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The 12.4 ka Upper Apoyeque Tephra, Nicaragua: stratigraphy, dispersal, composition, magma reservoir conditions and trigger of the plinian eruption

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Abstract

Upper Apoyeque Tephra (UAq) was formed by a rhyodacitic plinian eruption in west-central Nicaragua at 12.4 ka BP. The fallout tephra was dispersed from a progressively rising plinian eruption column that became exposed to different wind speeds and directions at different heights in the stratosphere, leading to an asymmetric tephra fan with different facies in the western and southern sector. Tephra dispersal data integrated with geochemical compositions of lava flows in the area facilitate delimitation of the source vent to the south of Chiltepe Peninsula. UAq, Lower Apoyeque Tephra, Apoyeque Ignimbrite, and two lava lithic clasts in San Isidro Tephra together form a differentiation trend distinct from that of the younger tephras and lavas at Chiltepe Volcanic Complex in a TiO2 versus K2O diagram, compositionally precluding a genetic relationship of UAq with the present-day Apoyeque stratovolcano. Apoyeque Volcano in its present shape did not exist at the time of the UAq eruption. The surface expression of the UAq vent is now obscured by younger eruption products and lake water. Pressure-temperature constraints based on mineral-melt equilibria and fluid inclusions in plagioclase indicate at least two magma storage levels. Clinopyroxenes crystallised in a deep crustal reservoir at ∼24 km depth as inferred from clinopyroxene-melt inclusion pairs. Chemical disequilibrium between clinopyroxenes and matrix glasses indicates rapid magma ascent to the shallower reservoir at ∼5.4 km depth, where magnesiohornblendes and plagioclase fractionated at a temperature of ∼830 °C. Water concentrations were ∼5.5 wt.% as derived from congruent results of amphibole and plagioclase-melt hygrometry. The eruption was triggered by injection of a hotter, more primitive melt into a water-supersaturated reservoir.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Hans-Ulrich Schmincke, Wendy Planert-Pérez, Michael Weiss, Cosima Burkert, Juanita Rausch, Bernard Grobéty, Thor Hansteen and personnel from the Instituto Nicaragüense de Estudios Territoriales (INETER) for scientific and logistic support and good times in the field. Mario Thöner assisted with the electron microprobe analyses; Dagmar Rau helped with the XRF analyses. We acknowledge comments from two anonymous reviewers that improved this paper. Credit is due to Judy Fierstein for helpful comments and for the editorial handling of the manuscript. This paper is contribution No. 277 of Sonderforschungsbereich 574 “Volatiles and Fluids in Subduction Zones”, funded by the German Research Foundation.

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  1. GEOMAR Helmholtz Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel, Wischhofstraße 1-3, 24148, Kiel, Germany

    Heidi Wehrmann, Armin Freundt & Steffen Kutterolf

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  1. Heidi Wehrmann
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  2. Armin Freundt
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Correspondence to Heidi Wehrmann.

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ESM 1

Outcrop locations of UAq: UTM coordinates (zone 16P), deposits’ thicknesses, sizes of the largest juvenile and lithic clasts determined as the average diameter of the five largest clasts, the diameter in turn being the average of the three axes. (XLS 15 kb)

ESM 2

Details on analytical settings of the electron microprobe for glass and mineral analyses. (PDF 35.3 kb)

ESM 3

Xiloá Tephra at location A100 (Fig. 1a) with the typical structure in the Mateare region, comprising stratified basal ash unit, central poorly sorted lapilli unit and top ash unit. The tephra mantles the topography and only the basal stratified ash contains small downstream-dipping cross-bedding structures indicative of low-energy lateral transport. There is no evidence for significant erosion at the basal contact or for massive entrainment of coarse UAq pumice. Lower right shows top part of UAq-W underneath paleosol. (PDF 177 kb)

ESM 4

Major element compositions of matrix glasses of UAq-W and UAq-S, normalised to 100 % volatile-free. *Original analytical totals. (XLS 139 kb)

ESM 5

Matrix glass compositions shown by (a) Al2O3, (b) FeO, (c) MgO, and (d) CaO versus SiO2 diagrams as in Fig. 8, displaying the full compositional range of the basal ashes (unit A of UAq-W) and their stratigraphically upwards increasing degree of differentiation. The symbols with yellow background mark the ash particles belonging to the UAq system domain, while the symbols without background colour show compositions of shards entrained from older material. Bulk-pumice compositions of IgAq (pink-blue triangles) plot onto both glass compositional domains observed in UAq unit A. Green field indicates the composition of the main pumice section of UAq. (PDF 299 kb)

ESM 6

Major element compositions of (i) melt inclusions in pyroxenes of UAq-W and UAq-S, along with the compositions of their host crystals, their correction for post-entrapment crystallisation and corresponding magma reservoir conditions; (ii) melt inclusions in plagioclase with their host crystals; (iii) hornblende, plagioclase, iron-titanium oxide, apatite, additional clino- and orthopyroxene phenocrysts in UAq-W and UAq-S; including (iv) data on the xenocrysts of the admixed melt in UAq-W (plagioclase, clinopyroxene, olivine, iron-titanium oxides). (XLS 4185 kb)

ESM 7

Additional details addressing the arguments Avellán et al. (2014) present to support their non-correlation of UAq-S and UAq-W, including compositional plots of plagioclase phenocrysts (histogram of An-contents in Fig ESM7-1) and MgO and TiO2 versus Al2O3 for titanomagnetite crystals (Fig. ESM7-2), as well as compositional relationships of the lavas in the region with lithic clasts in UAq. (PDF 256 kb)

ESM 8

Mg-number of (a) clinopyroxenes and (b) orthopyroxenes compared to that of matrix glasses and melt inclusions of UAq-S, after Roeder and Emslie (1970) and Dungan et al. (1978), to evaluate mineral-melt equilibria. Both mineral phases show strong disequilibrium between their rims and the adjacent matrix glasses (filled symbols). In contrast, the open symbols represent fractionation-corrected melt inclusions in or close to equilibrium with their host crystals measured directly next to the inclusion (PDF 131 kb)

ESM 9

Bulk-rock major element compositions of tephras and lavas of the Chiltepe Formation. Oxide concentrations recalculated to 100 % anhydrous. Sum is XRF analytical total without LOI (XLS 1332 kb)

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Wehrmann, H., Freundt, A. & Kutterolf, S. The 12.4 ka Upper Apoyeque Tephra, Nicaragua: stratigraphy, dispersal, composition, magma reservoir conditions and trigger of the plinian eruption. Bull Volcanol 78, 44 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-016-1036-1

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