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Field Trips

The following are a list of field trips that will be offered as part of IUGG 2011. Details on dates and costs will be available soon. These will be available to book as part of the registration process, registration will open in July 2010.

Factors influencing volcanic eruption styles, in the intraplate, basaltic, Late Cenozoic Newer Volcanics Province, Victoria and South Australia
The Whitsunday Silicic Large Igneous Province: An IAVCEI Large Igneous Provinces Commission Field Workshop
Prehistoric and recent deposits of Mayon and Taal volcanoes
Grace and Hazard of Bromo and Semeru Volcanoes
Rabaul Caldera
Mafic explosive volcanism along the Melanesian Volcanic Arc: Vanuatu
Auckland Volcanic Field: basaltic volcanism and society
Gravel Bed Rivers
The Calderas of Taupo Volcanic Zone: Supervolcanoes Revealed
Getting into Hot Water: Geological Controls on Fluid Flow in the central Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand
New Zealand Glaciers in a Changing Climate
The Australian ‘mega-tsunami’ debate
Where the Plate Boundary Meets the Capital: Active Faults and Earthquakes in and Around Wellington, New Zealand
Drought-quenching submarine volcanic textures: lavas, sills and felsic pyroclastic deposits of the Ural Volcanics, New South Wales
Tertiary submarine basaltic volcanism, Cape Grim and Stanley, NW Tasmania

Title: Factors influencing volcanic eruption styles, in the intraplate, basaltic, Late Cenozoic Newer Volcanics Province, Victoria and South Australia.

Leader: Prof. Ray Cas (Monash University)
Location: Australia (western Victoria, South Australia) - View on Google Maps
IUGG Association: IAVCEI

Summary

The Newer Volcanics Province is the youngest and arguably the only still active volcanic province in Australia. It last erupted 4,500 years ago and preserves some 400 eruption centres and lava flow plains, including some of the most spectacular maars worldwide. The fieldtrip will begin in Melbourne and visit some of the best preserved volcanoes and volcanic successions in the province, en route to Mt Gambier in South Australia, the youngest volcano in Australia. The return trip to Melbourne will be via the Great Ocean Road to take in the spectacular coastal scenery, which is some of the best in Australia, and to visit a Tertiary surtseyan volcanic succession, before returning to Melbourne. The trip will include great volcanology, great scenery, some great Australian wines, and the opportunity to see different native animals.

Title: The Whistunday Silicic Large Igneous Province: An IAVCEI Large Igneous Provinces Commission Field Workshop

Leader: Dr. Scott Bryan (University of Queensland), Dr Dougal Jerram (University of Durham)
Location: Australia (Queensland) - View on Google Maps
IUGG Association: IAVCEI

Summary

The Early Cretaceous Whitsunday Silicic Large Igneous Province (SLIP) is the largest of the world’s known SLIPs with an extrusive volume of >2.2 million km3. The Whitsunday SLIP shows all the hallmarks of other major LIP events in Earth history (large areal extent, eruptive volume, intraplate setting, and short eruptive pulse(s) when the majority of the igneous volume was emplaced), and its formation coincided with an important clustering of LIP events in the Early Cretaceous. However, it is volumetrically dominated by silicic igneous compositions. Silicic LIP formation in general, appears related to their emplacement along fertile continental margins where widespread partial melting (driven by large mantle-derived thermal and material fluxes into the crust) and consequent silicic magma eruption replaced the more typical outpouring of large volumes of basaltic magma.

Like the other major Phanerozoic SLIPs (Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico; Chon Aike Province, South America-Antarctica) large sections of these provinces are poorly studied and unmapped. Many aspects of these provinces remain poorly understood such as their volcanic and geochemical evolution, the interrelationships between magmatism, extension and the formation of volcanic rifted margins, and genetic linkages between magmas and epithermal mineralisation. The superb cross-sectional exposure provided by the tilted and partly exhumed volcanic sequences of the Whitsunday SLIP give rare insights into the core architecture of other younger or less well-dissected or exposed, large-volume silicic-dominated volcanic provinces. Significant research over the last 20 years has provided new information on the volcanic geology, igneous petrology/geochemistry, regional setting and timing of Whitsunday SLIP magmatism. This field workshop will review these research results and build on these investigations to focus on several questions:

What are the dynamics and characteristics of large-volume silicic supereruptions and why are Plinian fall deposits rarely formed and preserved in SLIPs and other large-volume silicic volcanic provinces?
What do the vent regions look like to the supervolcanoes (e.g.., structures, lithologies, thicknesses of sequences, etc.) that produce the large volumes of ignimbrite?
What do the long-term temporal compositional trends of the volcanic successions tell us about how magma generating source regions may be evolving through time?
What is the role and extent of mantle-derived inputs in SLIP magmatism and crustal growth, and how relevant are mush models for explaining the origin of such large volumes of rhyolite?
How does large-volume silicic magma generation impact on the continuing evolution of crustal composition, mineralogy, structure and its behaviour during subsequent phases of rifting?
How does SLIP magmatism integrate with regional tectonic models of volcanic rifted margin formation?

Title: Prehistoric and recent deposits of Mayon and Taal volcanoes

Leaders: M.H. Mirabueno (PHIVOLCS), E. Listanco and M.A. Bornas
Location: Philippines - View on Google Maps
IUGG Association: IAVCEI

Summary

This trip will feature Mayon and Taal, two of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines. At Mayon, we will visit the 2006 lava flow deposit and lahars induced by the 2006 Supertyphoon Reming, and take a look at the prehistoric tephra fall sections. We will have an overview of Taal volcano and its caldera, a hike to the main crater and the latest eruption site, and inspect some sections of Taal caldera deposits. We expect fantastic views, moderately strenuous hiking in some places and potentially wet weather.

