JQS REPORTS ON AN ERUPTION FAR MORE VIOLENT THAN TAMBORA OR KRAKATOA
A history of violence: magma incubation, timing and tephra distribution of the Los Chocoyos supereruption
(Atitlán Caldera, Guatemala)
ABSTRACT
The climactic Los Chocoyos (LCY) eruption from Atitlán caldera (Guatemala) is a key chronostratigraphic marker for the Quaternary period given the extensive distribution of its deposits that reached both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
Using zircon (U–Th)/He geochronology, we present the first radioisotopically determined eruption age for the LCY of 75 ± 2 ka...
Based on an updated distribution of LCY pyroclastic deposits, a new conservatively estimated volume of ~1220 ± 150 km3 is obtained (volcanic explosivity index VEI > 8),
During the estimated 20–27‐day duration of the LCY climactic ultra‐Plinian eruption a >40‐km‐high eruptive column produced fall‐out deposits up to 3.6 m thick in proximal locations, and distal cm‐thick deposits spanning from the coast of Texas to the Panama Basin
