Review of eruptive activity at Tianchi volcano, Changbaishan, northeast China: implications for possible future eruption
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REVIEW ARTICLE
Review of eruptive activity at Tianchi volcano, Changbaishan, northeast China: implications for possible future eruptions Haiquan Wei & Guoming Liu & James Gill
Received: 2 August 2012 / Accepted: 28 February 2013 / Published online: 14 March 2013 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Abstract One of the largest explosive eruptions in the past several thousand years occurred at Tianchi volcano, also known as Changbaishan, on the China–North Korea border. This historically active polygenetic central volcano consists of three parts: a lower basaltic shield, an upper trachytic composite cone, and young comendite ash flows. The Millennium Eruption occurred between 938 and 946 AD, and was preceded by two smaller and chemically different rhyolitic pumice deposits. There has been at least one additional, small eruption in the last three centuries. From 2002 to 2005, seismicity, deformation, and the helium and hydrogen gas contents of spring waters all increased markedly, causing regional concern. We attribute this event to magma recharge or volatile exhalation or both at depth, followed by two episodes of addition of magmatic fluids into the overlying aquifer without a phreatic eruption. The estimated present magma accumulation rate is too low by itself to account for the 2002–2005 unrest. The most serious volcanic hazards are ash eruption and flows, and lahars. The available geological information and volcano monitoring data provide a baseline for comprehensive assessment of future episodes of unrest and possible eruptive activity.
Editorial responsibility: S. Self H. Wei (*) Key Laboratory of Active Tectonics and Volcano, Institute of Geology, CEA, Beijing, China e-mail: [email protected] G. Liu CHVO, Earthquake Administration of Jilin Province, Jilin, China J. Gill Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, USA
Keywords Changbaishan . Tianchi volcano . 2002–2005 unrest . Magma replenishment and eruption rates . Aquifer . Hazards assessment
Introduction The historically active Tianchi volcano on the border between China and North Korea has attracted much attention recently because of its volcanic unrest during 2002–2005 (e.g., Stone 2010, 2011). Was the unrest related to magma ascent below the volcano, or to the influx of magmatic gas and heat to pressurize a shallow groundwater aquifer, or both? To address such questions now and in the future, and to place the recent unrest in context, we review general information about the volcano with an emphasis on its eruptive history. The name of the volcanic field surrounding Tianchi is长白 山in Chinese characters, which means “perpetually white mountain” (Fig. 1a). These characters are Romanized as Baegdu-san or Paektu-san in Korea, Hakuto-san in Japan, and Changbaishan in China. The field has >100 Cenozoic volcanic centers. Tianchi (“Heavenly Lake”, Fig. 1b) is the youngest and highest cone in this field and has a 5-km-wide, 384-m-deep crater lake atop its summit. Baitoushan (or Baitoufeng) was a former na
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