) of solution
• Expand in volume &
“explode”
∴ explosive eruption

Coke analogy – not viscous ▶

Vesicles in rocks
• Rapid exsolution leads to
vesicular structure of some
pyroclastic rocks
• Bubble-like void spaces in rocks –
vesicles
• Air spaces retained in rock when
lava cools & solidifies ▲ Pumice – floating rock
• Pumice: light-coloured, from
rhyolitic lava
• Lighter due to more gases from
felsic lava
• Scoria: dark-
coloured, from basaltic lava
• Black, brown, reddish
Scoria ▶
 Basaltic lava @ Hawaii
Eruptive Products
• Lava flows
• 90% lava flow – basaltic
(Andesitic 8%)
• From vents or fissures
• Thickness & length of flow
controls by magma chemistry
Lava flow Typical thickness Typical length
Basaltic 5 – 10 m 4 – 5 km
Rhyolitic 100 m 1 km

• Pyroclastic materials (flows

& falls) Deposits used to
• Volcanic gases determine location &
type of past
eruptions Rhyolitic lava @ Mount St Helens
 Lava Types
• Pahoehoe
• Twisted rope (cooled
crust)
• Fluid flow, quick, thin
Basaltic

• A’a (ah-ah)
• Rubbly with molten core
• Rolling motion, slower,
thick
• Blocky
• Larger block than Aa,
thick, stiff, short flow
• Andesitic & rhyolitic
• Pillow – forms
underwater Blocky lava flow at
Paracutin, Mexico ▶
Toes of pahoehoe,
subaerial lava flow
Subaqueous Pillow lava exposed at Wadi
al Jizzi, northern Oman

Lava from bottom of

the Tethys Ocean
 (b) Pillow lava
• Subaqueous (under
water) → quick
cooling & contraction
of crust
• Produce joints
perpendicular to
cooling front – radial
jointing
• Voids among lobes

(a) Pahoehoe lava

• Subaerial (under air)
→ slow cooling
• Produces concentric
vesicles
• No void between
lobes
 Fire Broken piece
• Rock fragments of volcanic origin; pyroclast
• Tephra: unconsolidated deposits of pyroclasts
Pyroclastic
(>75%), classified by grain size
• Expelled by exsolved gases (c.f. earlier slide)
Materials
Tephra Size (mm)
• Deposit through ash fall or violent (1000C, Ash <2
700 kph) density-driven pyroclastic flow
• High-temperature gas-and-pyroclast mix Lapilli 2 – 64
• Ignimbrite: pyroclastic flow deposits – a special Bomb
type of tuff (rounded)
> 64
• e.g. Mount Vesuvius 79 AD eruption – 2 meters Block
of ash & pumice at Pompeii before flow swept (angular)
the town
• Quick deposition of hot pyroclastic
materials can weld debris into solid rock –
welded tuff
• e.g. High Island formation – fine ash tuff within
caldera
• Ash deposits combine with runoff – Lahar
(volcanic mudflow) ▲ Ash particle from 1980 St.
Helens eruption. Showing
angular & vesicular structure
 Krakatoa 26/8/1883
Ash plume

Missing part
of island

Map 1885
Coral

Before eruption
26 Nov 1883 - Sky in London

• The Scream,
Edward Munch
1893
Pyroclast
>64 mm
• Bomb – partially-
melt when ejected
• Block – broken piece
of the volcano
Pyroclastic Flow

◀ Reconstruction of Mount
Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD
through historical records &
tephra stratigraphy at Villa
Regina, Boscoreale (Sigurdsson
et al., 1985)
Studying stratigraphy of
pyroclastic debris to
reconstruct past
eruption events –
Tephrachronology
Cross-section @ Cava Montone, 5 km from Vesuvius crater

Dark lava flow

(1872)

Brown
surge layer

Ignimbrite
Pyroclastic
flow layer

Poorly sorted
Surge layer
Brown soil
Skeletons from 79 AD eruption in
beachside boathouses of Herculaneum

The structure protected victims

from instant death, many of
them were killed by lack of
oxygen in the first pyroclastic
flow, before high temperatures
of 260C burnt their corpses
Eutaxitic
(banded)

Fiamme: a lens-
shaped fragment of
ejected pumice in
viscous state; Being
welded & compacted
Ignimbrite during its deposition
Classification of
pyroclastic materials
based on proportional
abundance of pyroclasts
of different sizes

