阿蘇火山の過去8万年の噴火史と1989年噴火

抄録

The eruptive history of Aso volcano for the past 80,000 years is revealed by tephrochronology and loess-chronometry. Around the Aso caldera is a thick accumulation of loess, which is intercalated with numerous Aso tephra layers of limited dispersal as well as three widespread tephra layers of known age that are good marker horizons ; the Akahoya ash (6.3 ka), the Aira-Tn ash (22 ka), and the Aso-4 ignimbrite (70 ka). Loess-chronometry is based on the assumption that, in the Aso region, the accumulation rate of loess has been constant as 12 cm/ky from 80 ka to the present. Most of tephra layers after the caldera-forming Aso-4 eruption are composed of volcanic sand or scoria lapilli of basaltic andesite composition. However the 27 ka Kusasenri dacite (SiO₂ = 67%) pumice is a conspicuous exception. The large volume of 5.85 km³ (bulk) and wide dispersal of this pumice suggests that it is a product of plinian eruption. From October 5 to the end of November 1989, the Nakadake crater of Aso volcano was in eruption. Ash was uninterruptedly emitted from a 500-1,000 m high eruption column coming out of the crater. The average discharge rate of ash was 5 × 10⁷ kg/day. The total mass of ash discharged during the two months reached 3 × 10⁹ kg. The penultimate eruption in recent history was June-August 1979, when 7.5 × 10⁹ kg of ash was discharged. Outside the Aso caldera, the thickness of the 1989 ash is less than 1 cm. It is almost impossible to detect an old ash layer of thickness about 1 cm in a loess cross section, suggesting that sedimentary records 10 km away from a volcano are insufficient to reconstruct past eruptions smaller than 10¹⁰ kg. Eruptions smaller than 10¹⁰ kg can be determined only from proximal deposits. The history of eruptions of Aso volcano over the last few thousand years is tentatively determined from cross sections 2-4 km west of the Nakadake crater. After a 580-1,250 year dormant period, Aso volcano became active about 1,780 years ago. From then, small eruptions each with 10⁹-10¹⁰ kg ash discharge have been repeated 48-88 times up to the present. The duration of each eruption was a few months, and the dormant interval between eruptions averaged 20-37 years.