Temporal and spatial variation of volcanism in Hakkoda-Towada caldera cluster and its possible causes

Abstract

Hakkoda-Towada caldera cluster (HTCC) is a typical Late Cenozoic caldera cluster located in the Northeast Japan arc. Our recent studies have revealed the detailed volcanic and magmatic history of HTCC. There was a long volcanic hiatus of several million years before the activity of HTCC. The HTCC volcanism started at 3.5 Ma in the back-arc side. Subsequently, the area of volcanism has migrated gradually toward the volcanic front side with time. Those variations are probably explained by the small-scale convection model of mantle wedge shown by Honda and Yoshida (2005).