▲ Tuff breccia, Ap Lei Chau

Formation. Showing pyroclastic flow
bands (eutaxitic) - ignimbrite
Ternary plot
Welded ash tuff, High
Island Formation ▼
Ap Lei Chau “The Fury”
Note the ignimbrite (a tuff
breccia) on the wave cut
platform
Volcanic
Gases
• Originally dissolved
in magma
• At Earth’s surface, ↓
confining pressure,
↓ gas solubility in
magma
→ exsolution • Local air pollution; Acid rain in
• CO2, H2S, SO2, water short term
vapour, aerosols • Sulfate aerosol → Net cooling
effect in medium term
 15th June 2001 Mount Pinatubo
Eruption
• Increase optical
depth by 10x – 100x
• ↓ insolation
• Drop in the average
global temperature
of ~0.6C for the
following 15
months
• Time scale: months
– years
 Extreme High
magnitude event can
lead to long-term
warming @ millennial
time scale

Descriptor Time frame

Annual 1 – 9 years
Decadal 10 – 99 years
Centennial 100 – 999 years
Millennial 1000 – 9999 years

Volcanic eruptions of
different sizes and
durations have
different effects on
Earth’s atmosphere
(Black & Manga, 2017)
Eruption Sizes & Styles
• Classified based on
explosivity
• Volcanic Eruption Index
(VEI) by volume of
pyroclastic material
ejected (ejecta)
• Descriptive eruption
styles
• Icelandic, Hawaiian,
Strombolian, Vulcanian,
Pelean, Plinian (Ultra-
Plinian)
Effusive Explosive
• Icelandic – basaltic lava; • Strombolian – basaltic/
from fissure, forms intermediate lava;
volcanic plateaus intermittent explosive gas
• Hawaiian – basaltic lava; blasting blocks of lava on
lava fountains, scoria, no edifice
ash plume • Vulcanian – intermediate
lava; intermittent, low-mid
level plume
Cumbre Vieja –
Strombolian; • Pelean – intermediate
lava fountain lava; pyroclastic flow down
the slopes
• Plinian – felsic; high ash
column into stratosphere
 VEI & Eruption types Hickson et al., 2013

Ejecta vol.
VEI Eruption Type Frequency Plume height Example
(km3)
0 <10-4 Hawaiian Constant <100 m Mauna Loa
Hawaiian /
1 >10-4 Daily 100 m – 1 km Stromboli
Strombolian
Strombolian /
2 >10-3 Weekly 1 – 5 km Fagradalsfjall 2021
Vulcanian
Vulcanian / Eyjafjallajökull 2010
3 >10-2 Yearly 3 – 15 km
Pelean Cumbre Vieja 2021
Pelean /
4 >0.1 >10y 10 – 25 km Pelee 1902
Plinian
Vesuvius 79 AD
5 >1 Plinian >50y
St Helens 1980
Plinian / Ultra- Krakatoa 1883
6 >10 >100y 25 km+
Plinian Pinatubo 1991
(stratosphere)
Lake Tōya
7 >102 >1000y
Ultra-Plinian Mount Aso
8 >103 >10,000y Yellowstone 0.6 Ma
 ~ High Island
570 km3

If these are not enough, Siberian flood basalt event produced 3 million km3 in 250 Ma.
At some locations, the strata is 3 km thick. Led to Permian-Triassic extinction event.
Volcanic Landscapes
• Felsic volcanism – convergent margins
• Stratovolcanoes, caldera, resurgent domes
• Basaltic volcanism – hot spots, extensional margins
• Basaltic volcanoes, cinder cones, shield volcanoes,
colonnades, basalt flood lava plateaus
• Erosion of volcanic landforms – dyke, sills,
topographic inversion
• Deposition of tephra – agriculture resources
• Eruption as a form of disturbance to climax
vegetation, biological succession follows
Types of Volcanoes

Tectonic Typical width @

Type Edifice
setting base & shape
<1 km Fragments of vesicular
Cinder cone *1 All
Slope >20 mafic rock (scoria)
Subduction 1 – 10 km Alternating layers of lava
Stratovolcano *2
zone Slope 10 - 30 flows & tephra
10 – 100 km
Shield volcano *2 Hot spot Largely basaltic lava flows
Slope 2 – 10
*1 Usually formed by a single eruptive phase lasted weeks to months – monogenetic
*2 Formed by multiple eruptions over time - polygenetic
 • Symmetrical conical hill w/ deep crater
• Composed of loose pyroclasts – scoria / cinder
Cinder cone • Steep slope maintained at angle of repose for
granular material – (c.f. mass movement lecture)

Caldera rim

Komezuka (rice mound) in

the Aso Caldera, Japan.
380 m wide; 80 m tall ▼

阿蘇火山米塚
スコリア丘 (scoria hill)
• Stratovolcano – Mount Fuji
• The most famous volcano on Earth
• UNESCO World Heritage site – 2013
• SE Scar: December 16, 1707 eruption of Hoeizan
 ~300,000 visitors ascent to the
Scoria
summit every year
 Mount St. Helens,
Washington
18th May, 1980 08:32

