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Identification of a Kulshan caldera correlative tephra in the Palouse loess of Washington State, northwest USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Georgina E. King ,
Nicholas J.G. Pearce ,
Helen M. Roberts ,
Victoria C. Smith ,
John A. Westgate ,
David R. Gaylord  and
Mark R. Sweeney
Georgina E. King*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK
Nicholas J.G. Pearce
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK
Helen M. Roberts
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Wales, UK
Victoria C. Smith
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, UK
John A. Westgate
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Toronto, Canada
David R. Gaylord
Affiliation:
School of the Environment, Washington State University, USA
Mark R. Sweeney
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of South Dakota, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Institute of Geography, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany. E-mail address:[email protected](G.E. King)
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Abstract

The Kulshan caldera formed at ∼1.15 Ma on the present-day site of Mt. Baker, Washington State, northwest USA and erupted a compositionally zoned (dacite-rhyolite) magma and a correlative eruptive, the Lake Tapps tephra. This tephra has previously been described, but only from the Puget Lowland of NW Washington. Here an occurrence of a Kulshan caldera correlative tephra is described from the Quaternary Palouse loess at the Washtucna site (WA-3). Site WA-3 is located in east-central Washington, ∼340 km southeast of the Kulshan caldera and ∼300 km east-southeast of the Lake Tapps occurrence in the Puget Lowland. Major- and trace element chemistry and location of the deposit at Washtucna within reversed polarity sediments indicates that it is not correlative with the Mesa Falls, Rockland, Bishop Ash, Lava Creek B or Huckleberry Ridge tephras. Instead the Washtucna deposit is related to the Lake Tapps tephra by fractional crystallisation, but is chemically distinct, a consequence of its eruption from a compositionally zoned magma chamber. The correlation of the Washtucna occurrence to the Kulshan caldera-forming eruption indicates that it had an eruptive volume exceeding 100 km3, and that its tephra could provide a valuable early-Pleistocene chronostratigraphic marker in the Pacific Northwest.

Keywords

Kulshan calderaLake Tapps tephraPalouse loessTrace element geochemistry
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 86 , Issue 2 , September 2016 , pp. 232 - 241
Copyright
Copyright © American Quaternary Association 2016

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