The extensive area covered by major submarine mass wasting deposits on or near the Hawaiian Ridge has been delimited by systematic mapping of the Hawaiian exclusive economic zone using the side‐looking sonar system GLORIA. These surveys show that slumps and debris avalanche deposits are exposed over about 100,000 km2 of the ridge and adjacent seafloor from Kauai to Hawaii, covering an area more than 5 times the land area of the islands. Some of the individual debris avalanches are more than 200 km long and about 5000 km3 in volume, ranking them among the largest on Earth. The slope failures that produce these deposits begin early in the history of individual volcanoes when they are small submarine seamounts, culminate near the end of subaerial shield building, and apparently continue long after dormancy. Consequently, landslide debris is an important element in the internal structure of the volcanoes. The dynamic behavior of the volcanoes can be modulated by slope failure, and the structural features of the landslides are related to elements of the volcanoes including rift zones and fault systems. The landslides are of two general types, slumps and debris avalanches. The slumps are slow moving, wide (up to 110 km), and thick (about 10 km) with transverse blocky ridges and steep toes. The debris avalanches are fast moving, long (up to 230 km) compared to width, and thinner (0.05–2 km); they commonly have a well‐defined amphitheater at their head and hummocky terrain in the lower part. Oceanic disturbance caused by rapid emplacement of debris avalanches may have produced high‐level wave deposits (such as the 365‐m elevation Hulopoe Gravel on Lanai) that are found on several islands. Most present‐day submarine canyons were originally carved subaerially in the upper parts of debris avalanches. Subaerial canyon cutting was apparently promoted by the recently steepened and stripped slopes of the landslide amphitheaters.

Diverse subsidence geometries and collapse processes for ash-flow calderas are inferred to reflect varying sizes, roof geometries, and depths of the source magma chambers, in combination with prior volcanic and regional tectonic influences. Based largely on a review of features at eroded pre-Quaternary calderas, a continuum of geometries and subsidence styles is inferred to exist, in both island-arc and continental settings, between small funnel calderas and larger plate (piston) subsidences bounded by arcuate faults. Within most ring-fault calderas, the subsided block is variably disrupted, due to differential movement during ash-flow eruptions and postcollapse magmatism, but highly chaotic piecemeal subsidence appears to be uncommon for large-diameter calderas. Small-scale downsag structures and accompanying extensional fractures develop along margins of most calderas during early stages of subsidence, but downsag is dominant only at calderas that have not subsided deeply. Calderas that are loci for multicyclic ash-flow eruption and subsidence cycles have the most complex internal structures. Large calderas have flared inner topographic walls due to landsliding of unstable slopes, and the resulting slide debris can constitute large proportions of caldera fill. Because the slide debris is concentrated near caldera walls, models from geophysical data can suggest a funnel geometry, even for large plate-subsidence calderas bounded by ring faults. Simple geometric models indicate that many large calderas have subsided 3-5 km, greater than the depth of most naturally exposed sections of intracaldera deposits. Many ring-fault platesubsidence calderas and intrusive ring complexes have been recognized in the western U.S., Japan, and elsewhere, but no well-documented examples of exposed eroded calderas have large-scale funnel geometry or chaotically disrupted caldera floors. Reported ignimbrite "shields" in the central Andes, where large-volume ash-flows are inferred to have erupted without caldera collapse, seem alternatively interpretable as more conventional calderas that were filled to overflow by younger lavas and tuffs. Some exposed subcaldera intrusions provide insights concerning subsidence processes, but such intrusions may continue to evolve in volume, roof geometry, depth, and composition after formation of associated calderas.

Recent inference that Mesozoic Cordilleran plutons grew incrementally during >10 6 yr intervals, without the presence of voluminous eruptible magma at any stage, minimizes close associations with large ignimbrite calderas. Alternatively, Tertiary ignimbrites in the Rocky Mountains and elsewhere, with volumes of 1-5 × 10 3 km 3 , record multistage histories of magma accumulation, fractionation, and solidifi cation in upper parts of large subvolcanic plutons that were sufficiently liquid to erupt. Individual calderas, up to 75 km across with 2-5 km subsidence, are direct evidence for shallow magma bodies comparable to the largest granitic plutons. As exemplifi ed by the composite Southern Rocky Mountain volcanic fi eld (here summarized comprehensively for the fi rst time), which is comparable in areal extent, magma composition, eruptive volume, and duration to continental-margin volcanism of the central Andes, nested calderas that erupted compositionally diverse tuffs document deep composite subsidence and rapid evolution in subvolcanic magma bodies. Spacing of Tertiary calderas at distances of tens to hundreds of kilometers is comparable to Mesozoic Cordilleran pluton spacing. Downwind ash in eastern Cordilleran sediments records large-scale explosive volcanism concurrent with Mesozoic batholith growth. Mineral fabrics and gradients indicate unifi ed fl owage of many pluton interiors before complete solidifi cation, and some plutons contain ring dikes or other textural evidence for roof subsidence. Geophysical data show that low-density upper-crustal rocks, inferred to be plutons, are 10 km or more thick beneath many calderas. Most ignimbrites are more evolved than associated plutons; evidence that the subcaldera chambers retained voluminous residua from fractionation. Initial incre-mental pluton growth in the upper crust was likely recorded by modest eruptions from central volcanoes; preparation for calderascale ignimbrite eruption involved recurrent magma input and homogenization high in the chamber. Some eroded calderas expose shallow granites of similar age and composition to tuffs, recording sustained postcaldera magmatism.Plutons thus provide an integrated record of prolonged magmatic evolution, while volcanism offers snapshots of conditions at early stages. Growth of subvolcanic batholiths involved sustained multistage opensystem processes. These commonly involved ignimbrite eruptions at times of peak power input, but assembly and consolidation processes continued at diminishing rates long after peak volcanism. Some evidence cited for early incremental pluton assembly more likely records late events during or after volcanism. Contrasts between relatively primitive arc systems dominated by andesitic compositions and small upper-crustal plutons versus more silicic volcanic fi elds and associated batholiths probably refl ect intertwined contrasts in crustal thickness and magmatic power input. Lower power input would lead to a Cascade-or Aleutian-type arc system, where intermediate-composition magma erupts dire...

