Edgecumbe Mid-Holocene Rhyolitic Tephra

Start: 5760 yBP [1]

Event Type: Explosive

Event Characteristics:
  • Pyroclastic flow, surge, or nuee ardente [3]

Description: From Riehle and others (1992): "One or, locally, two thin layers of rhyolitic ash (3R287; Table 2 [in original text]) occur in soil above the latest Pleistocene fallout deposits on Kruzof Island and at Sitka. A 1-2 mm bed of very fine ash in sediment cored in a lake (not shown here) 45 km north of the MEF confirms a fall- out origin of the deposits. Deposits are coarsest (lapilli to 2 cm) and thickest (maximum of 5 cm) at Crater Ridge and southwest of Mount Edgecumbe (site 37, Fig. 1 [in original text]), implying two sources. Coarse deposits contain clasts of altered greywacke and subround pumiceous lapilli, suggesting eruption of a subsurface rhyolitic dome at a contact with greywacke."
"Riehle and Brew (1984) report overlying and underlying peat ages for these Holocene deposits of 4,030+/-90 and 4,310+/-140 yr B.P. (Beta 6004, 6005) at one site on Kruzof Island, and a single age of 5,760+/-70 yr B.P. (Beta 6003 ) from another site. The ages imply one eruption about 4.2 ka and another about 5.8 ka. The presence of only one deposit at some sites may be due to mixing of two layers by bioturbation and to limited overlap of fall- out from each ash plume. The ash bed in the sediment core is midway between the main fallout deposits and the sediment-water inter- face, consistent with a middle Holocene age."

References Cited

[1] Explosive latest Pleistocene(?) and Holocene activity of the Mount Edgecumbe volcanic field, Alaska, 1984

Riehle, J. R., and Brew, D. A., 1984, Explosive latest Pleistocene(?) and Holocene activity of the Mount Edgecumbe volcanic field, Alaska: in Reed, K. M. and Bartsch-Winkler, Susan, (eds.), The United States Geological Survey in Alaska: accomplishments during 1982, U.S. Geological Survey Circular C 0939, p. 111-115.
Full-text PDF 451 KB

[2] Pyroclastic deposits of the Mount Edgecumbe volcanic field, Southeast Alaska: eruptions of a stratified magma chamber, 1992

Riehle, J. R., Champion, D. E., Brew, D. A., and Lanphere, M. A., 1992, Pyroclastic deposits of the Mount Edgecumbe volcanic field, Southeast Alaska: eruptions of a stratified magma chamber: Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, v. 53, n. 1, p. 117-144.

[3] The Mount Edgecumbe tephra deposits: a marker horizon in southeastern Alaska near the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, 1992

Riehle, J. R., Mann, D. H., Peteet, D. M., Engstrom, D. R., Brew, D. A., and Meyer, C. E., 1992, The Mount Edgecumbe tephra deposits: a marker horizon in southeastern Alaska near the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary: Quaternary Research, v. 37, n. 2, p. 183-202.

Complete Eruption References

Pyroclastic deposits of the Mount Edgecumbe volcanic field, Southeast Alaska: eruptions of a stratified magma chamber, 1992

Riehle, J. R., Champion, D. E., Brew, D. A., and Lanphere, M. A., 1992, Pyroclastic deposits of the Mount Edgecumbe volcanic field, Southeast Alaska: eruptions of a stratified magma chamber: Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, v. 53, n. 1, p. 117-144.

Explosive latest Pleistocene(?) and Holocene activity of the Mount Edgecumbe volcanic field, Alaska, 1984

Riehle, J. R., and Brew, D. A., 1984, Explosive latest Pleistocene(?) and Holocene activity of the Mount Edgecumbe volcanic field, Alaska: in Reed, K. M. and Bartsch-Winkler, Susan, (eds.), The United States Geological Survey in Alaska: accomplishments during 1982, U.S. Geological Survey Circular C 0939, p. 111-115.
Full-text PDF 451 KB
Hard Copy held by AVO at FBKS - CEC shelf

The Mount Edgecumbe tephra deposits: a marker horizon in southeastern Alaska near the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, 1992

Riehle, J. R., Mann, D. H., Peteet, D. M., Engstrom, D. R., Brew, D. A., and Meyer, C. E., 1992, The Mount Edgecumbe tephra deposits: a marker horizon in southeastern Alaska near the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary: Quaternary Research, v. 37, n. 2, p. 183-202.

Marine tephrochronology of the Mt. Edgecumbe Volcanic Field, Southeast Alaska, USA, 2010

Addison, J.A., Beget, J.E., Ager, T.A., and Finney, B.P., 2010, Marine tephrochronology of the Mt. Edgecumbe Volcanic Field, Southeast Alaska, USA: Quaternary Research, v. 73, n. 2, p. 277-292, doi: 10.1016/j.yqres.2009.10.007.