Late Pleistocene-Holocene volcanic activity in northern Victoria Land recorded in Ross Sea (Antarctica) marine sediments

• Published in: Bulletin of Volcanology
• Main Authors: Del Carlo, P, Di Roberto, A., Di Vincenzo, G., Bertagnini, A., Landi, P., Pompilio, M., Giordano, G., COLIZZA, ESTER
• Other Authors: Colizza, Ester
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: 40 Ar- 39 Ar dating; Antarctica; Gravity core; Marine tephra; Melbourne volcanic province; Geochemistry and Petrology; Antarctic; Ross Sea; Victoria Land; Frontier Mountain; Mount Melbourne; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11368/2857700; https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-015-0924-0; http://link.springer.com/journal/445

Eight pyroclastic fall deposits have been identified in cores of Late Pleistocene-Holocene marine sediments from the Ross Sea (Antarctica), and their components, granulometry and clast morphologies were analysed. Sedimentological, petrographic and geochemical analysis of clasts, with 40Ar-39Ar dating of alkali feldspar grains, indicate that during this period at least five explosive eruptions of mid to high intensity (plinian to subplinian) occurred, and that three of these eruptions took place from Mount Melbourne volcanic complex, between 137.1 ± 3.4 and 12 ka. Geochemical comparison of the studied tephra with micro and crypto-tephra recovered from deep Antarctic ice cores and from nearby englacial tephra at Frontier Mountain indicates that eruptive activity in the Melbourne Volcanic Province of northern Victoria Land was intense during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene, but only a general area of provenance for the majority of the identified tephra can be identified.