Mexico) Governed by Regional Tectonics and Volcanic Evolution
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Quaternary sector collapses of Nevado de Toluca volcano (Mexico) governed by regional tectonics and volcanic evolution G. Norini L. Capra Centro de Geociencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Campus Juriquilla-UNAM, Querétaro, Qro. 76230, Mexico G. Groppelli Istituto per la Dinamica dei Processi Ambientali, Sezione di Milano, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via Mangiagalli 34, 20133 Milano, Italy A.M.F. Lagmay National Institute of Geological Science, Velasquez St. corner Garcia St., University of the Philippines, 1101 Quezon City, Philippines ABSTRACT on the basis of better knowledge of growth 1986; Tibaldi, 1995; Lagmay et al., 2000; Vidal and collapse mechanism of the volcano. The and Merle, 2000; Norini and Lagmay, 2005). Nevado de Toluca volcano is an andesitic- numerous examples of composite volcanoes in Stress-fi eld orientation has been recognized as dacitic composite volcano of Late Pliocene– continental and island volcanic arcs with sim- an important factor governing the directions of Holocene age located in the central-eastern ilar structural-volcanological characteristics collapse in composite volcanoes since 1977, sector of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, of Nevado de Toluca volcano imply that the when Nakamura showed that cone elongation, an active continental arc. The latest stage model results can also act as a guide to study fractures, strike of dikes, and alignments of of Nevado de Toluca evolution, in the past the growth and collapse of other composite fl ank vents occur parallel to the regional maxi- 50 k.y., has shown an interplay between vol- volcanoes affected by basement structures. mum horizontal stress. Moriya (1980) applied canic activity and kinematics of the basement Nakamura’s (1977) model to 30 volcano amphi- structures. Geological mapping, stratigraphic INTRODUCTION theater craters in Japan, and concluded that dike analysis, morphological and structural inter- intrusions promote lateral collapses perpendicu- pretation, and analogue modeling were used Composite volcanoes are highly dynamic lar to the maximum horizontal stress direction. to investigate these complex volcano-tectonics structures characterized by alternating periods of Siebert (1984) noted from the global database of relationships. In the past 50 k.y., Nevado de growth and quiescence, both marked by episodes volcano sector collapses that dike swarms par- Toluca volcano underwent at least three sec- of instability that can lead to slope failures rang- allel to the maximum horizontal stress induce tor collapses on the east, east-southeast, and ing from moderate and localized to voluminous, instability, often promoting collapses normal west fl anks because of faulting and destabili- involving a signifi cant portion of the edifi ce. The to the dominant direction of dike emplacement. zation of young dacitic domes at its summit. instability can develop over thousands of years, or Not all volcanoes, however, share the same rela- Field and remotely sensed data supported by over only a few days. A slowly developing insta- tionship between regional stress and instability. analogue models of transtensive basement bility may be accelerated by a discrete event and In a study of 52 Japanese Quaternary volca- tectonics revealed that these catastrophic culminate in catastrophic failure. In many cases, noes with associated debris avalanche depos- events were strongly correlated to the pres- destabilization is produced by a combination of its, Ui et al. (1986) found no relation between ence of the east-west–striking active Tenango circumstances and events, rather than a single the direction of amphitheater craters and the fault system. The geometry, kinematics, and cause (Voight and Elsworth, 1997). A volcano maximum horizontal stress. Bahar and Girod dynamics of the basement structure con- can be rendered unstable by fl ank overloading (1983) showed that in Indonesian volcanoes the trolled the growth of a dome complex in the from deposition of volcanic products (Murray, direction of dikes and the alignments of vents volcano summit and its destabilization. As a 1988), dike intrusion (Siebert, 1984; Elsworth and volcanic cones tend to form at an angle consequence of the active basement tectonics, and Voight, 1996), cryptodome growth beneath relative to the direction of maximum horizon- the most probable sector collapse directions and inside the volcano (Lipman and Mullineaux, tal stress, and are related to regional structures. in the case of future gravitational failures of 1981; Donnadieu and Merle, 1998), hydrother- These observations suggest that the relationship the volcano summit will be east-southeast, mal alteration (Day, 1996; Voight and Elsworth, between regional stress and volcano instability is west-northwest, east, and west. Nevado de 1997; Finn et al., 2004), steepening of slopes more complex than previously thought, and that Toluca poses potential hazards to more than (Siebert, 1984), gravitational spreading (Borgia other factors may govern the direction of sector 25 million inhabitants; the analysis presented et al., 2000) and tectonic activity of the base- collapses. One such factor may be the role of in this paper can improve hazard mitigation ment (Moriya, 1980; Siebert, 1984; Ui et al., tectonic structures in the basements underlying Geosphere; October 2008; v. 4; no. 5; p. 854–871; doi: 10.1130/GES00165.1; 16 fi gures; 1 table; 1 animation; 1 supplemental fi le. 854 For permission to copy, contact [email protected] © 2007 Geological Society of America Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article-pdf/4/5/854/3337216/i1553-040X-4-5-854.