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Volcanic rocks in the San Juan Mountains constitute the largest erosional remnant of a once nearly continuous volcanic field that extended over much of the southern Rocky Mountains and adjacent areas in Oligocene and later time. Recent regional studies have shown that the gross petrologic evolution of the San Juan remnant of this field was relatively simple, beginning with intermediate-composition lavas and breccias, followed closely in time by more silicic ash-flow tuff, and ending with a bimodal association of basalt and alkali rhyolite.In the southeastern San Juan Mountains, voluminous early lavas and breccias of the Conejos Formation-mainly alkali andesite, rhyodacite, and mafic quartz latite-were erupted from numerous scattered central volcanoes onto an eroded tectonically stable terrane. These rocks were erupted mostly during the interval 35-30 m.y. (million years) ago, and they volumetrically represent about two-thirds of the volcanism.About 30 m.y. ago, major volcanic activity changed to explosive ashflow eruptions of quartz latite and low-silica rhyolite that persisted until about 26 m.y. ago. Source areas for the ash flows are marked by large calderas in the central San Juan Mountains. Among the earliest and most southeastern of these is the Platoro caldera complex, a composite collapse structure about 20 kilometers in diameter that formed as a result of ash-flow eruption of the 29-to 30-m.y.-old Treasure Mountain Tuff. Three major ash-flow sheets of the Treasure Mountain Tuff-the La Jara Canyon, Ojito Creek, and Ra Jadero Members in ascending order-are approximately coextensive and cover about 5,000 square kilometers in the southeastern San Juan Mountains. Major collapse of the Platoro caldera occurred during eruption of phenocrystrich quartz latitic ash flows that form the La Jara Canyon Member, and late ash flows of this member accumulated within the collapsing caldera to a thickness of more than 800 meters. The core of the collapsed block was resurgently uplifted to form an unbroken homoclinally tilted block, in contrast to the fractured domical uplifts that characterize other known resurgent calderas; and the marginal moat was filled by as much as 1 kilometer of lavas and interbedded volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks of the lower member of the Summitville Andesite (name reinstated in this report).Renewed ash-flow eruption of the quartz latitic Ojito Creek and Ra Jadero Members resulted in further collapse to form the Summitville caldera within the northwest part of the Platoro caldera. No resurgence is associated with this late caldera, but it was also filled to overflowing by a thick accumulation of upper member lavas of the Summitville Andesite. 2PLATORO CALDERA COMPLEX, SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS, COLORADO caldera comple~, as well as similar ash-flow assemblages elsewhere in the San Juan field, contrast with other continental-interior ash-flow associations which are predominantly rhyolitic in composition. Close spatial and temporal association of the quartz latitic ash-flow tuffs and the voluminous andes...

Large‐volume ash flow eruptions and associated caldera collapses provide a direct link with subvolcanic granitic plutons of batholithic dimensions. The eruptive history, structural features, and petrologic evolution of ash flow calderas provide data on early stages of the evolution of an associated subvolcanic magmatic system. Broadly cogenetic, erosionally unroofed granitic plutons provide a record mainly of the late stages of emplacement and crystallization of silicic magmas. This review summarizes features of well‐studied calderas and ash flow volcanic fields in western North America, exposed at advantageous levels where both remnants of a Volcanic sequence and upper parts of the cogenetic intrusion are preserved, in comparison with similar rocks elsewhere in the worjd. Primary examples include San Juan, Mogollon‐Datil, Marysvale, Latir‐Questa, Chiricahua‐Turkey Creek, Challis, and Boulder Batholith‐Elkhorn Mountains. Most ash flows have erupted from sites of preceding volcanism that records shallow accumulation of caldera‐related magma. Structural boundaries of calderas are single ring faults or composite ring fault zones that dip vertically to steeply inward; outward dipping boundary faults favored by some models have not been identified in North American calderas. The area and volume of caldera collapse are roughly proportional to the amount of erupted material. Pyroclastic eruptions of relatively small volume (less than 50–100 km3) may cause incomplete hinged caldera subsidences or structural sags; larger systems are bounded by complete ring faults. Few ash flow vent structures have been related to major calderas; vent geometry, as determined by size analyses of pyroclastic materials, may shift complexly during caldera collapse. Scalloped topographic walls beyond the structural boundaries of most calderas are due to secondary gravitational slumping during subsidence. Most exposed floors are a structurally coherent plate or cylinder bounded by a ring fault or dike, indicating pistonlike caldera collapse; chaotically brecciated floors predicted by models of piecemeal collapse have not been identified. Deviations from circular shape commonly reflect influence of regional structures; some calderas in extensional terranes are elongate in the direction of extension. Large calderas (greater than 100 km3 of erupted material) collapse concurrently with eruption, as indicated by thick intracaldera ash flow fill and interleaved collapse slide breccias. Volumes of intracaldera and outflow tuff tend to be subequal; correlation between them is commonly complicated by contrasts in abundance and size of phenocrysts and lithic fragments, degree of welding, devitrification, alteration, and even chemical composition of magmatie material. Postcollapse volcanism may occur from varied vent geometries within ash flow calderas; ring vent eruptions are most common in resurgent calderas, reflecting renewed magmatic pressure. Large intrusions related to resurgence are exposed centrally within some calderas; ring dikes and other intr...

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