Perspectives on the Active Volcanoes of China
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Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 25, 2021 Accepted Manuscript Geological Society, London, Special Publications Perspectives on the active volcanoes of China Jiandong Xu, Clive Oppenheimer, James O. S. Hammond & Haiquan Wei DOI: https://doi.org/10.1144/SP510-2021-87 To access the most recent version of this article, please click the DOI URL in the line above. When citing this article please include the above DOI. Received 8 May 2021 Revised 8 June 2021 Accepted 8 June 2021 © 2021 The Author(s). Published by The Geological Society of London. All rights reserved. For permissions: http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/permissions. Publishing disclaimer: www.geolsoc.org.uk/pub_ethics Manuscript version: Accepted Manuscript This is a PDF of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting and correction before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the book series pertain. Although reasonable efforts have been made to obtain all necessary permissions from third parties to include their copyrighted content within this article, their full citation and copyright line may not be present in this Accepted Manuscript version. Before using any content from this article, please refer to the Version of Record once published for full citation and copyright details, as permissions may be required. Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 25, 2021 Perspectives on the active volcanoes of China Jiandong Xu1,2*, Clive Oppenheimer3, James O. S. Hammond4 and Haiquan Wei1,2 1Jilin Changbaishan Volcano National Observation and Research Station, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration (CEA), Beijing 100029, China 2Key Laboratory of Seismic and Volcanic Hazards, CEA, Beijing 100029, China 3Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK 4Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK *Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract China has a rich record of Holocene volcanism that is relatively little known outside the country. It is encountered in large stratovolcanoes in the northeast, linked to subduction of the Pacific plate (e.g., Changbaishan); in smaller volcanoes on the Tibetan margin, associated with the collision of India and Eurasia (e.g., Tengchong, Ashishan), and more isolated centres possibly resulting from mantle upwelling (e.g., volcanoes in Hainan island). This makes China a natural laboratory for studies of intraplate volcanism, and significant progress in understanding its nature and origins has been made over the past quarter century. Here, we introduce the first publication in English to provide a comprehensive survey of the state of knowledge and research highlights. Accordingly, we provide an overview of the dynamics, geology, geochemistry, volcanic histories and geophysical studies of 14 volcanic areas associated with Holocene documented thus far. The special publication represents a benchmark reference on the topic but, as importantly, we hope it will stimulate new, international collaborations aimed at deepening our understanding of the origins, history, hazards and associated risks of China’s volcanoes. Introduction China may not be the first country that comes to mind when you think about volcanoes, but it is home to more than a dozen volcanoes with evidence of Holocene eruptions (Table 1). One of them, Changbaishan (also known as Tianchi , Paektu and Baegdusan), was responsible for one of the largestACCEPTED historical eruptions in 946 CE (the ‘Millennium MANUSCRIPT Eruption’), and experienced unrest as recently as 2002–2005 (Xu et al. 2012; 2021). It has attracted international scientific attention since at least the 1940s (e.g., Asano, 1948) and, by the 1980s, the extent of its tephra fall deposit was being recognized in marine sediment cores and at terrestrial sites in northern Japan (e.g., Machida and Arai, 1983; Machida et al. 1990). Susanna Horn’s doctoral research on the eruption involved fieldwork both in China and neighbouring Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPR Korea), constraining the magmatic evolution and co-eruptive gas emissions (Horn 1997, Horn and Schminke, 2000). Around the same time, Charles Dunlap (Dunlap, 1996), working with James Gill, investigated the physical process and chemical features of the eruption products of Changbaishan. Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 25, 2021 This external interest in Changbaishan helped to focus domestic attention on the need for more systematic study of other volcanoes in China, particularly in the fields of volcanic geology, geophysics and geochemistry. A renaissance in volcanological research in China followed, accompanied by the establishment in 1999 of a National Volcano Monitoring Network with six volcano observatories. One simple gauge of the increase in knowledge over this period is that in “Active volcanoes of the world”, published by the USGS in 1990, only two Holocene volcanoes were recognized in China. The Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program (https://volcano.si.edu/) now lists more than ten. In 2017, we received support from the Institute of Geology at the China Earthquake Administration (CEA), for a three-year project to create a database of Cenozoic volcanoes of China. An additional aim was to compile an English-language volume presenting state-of-the-art knowledge on the major volcanoes and volcanic fields in China to an international audience. SP510 is the result! Overview of active volcanoes in China Active volcanoes in China can be geographically divided into three subregions: (i) northeast- northern, (ii) southeast coastal and islands, and (iii) southwest regions (Figure 1). They belong to several Cenozoic volcanic belts. Volcanism in northern- and northeast China is generally associated with subduction of the West Pacific plate (Wang et al. 2003; 2005; Wei H. et al. 2007; Wei W. et al. 2012; Zhao et al. 2013; Li et al. 2016), while collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates is invoked to explain volcanism in the southwest (Turner et al. 1993; Ding et al. 2003; Hou et al. 2006; Wang et al. 2007; Guo and Wilson 2019). The following subsections provide further background. Active volcanoes in northeast and northern China. Volcanic products cover around 50,000 km2 of northeast and northern China. Much of this volcanism has origins in the Cretaceous, and explanations for it include delamination of a thickened lithosphere associated with the westward subduction of the Pacific plate (e.g., Zhang et al., 2010) and roll back of the Paleo-Pacific plate (Wu et al, 2005). The origin of persistent Holocene volcanism, however, remains uncertain as discussed in Yu et al., 2021a (this volume), but is likely linked to upwelling from, or through, the subducted Pacific plate. The distribution of volcanism appears strongly influenced by northeast-trending normal fault (rift) zonesACCEPTED (Liu J. 1999; Wang et al. 2003). A series ofMANUSCRIPT volcanic fields, including Kuandian, Longgang, Dunhua, Changbaishan, Jinpohu and Jixi, are located along the northeast-trending Changbaishan Ranges from Liaoning to Heilongjiang provinces (volcanoes #1 to #6 in Fig. 1). These are evidently linked with the Dunhua-Mishan fault zone (DMF in Fig. 2; Liu X. 1999; Liu 2000) while a northeast- trending series of minor volcanoes at the southeast margin of the Songliao basin are associated with the Yilan-Yitong fault zone (YYL in Fig. 2; Wang et al 2003). A series of volcanic fields is similarly aligned on the northwest margins of the basin and the Greater Hinggan Range: (Daxing’anling)- Xiaogulihe, Nuominhe, Halahahe and others (volcanoes #10 to #19 in Fig. 1). Changbaishan, the largest Cenozoic volcanic field in China (volcano #2 in Fig. 1), is located at the intersection of the northeast-trending Dunhua-Mishan fault (DMF), Yalujiang fault (YLJF), Tumenjiang fault (TMJF), and Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on September 25, 2021 northwest-trending Baishan-Jince fault (BJF) systems (Fig.2). It alone encompasses more than 100 individual volcanoes spanning an area of over 20,000 km2. There are additional northwest- and also north-south trending structural features associated with Cenozoic volcanism in this region, for example, a significant K-rich volcanic belt (Qiu, 1991) can be traced from Keluo to Wudalianchi and Erkeshan, trending north-south (Fig.2). Here, petrological analysis suggests magma sourcing from depths of 100–120 km (Qiu et al., 1991) while geophysical evidence points to mid-crustal reservoirs beneath Wudalianchi today (Gao et al., 2020). Volcanic fields between Gulihe and Xunke in the Greater and Lesser Hinggan Ranges (Xiaoxing’anling) also align with northwest- and north-south orientations (Liu J. 1999). Further Cenozoic volcanism occurs in central eastern parts of northern China, though much of it is covered by nonvolcanic sediments (Liu J.1999; Li et al. 2003). At the heart of the Changbaishan volcanic field lies Tianchi volcano, the most iconic in China owing to its historic activity and place in folklore. As noted, ‘Changbaishan’ is formerly the name of the wider region, host to over 100 individual volcanoes. However, the name has become widely synonymous with Tianchi, the volcano responsible for the largest known eruption in China (and DPR Korea), in 946 CE (Horn