Origin of Compositional Diversity of Marine Tephra during the Late Middle Pleistocene B-KY1 Baekdusan Volcanic Eruption

Abstract

The focus of this study was the Baekdusan-Kita 1 (B-KY1) eruption during the late Middle Pleistocene. We identified B-KY1 tephra between the Toya and Aso-1 tephras in the ODP 794A core from the Japan Basin of the East Sea/Japan Sea. The stratigraphic position of the B-KY1 tephra correlated exactly with the first B-KY1 to be identified, in the 20EEZ-1 core from the Kita–Yamato Trough. However, B-KY1 tephra in the ODP 794A core showed a wide range of geochemical compositions. The textural characteristics of B-KY1 tephra in the ODP 794A core was characterized by higher content of fine-grained bubble-wall shards than that of the B-KY1 tephra in the 20EEZ-1 core. The difference in B-KY1 tephra between the two coring sites may reflect shifts in wind direction during volcanic eruptions. We refined the eruption age of the B-KY1 tephra by examining distinct sedimentary facies related to the start of the penultimate deglaciation of this region at ca. 135 ka. The findings of this study suggest that the compositional diversity of B-KY1 tephra may have been influenced by subsequent mixing of comendite and comenditic trachyte magma with injected pantelleritic magma during the late Middle Pleistocene Baekdusan volcanic eruption.