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 Quaternary sector collapses of Nevado de Toluca volcano volcanoes. Francis and Wells (1988) examined record of Nevado de Toluca volcano (Bellotti deposits were estimated by means of interpola- the infl uence of structural setting and tectonic et al., 2004, 2006; Norini et al., 2004, 2006). tion in a GIS using deposit thickness measure- activity in generating volcano instability in 28 Numerous composite volcanoes like Pico de ments. Linear interpolation of the deposit thick- examples of breached cones in the Andes. In Orizaba, Popocatépetl, Nevado de Toluca, and ness among outcrops resulted in a raster fi le most cases, breaching occurred perpendicular to the Colima Volcanic Complex are built along representing the spatial variation of thickness, the main lineaments and fractures. In contrast, the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, an active con- from which the total volume was obtained. cone breaching and lateral collapse parallel to tinental volcanic arc (Ferrari, 2000) (Fig. 1A). Structural analyses of Nevado de Toluca vol- the fault strike are more common in regions of Each of these volcanoes has undergone sector cano and surrounding areas were performed by transcurrent and transtensive faulting (Tibaldi, failures in the past, and it may undergo debris García-Palomo et al. (2000), Bellotti et al. (2006), 1995). Van Wyk de Vries and Merle (1998) and avalanches and lahars again (Capra et al., 2002). and Norini et al. (2006). Previously published Lagmay et al. (2000) studied the effects of trans- Thus, better understanding of these catastrophic descriptive analysis and kinematic interpreta- current faulting on the stability of volcanoes by events with respect to time of recurrence dur- tion of morphostructural lineaments and struc- performing analogue model experiments that ing the lifespan of a volcano and their relation to tural stations revealed the age and kinematics of demonstrated that edifi ce instability can be gen- underlying basement structures is necessary. the complex set of faults that cross the volcanic erated by an underlying active strike-slip fault. Previously, the relationships between volcano edifi ce and its basement (García-Palomo et al., The instability and consequent landslides were edifi ce collapse and tectonics were mainly based 2000; Bellotti et al., 2006; Norini et al., 2006). oriented ~10°–30° from the trend of the main on statistical studies of several natural cases and We performed supplementary morphostructural strike-slip fault (Lagmay et al., 2000; Wooller, on analogue modeling (Moriya, 1980; Siebert, and geological analyses at the volcano and cra- 2004; Norini and Lagmay, 2005; Lagmay and 1984; Ui et al., 1986; Francis and Wells, 1988; ter scales to account for the effect of the active Valdivia, 2006). Tibaldi, 1995). Here we propose a model based Tenango fault system on Nevado de Toluca vol- on the spatial and temporal interaction of volca- cano. At the volcano scale, analysis of a digital NEVADO DE TOLUCA VOLCANO nic processes and fault mechanics within a sin- elevation model obtained by interpolation of gle well-known natural example, the Nevado de the 1:50,000 Instituto Nacional de Estadística The Late Pliocene–Holocene age Nevado de Toluca volcano. Our approach is to complement Geografía y Informática (INEGI) contour lines Toluca volcano, one of the most prominent vol- geometric relationships between fault lines and with an interval of 20 m was used to delin- canic features within the Trans-Mexican Volca- direction of collapse and detailed stratigraphic eate the major structures affecting the volcano nic Belt, is the fourth highest peak in Mexico; it and structural data collected in the fi eld with edifi ce. At the same scale, a GIS was used as has an altitude of 4680 m above sea level, and analogue modeling in order to develop a model the basis for spatial analysis of the lithostrati- is located 80 km west-southwest of Mexico for the growth and collapse of the volcano that graphic units. The GIS database incorporated City and 23 km southwest of the city of Toluca matches the present volcano structure as well as all the geological data representing the growth (Fig. 1). Its past activity has affected an area mechanism of collapse during the past 50 k.y. of the volcano and led to visualize the feeding now inhabited by more than 25 million people; system geometry. At the crater scale, morpho- thus, the hazards it poses are of serious concern. FIELD METHODS structural analysis of the summit dacitic domes The latest phase of volcanism started ca.