Marine tephra in the Japan Sea sediments as a tool for paleoceanography and paleoclimatology

Abstract

Tephra is a product of large and explosive volcanic events and can travel thousands of kilometers before deposition. Consequently, tephra deposits are common in terrestrial, lacustrine, marine, and glacial environments. Because tephra deposition is a geologically synchronous event, tephras constitute important isochrones in the Quaternary sequence, not only in Japan but also throughout the northwest Pacific and its marginal seas. As a result, establishing the chronostratigraphic order of tephra deposits is an effective tool for assessing local and regional stratigraphies and for correlating events among sites. For example, tephrostratigraphy can provide precise chronological constraints for other stratigraphic data, such as magneto-and biostratigraphic data. Spatiotemporal variability in the occurrence and geochemistry of tephras can also be used to trace the magmatic evolution of island arcs and their relationships to regional tectonics. In a paleoclimatic context, tephra deposits allow the correlation of past climate events among terrestrial, lacustrine, and marine environments. Tephrochronology is also a fundamental element used in reconstructing the marine reservoir effect, where the ages of tephra in marine and terrestrial settings are compared. Therefore, tephra is a valuable tool not only in stratigraphy, chronology, and volcanology but also in paleoceanography and paleoclimatology.

Tephrostratigraphy and Provenance From IODP Expedition 352, Izu‐Bonin Arc: Tracing Tephra Sources and Volumes From the Oligocene to Recent

“…The former has an IBM arc/backarc origin and the latter a Japan origin. This interpretation was achieved by comparing a series of ratios (e.g., Schindlbeck et al, 2018), namely SiO 2 /CaO, La/Sm, Zr/Nb, Th/Yb, Ta/Yb, Rb/Hf, Ba/La, U/La, Ba/Th, and K 2 O (Figure 7) with equivalent ratios available for IBM volcanic matter in the literature (e.g., Amma-Miyasaka & Nakagawa, 1998;Arculus & Bloomfield, 1992;Bryant et al, 2003;Fiske et al, 2001;Fujioka et al, 1992;Gill et al, 1994Gill et al, , 1992Hamada & Fujii, 2007;Hochstaedter et al, 2001;Ishizuka et al, 2007Ishizuka et al, , 2006Nakano & Yamamoto, 1987;Rodolfo et al, 1992;Shukuno et al, 2006;Straub, 2003Straub, , 2017Straub et al, 2009Straub et al, , 2010Tamura et al, 2005Tamura et al, , 2007Tamura et al, , 2009Tani et al, 2008;Taylor & Nesbitt, 1998;Togashi & Terashima, 1997;Tollstrup et al, 2010;Yuasa, 1995) and also Japanese volcanic rocks (e.g., Hirose et al, 2014;Ikehara, 2015;Kimura et al, 2010Kimura et al, , 2015Machida, 1999Machida, , 2002Moriwaki et al, 2008;Nagahashi & Kataoka, 2014;Nagahashi et al, 2003Nagahashi et al, , 2004Nakano & Yamamoto, ...…”

“…Correlations of major element compositions are shown in Figures 8c-8f. Where possible, we complement the data with additional average compositions from the literature (e.g., (Ikehara, 2015;Machida, 1999Machida, , 2002Moriwaki et al, 2008;Nagahashi et al, 2003;Satoguchi & Nagahashi, 2012). Twelve correlations (tephra layers CIB 1-5, 7-8, 10-11, 13, 16, and 18) can be established between the marine ash layers and the specific Japanese eruptions, ranging in age from 0.119 to 3.5 Ma (Figures 8c-8f; Table 1).…”

Ash From the Changbaishan Qixiangzhan Eruption: A New Early Holocene Marker Horizon Across East Asia

“…Ash clouds from Changbaishan eruptions were predominantly transported to the east of this volcano, such as the eastern tephra dispersal of the ME and several visible tephra layers recorded in the Japan Sea, while only the cryptotephra from ME was identified in Lake Sihailongwan to the west of Changbaishan (Figure 1; Ikehara, 2015;Sun et al, 2015). Ash from the Changbaishan ME has been identified in sediments from Northeast China to the Japan Sea, Japan Island, and even Greenland ice cores and thus forms an important north hemispheric marker horizon (Chen et al, 2016;Hughes et al, 2013;Machida & Arai, 1983;McLean et al, 2016;Sun et al, 2015;Sun, Plunkett, et al, 2014).…”

Preface for the article collection “Land–Ocean Linkages under the Influence of the Asian Monsoon”

“…Basic data on the chemical composition and stratigraphic position of volcanic ash layers (tephras) surrounding Japan are relatively abundant. Ikehara (2015) presents a tephrochronology for Japan and surrounding seas and demonstrates its utility from various aspects. The data presented provide an important approach that can be used to refine the existing regional chronostratigraphy and will serve as a new tool for various aspects of paleoclimatic and paleoceanographical research.…”

“…Twelve oral and four poster presentations were given at the special JpGU session, and the papers presented in this issue include three research articles and six reviews based on presentations from that session. These nine papers cover the evolution and variability of the Asian monsoon , the evolution of surface water and deep-water circulation in East Asian marginal seas (Gallagher et al 2015;Kim et al 2015;Itaki 2016), the impact of the East Asian summer monsoon on the composition of sediment discharged from the Yangtze River, surface water salinity in the East China Sea, flood records and typhoon tracks in southern Japan (He et al 2015;Horikawa et al 2015;Suzuki et al 2016), and volcanic ash as a useful tool for land-ocean correlation and as a significant source of sedimentary material in the northwest Pacific Ocean (Ikehara 2015;Scudder et al 2016).…”