• M5.1 earthquake
triggering one of the
largest landslides in
recorded history - the
entire north slope of the
volcano slid away – flank
collapse
Explosions and eruptions of steam,
ash and rock debris expelled a
shockwave. This supersonic
pressure wave rolled over 43 km
and flattened forests.
Erupting ash column shot up 80,000 feet
into the atmosphere for over 10 hour
Heat melted glaciers
and set of destructive
mudflows known as
lahars
Caldera
• A cauldron-like depression
>>1 km in diameter
• Monogentic
• Less circular than craters
• But can be circular
Caldera lake
• Formed by inward collapse
at depth
• In contrast, craters are
formed by outward
explosion
Crater Lake, Oregon; Diameter: 8 km
Wizard island on the lake is a younger volcano
 Post-caldera eruption

Resurgent
Dome
• Structural uplift, Structural resurgence

swelling of caldera
floor
• Due to activities of Subsidence & forming
magma chamber of caldera Post-resurgence eruption

beneath
• Not to be confused
with eruption (lava)
dome, which is
extrusive

The caldera of Lake

Toba, with a resurgent
dome (Samosir Island) ▶
 Krenitsyn
Stratovolcano forming within a
caldera of 7 km diameter

Nemo
Caldera diameter 10 km

Onekotan Island,
Kuril Islands (NE of Hokkaido)
Most-scenic volcano on Earth
Vulcan Point -
An Island in a
lake on an
island in a lake Caldera 18 km wide
on an Island
(third-order
island) Luzon Island
Vulcan Point

Lake Taal

Lake Taal
Kilauea caldera, Hawaii
Hawaii Volcano
Observatory

Halema’uma’u
Active crater

Keanakako’i Crater
 Aso Caldera, Kyushu

18 km

25 km
• Active & the
largest in Japan
• Intersection of two
volcanic zones
• Mt Aso-Nakadake
last erupted Oct
2021
Aso-4 eruption
• Caldera formed by
four eruptions
• 270 – 90 ka
• Tephra from last
eruption (Aso-4; 90
ka) covered entire
Japan
• Estimated vol.: 590 –
920 km3 – VEI7

Aso-4 tephra fall distributions ▶

(Takarada & Hoshizumi, 2020)
Mesozoic Volcanism in HK
• Tsuen Wan
160 – 165 Ma
• Lantau 146 –
148 Ma
• Repulse Bay
142 – 143 Ma
• High Island
140 Ma
• Global
Geopark
geosite: East
Dam, High
Island
 Basaltic
colonnade
Entablature
Typical cross section of flood basalt flow

Colonnade

• Resemblance of this columnar

structure is why Basalt Island
got its English name
 Entablature

Colonnade

Hallgrimskirkja
Church,
Iceland, @simona_br_photography Reykjavík
Giant’s Causeway, Ireland
• Cooling &
contraction
• Joints develop
perpendicular
to cooling front
Welded
Tuff
 High
Island
Port
Shelter
Sai Kung

Wu Kai Sha

Tolo Harbour

Shatin
1979 CUHK
 18 km
570 km3 of magma erupted – VEI7
Sewell et al. (2012)
 Sewell, R.J., D.L.K. Tang, and S.D.G. Campbell
(2012). Volcanic‐plutonic connections in a
tilted nested caldera complex in Hong Kong.
Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 13, Q01006.

 Shortly after High

Island tuff eruption

Subsequent crustal tilting

by ∼30 degrees 

 Uplift and erosion to reveal

present‐day section
 • “Long mountain” 4170 m above sea level; 9144
Mauna m from the sea bottom (Everest: 8849 masl)
Loa, • The largest active volcano on Earth
• 51% of Hawai’i Island (Large Hawaii Island)
Hawaii • Other volcanoes: Kilauea, Mauna Kea, Kohala,
Hualalai
 Shield
Volcano Mauna Kea

Hualalai
• Hawai’i, the youngest
member of the
Hawaii island chain
• Volcano undersea –
seamount
• e.g. Lōʻihi
 After 4000 years of eruption, the
seamount is 1 km tall & consists of Life cycle of a
pillow lava. Due to isostatic
subsidence, the volume of basalt is
submarine volcano
greater than its height suggests.

Pillow basalt
SL

5 km
4 ka
 The volcano reaches the sea level after 1 Ma of
eruption. Most volcanoes in the Pacific drift away
from their source plume before they emerge from
the sea. Subaerial extrusion of pahoehoe & aa lava
crates new layers, replacing pillow basalts.

