Deep-sea volcaniclastic sedimentation around the southern flank of Hawaii

Abstract

Most slopes of the Hilina slump are steep, but local small benches, mantled by volcaniclastic sand and fine sediments, were sampled in 1998-1999 with ROV KAIKO and DSRV SHINKAI 6500. Most surficial glass sands on the Hilina slump have compositions of subaerially erupted Kilauea lava, which fragmented and quenched as they entered the sea. Samples from the base of the Puna Ridge contain both subaerially and submarine-erupted fragments of Kilauea composition. Some glass sands from the base of Loihi contain both subaerial Kilauea and submarine Loihi compositions in the same bed. Two piston cores, collected 120 km (P6) and 250 km (P5) southeast of Hawaii, are composed of fine sediments interbedded with volcaniclastic turbidite layers. Although some volcaniclastic fragments in the fine sediments intervals are disturbed by bioturbation, nearly continuous volcanostratigraphic sequences are preserved. P6 and the upper 2.3 m of P5 are normally magnetized: the lower part of P5 is reversed and is therefore older than 0.78 Ma. At depths of 4 m below sea floor (mbsf) in P6 and 1 mbsf in P5, the dominant glass compositions change down core from Kilauea to Mauna Loa type. In the P6, an interval of abundant submarine-erupted alkalic glasses lies between 3.3 and 1.75 mbsf and may record the ancestral alkalic phase of Kilauea volcano. Magnetic susceptibility trends and glass compositions suggest that the entire P6 core correlates with only the uppermost 1.2 m of the P5, and that the average sedimentation rate at the P6 is about 5 times greater than that at P5.