A silicic pyroclastic-flow eruption and pyroclastic surges from the Kikai caldera volcano in the last interglacial stage.

The Kikai caldera volcano located under water in East China Sea is one of the most gigantic calderas in southern Kyushu.At the caldera, a violent eruption occurred from the submarine vent, at ca. 70-80 ka.The eruption is interpreted to have been phreatomagmatic throughout.Each eruptive phase of the eruption sequence generated its own characteristic deposits.The sequence of the events can be summarized as fallows ; (1) a small phreatomagmatic eruption, which generated the fine grained ash including accretionary lapilli, (2) the catastrophic pyroclastic-flow eruption, which formed a large-scale pyroclastic flow (the Nagase pyroclastic flow), two pyroclastic surges (Nishinoomote-1 member : Ns-1, Nishinoomote-3 member :Ns-3), and a wide-spread co-ignimbrite ash fall (Nishinoomote-2 member : Ns-2).The Nagase pyroclastic flow came down from the rim of the caldera, and entered the sea.Then, the flow body, which included a large amount of large pumice blocks and heavy lithic fragments, was disintegrated as gas-particle flow by violent phreatomagmatic explosions, or continued subaqueously as water-supported mass flow.Dilute and fine-particlerich pyroclastic surges, probably with a density much less than that of water, 1.0 g/cm3, generated off the top or head of subaerial Nagase pyroclastic flow.They could cross on the smooth surface of the sea, becoming water-cooled, vaporish and depleted in large clasts which dropped into the sea.Eventually, the cool and wet pyroclastic surges attacked the islands around the caldera, and deposited as Ns-1 and Ns-3.Ns-2 co-ignimbrite ash fall, composing of glass shards were generated from the upper convective part of the eruption column of the Nagase pyroclastic flow.Included accretionary lapilli indicate that the eruption column was very moisture because of much sea water flash-out subaerially for very violent explosions from the submarine vent.Ns-2 is probably correlated with the Kikai-Tozurahara ash which was found in central Japan more than 500 km off the source.