Pahoehoe & aa

Pillow basalt
SL

5 km
1 Ma
0.4 Ma
4 ka
 Wave action & water erosion counteracts
volcano construction. Wave cut platforms, sea
cliff and slump block (mass movement)
develop. Most volcanic island in the Pacific is
less than 5 Ma in age.
Submit crater
Pahoehoe & aa
Sea cliff

Wave cut platform Pillow basalt

Slump block
SL

5 km
1 Ma
0.4 Ma
4 ka
 As the island move beyond the hotspot,
dynamic support ends. Erosion &
subsidence remove island from the sea
surface. Under a warm climate, coral
reef will take over and build an
undersea topography. An atoll will be
formed as a flat-topped limestone cap
rock to the volcanic edifice.

Coral reef
Pahoehoe & aa
Reef debris
SL

Pillow basalt
5 km
 One plume feeding three
magmatic centers:
Mauna Loa, Kilauea &
Loihi

• Magma source is immobile magma

& deep seated – hot spot • Motion of lithosphere
• Lithospheric plate is generates the volcanic chain
perforated by ascending
Age vs distance from Hawaii along the Hawaii-
Emperor chain
70
y = 0.0121x
60 R² = 0.9882

50
Age [Ma]

40

30
𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 = 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 ÷time
20 Kilauea 𝑆𝑙𝑜𝑝𝑒 = ∆𝑦 ÷ ∆𝑥
1
= 77.3 mm/a
0.121
10

0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Distance [km]
Hot spot under continental plate –
16 Ma movement of Yellowstone-Snake River volcanic system

Today,
Yellowstone is
17 – 14 Ma directly above
the hot spot
Grand Prismatic Spring
Old Faithful
Geyser
 Plume Head –
flood basalt

Tail

Outer Core
Hot Spot Tracks
• Hot spot (big red dots)
anchored deep in mantle –
fixed
• Tracks – extinct volcanoes
• Reconstructed basing on
relative plate motion & sea-
floor-spreading history
• New sea floor can separate
the tracks (dotted lines)
Motion of the Pacific Plate over three
fixed mantle plumes has produced
three parallel island chains
1. Hawaiian Islands & Emperor
Seamounts
2. Tuamotu & Line islands
3. Austral, Gilbert & Marshall
islands

Evidence of fixity of hot spots

Vink, Morgan & Vogt (1985)

Hawaiian hot spot track

Suiko – 64.7 Ma

Shatsky Rise – Hess Rise – 100 Ma

145 Ma

Koko – 48.1 Ma Necker – 10.3 Ma

Midway – 27.7 Ma

Plate motion Hawaii – 0 Ma

Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) of
the world (Self et al., 2015)
LIPs & hot spot tracks that
connect traps to known hot spots
?

Source:
Sen, 2014
Antipodal relationship of the Wilkes Land
impact and the Siberian Traps in Late Permian
Period (von Frese et al., 2009)

Antipodes (對蹠點)
Five mass extinction events in geological history

Believed to be caused by Siberian

flood basalt event 250 Ma
Columbia River Basalt Group
Mount Emei

Deccan Traps, India

Flood basalts
• Largest volcanic events
in terms of volume
• Low volatiles, viscosity
• Cover large areas w/
thick layers of lava
• Indicating LIPs were
not produced by a
single eruption event
Palouse Falls State Park (Vye-Brown et al., 2013)

Flood Basalt
Landform
• Continental flood
basalt provinces
• Aka Trap(s)
• Dutch “trappa” =
stairs, steps
• Stepped
topography of
most flood basalt
lava sequences
showing individual
flow units
• Erosional landform
low
▲ St. George Airport Utah on a lava flow

1. Lava filled river valley

2. Differential weathering
& erosion took place;
basalt / andesite being
more resistant than
strata below
3. Valley eroded, mesa
standout as inverted
high
topography
 We will examine
weathering & erosion,
exogenic processes, in
later lectures

Shiprock,
New Mexico
Is a volcanic plug that is more
resistant than surrounding rocks
◀ Saint Michel
d'Aiguilhe, France

Columnar joints in
rhyolite @Mount
Beerwah ▶

Glass House Mountains,

Queensland ▼
Mount Beerwah
556 m
Volcanic Soils
• Rapid (decadal) restoration of vegetation occurs on
volcanic ash deposits
• Accumulate a large amount of organic carbon and
nitrogen as important components of soil organic
matter
• Sequestration of atmospheric CO2
• Periodic additions of volcanic ash improve soil physical
and chemical properties
• Hold a large amount of plant-available water;
mitigate flood runoff
• High value
horticulture
in Japan
Vineyard in a volcanic crater on Lanzarote, Canary Island
Farmers hollow out pits in black volcanic ash to access richer and wetter soil below
Geosystem
services
• Goods &
functions
associated
with
geodiversity

Gray, 2011