Eruption of 1-million-year-old tholeiitic basalt >1800 meters below sea level (>18 megapascals) in a backarc rift behind the Bonin arc produced a scoriaceous breccia similar in some respects to that formed during subaerial eruptions. Explosion of the magma is thought to have produced frothy agglutinate which welded either on the sea floor or in a submarine eruption column. The resulting 135-meter-thick pyroclastic deposit has paleomagnetic inclinations that are random at a scale of <2.5 meters. High magmatic water content, which is about 1.3 percent by weight after vesiculation, contributed to the explosivity.

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A paleomagnetic study was made on the deep-marine sediments and volcanic rocks drilled by Ocean Drilling Program Leg 126 in the Izu-Bonin forearc region (Sites 787, 792, and 793). This study evaluates the sense and amount of the tectonic drift and rotation associated with the evolution of the Philippine Sea Plate and the Izu-Bonin Arc. Alternating-field and thermal demagnetization experiments show that most of the samples have stable remanence and are suitable for paleomagnetic studies. Paleomagnetic declinations were recovered by two methods of core orientation, one of which uses a secondary viscous magnetization vector of each specimen as an orientation standard, and the other of which is based on the data of downhole microresistivity measurement obtained by using a formation microscanner. Oligocene to early Miocene samples show 10° to 14°s hallower paleolatitudes than those of the present. Middle Miocene to early Oligocene samples show progressive clockwise deflections (up to ~80°) in declination with time. These results suggest large northward drift and clockwise rotation of the Izu-Bonin forearc region since early Oligocene time. Considering previous paleomagnetic results from the other regions in the Philippine Sea, this motion may reflect large clockwise rotation of the whole Philippine Sea Plate over the past 40 m.y.

A synthesis of available geological, petrological, and geophysical data was made to construct a model for explaining the relationships between the late Quaternary volcanism (the Higashi-Izu monogenetic volcano group, HIMVG) and tectonics in and around the Izu Peninsula, Japan. The Izu Peninsula and adjacent areas can be divided into three tectonic blocks: the western Izu (W-Izu), eastern Izu (E-Izu), and Oshima-Zenisu blocks. The vents or intrusions of the HIMVG are formed as open cracks aligning with the nearly NW-SE azimuth of horizontal maximum compression of regional stress in the E-Izu block. This stress field is mainly controlled by the NW-SE compression caused by the strong mechanical coupling of the buoyant Izu-Bonin arc with the Japan arc. In spite of this compression, the upper crust of the E-Izu block is under weak lateral constraint on northeastward extension. Both the plate geometry involving an intra-plate fracture, the West Sagami Bay Fracture, and the existence of block rotations in the northern E-Izu block probably enable the northeastward upper crust extension in the E-Izu block, and make a monogenetic volcano field, where a new dike is formed in the upper crust at each eruptive or intrusive event.

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