A “Fossil hydrothermal system” that appears now on the surface by erosion gives useful information about the underground hydrothermal fluid flow around the volcanoes. Near the boundary between the Saga and Nagasaki prefectures, late Pliocene volcanism composed of rhyolite, dacite, andesite and basalt occurred extensively, and they are accompanied with hydrothermal alteration. The Arita-Ureshino hydrothermally altered area is distributed concordantly around faults with a direction of NW-SE to NNW-SSE.
Volcanism in this area started at about 2.7Ma as basalt at Koshidake, and rhyolite erupted about 2.7 to 2.4Ma in the Arita district. Afterwards Kokuzo andesite, Imari andesite and Kobodake andesite erupted almost simultaneously during 2.4 to 2.2Ma, and finally Hasami rhyolite(2.2Ma), Kawatana-Sasebo rhyolite(2.1 to 2.0Ma) and Ureshino ryholite(1.9Ma) erupted. It is considered that the Pliocene volcanism continued without long intervals and was caused by magmatism related to each other based on the K/Ar ages and continuous bulk composition of the volcanic rocks. Hydrothermal alteration moved from the Arita and Kinzandake districts(about 2.2Ma) to the northern Kurokamiyama and Ryumon and southern Furukoba districts (2.0 to 1.8Ma) based on K/Ar ages of sericite. This possibly shows that heat sources of the hydrothermal systems were different between northern and southern parts of. the Arita-Kinzandake district.
The oxygen isotope ratio of sericite in the hydrothermally altered rocks show a minimum of 2.7‰ for Kodaru in the Hasami district and a maximum of 9.5‰ for Izumiyama in the Arita district. It is thought the lower oxygen isotope values for the Hasami district indicate a higher temperature and more active hydrothermal activity than other districts including Arita. This is concordant with the distribution of temperatures estimated by fluid inclusions in quartz veins in this area.
A low gravity area around Omura Bay is interpreted to be caused by a half-graben structure accompanied with deep fractures. A hydrothermal solution rose at the eastern margin of the graben in the NNW-SSE direction, which caused an active hydrothermal system in the Arita to Ureshino area. The gravity anomaly suggests a similar structure with deep fractures in Takeo area. The deep fractures associated with the graben structure are assumed to control the formation and distribution of not only the Pliocene fossil hydrothermal system but also the present hydrothermal system, Ureshino and Takeo hot springs. In north Kyushu during the Tertiary, a graben structure accompanied with many NW-SE to NNW-SSE normal faults formed the sedimentary basins. Therefore, in the southwest back-arc side, it is considered that some old deep fracture structures in north Kyushu provided the place for the development of a Pliocene magma-hydrothermal system.
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