Glass geochemistry and tephrostratigraphy of key tephra layers in and around Lake Van, Eastern Anatolian Volcanic Province (EAVP)

Abstract

The volcanoes of Nemrut and Süphan in the Eastern Anatolian Volcanic Province (EAVP) are significant sources of volcanic ash (tephra), which are found in palaeoclimatic and archaeological records in the eastern Mediterranean region. However, there is sparse glass geochemistry and little known about the eruption history of these volcanoes, limiting their full tephrochronological potential. Here, we present detailed, comprehensive single-shard major, minor and trace elem geochemistry of tephra deposits sampled at new and previously studied proximal outcrops around Lake Van and fourteen visible tephra layers (V-layers) from the ICDP Ahlat Ridge (AR) core of Lake Van spanning 130 to 30 ka. The volcanic glass from the following proximal eruption units: Lower Trachytic Pumice (LT-P), Lower Trachytic Ignimbrite (LT-I), Middle Pumices, Upper Rhyolitic Pumice and Ignimbrite (UR-PI), Upper Trachytic Ignimbrite (UT-I), and the chosen V-layers were geochemically characterised. This new glass data allows new and revised previous chrono-stratigraphic correlations between the proximal units and several V-layers. Mixed rhyolitic and trachytic glasses of V-18a correlate to the UR-P and UR-I proximal tephra units, and to previously published data from the Middle Nemrut (M-NF)-O, M-NF-I, Tatvan Ignimbrite and AP-8 units. These are all from the same caldera forming eruption of Nemrut at ∼33 ka. Glasses of the older V-30 layer correlate to a Middle Pumice Unit and M-NF-R, and V-45 represents the ‘Çekmece Formation’. The trachytic glasses of V-51 correlate to LT-P, LT-I and the M-NF-Agglutinate unit erupted from Nemrut. The distinctive basaltic glasses from V-60 correlate to an eruption of İncekaya and V-64 is a newly identified eruption from the Süphan volcano. The older V-layers identified and analysed are from Nemrut based on comparing the new glass compositions to previously published whole-rock and glass data. This comparison indicates the V-75 pantelleritic tephra correlates to the dated AP-4 proximal unit. Each of these large eruptions are easily chemically differentiated using SiO₂, FeO_t, CaO and Al₂O₃. The integration of the proximal outcrops with the continuous, well-constrained Lake Van sedimentary medial record provides a detailed tephrostratigraphic record in a volcanic region where the proximal outcrop record is fragmented and confusing.