Title: Grace and Hazard of Bromo and Semeru Volcanoes

Leaders: Dr. Ir Onny Kurnia Suganda (Center For Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation)
Location: Indonesia (Java) - View on Google Maps
IUGG Association: IAVCEI

Summary

This field trip will visit the majestic and dynamic volcanoes of Bromo and Semeru in Java, Indonesia. On Semeru we will view spectacular ash eruptions, which at present occur every 15 minutes, along with the volcano monitoring system, the lahar threat to nearby sand mining operations and the local population. We will see beautiful views of the volcanic landscape and productive agricultural fields. We will then visit the nearby Sidoarjo Mud Volcano (LUSI) and observe its impact on the population and environment. At Bromo volcano we will have an opportunity to visit sites around the large Tengger caldera, experience the traditional culture of the Tengger community and witness an interesting sunrise from the Bromo summit.

Title: Rabaul Caldera

Leaders: H. Patia, S. J. Saunders and I. Itikarai (Rabaul Volcano Observatory)
Location: Rabaul (Papua New Guinea) - View on Google Maps
IUGG Association: IAVCEI

Summary

Rabaul Caldera is one of 15 active volcanoes in Papua New Guinea. Rabaul Town is located within this active caldera complex. The caldera measures 14km from north to south and about 9km from east to west. A breach on the southeastern wall occurred during the latest caldera forming eruption about 1400 years ago that allowed the sea to come in and formed Simpson harbor. Since then at least 8 smaller eruptions have built small cones within the caldera including Sulphur Creek, Rabalanakaia, Vulcan, Tavurvur, and Dawapia Rocks (the Beehives). The first eruptions in the Rabaul area most probably from Tavurvur were reported by navigators in 1767 and 1791. Then there was an eruption from Sulphur Creek in 1850. In 1878, 1937, and 1994 simultaneous eruptions have occurred from Vulcan and Tavurvur. Both are located on opposite sides of the caldera. These eruptions have been responsible for destroying the town of Rabaul. In 1994 three quarters of Rabaul Town was destroyed. Since 1994 sustained ongoing eruption has continued to the present time from Tavurvur volcano. The on-going eruption is characterized by vulcanian-type eruptive activity consisting of occasional to continuous ash emission sometimes accompanied by explosions. Several Strombolian eruption phases occurred between May 1996 and August 1997, October 2006, and April 2007. The ongoing eruption has continued to affect major infrastructures such as schools, hospital/health centers, and the airport. Communities downwind including Rabaul Town are exposed to gas and ash fall from Tavurvur.

The excursion will concentrate on examining (1) deposits from the 1994-present eruption at various localities within the caldera; (2) deposits associated with the formation of the caldera. It will include a visit to the Rabaul Volcanological Observatory (RVO) to observe the monitoring programs used by the RVO to monitor active volcanoes in PNG. The key monitoring programs include seismic, ground deformation, and recently geochemical techniques.

Title: Mafic explosive volcanism along the Melanesian Volcanic Arc: Vanuatu

Leaders: Karoly Nemeth (Massey), Shane J Cronin (Massey), Douglas Charley (DGMWR, Vila)
Location: Vanuatu - View on Google Maps
IUGG Association: IAVCEI

Summary

A chain of active island volcanoes in the middle of the Vanuatu archipelago lie approximately 150 km east of the New Hebrides trench and 150 - 200 km above the Benioff zone. These active volcanoes produce predominantly ongoing mafic explosive and effusive eruptions, however voluminous subordinate silicic eruptive products are also known from the arc sub-Recent part. This field trip will concentrate on the variety of eruption styles and deposits of two major islands undergoing active mafic explosive volcanism. The field trip will spend most of the time in Ambrym which is one of the most voluminous active volcanic islands in the Vanuatu. Ambrym has a 12 km-wide caldera structure that rises to between 600-800 m above sea level although its origin is under debate. For a long time, Ambrym was used as a type locality of a giant tuff cone formed due to a cataclysmic phreatomagmatic explosion which virtually blew off the top of the island and formed the 12-km across caldera. This theory however is not supported well, and the Ambrym caldera is rather a result of gradual (or episodic) subsidence associated with ongoing centrally focused basaltic volcanism and concomitant lateral fissure eruptions similar to those which formed a phreatomagmatic volcanic field along the western edge in 1913 AD. The trip also will also visit Tanna Island, with its 4 km diameter Quaternary andesitic Yenkahe caldera and associated perfectly exposed Siwi Pyroclastic Sequence. Within the caldera, along the margins of a rapidly rising, resurgent block structure, is a succession of overlapping scoria/tephra cones, including the presently active Yasur volcano. Yasur has been in semi-continual eruption for at least 300 years (witnessed by Captain Cook in his travels), producing hourly to daily strombolian, vulcanian and phreatomagmatic explosions. The rapidly growing Yasur cone has also gone through several collapse events, building a broad base of landslide and intercalated talus deposit. Most of Yasur’s pyroclastic deposits have accumulated within the Yenkahe Caldera, forming a broad unvegetated ash plain, which at times has also been a shallow lake. In the afternoon of 8th of May, 2000 this lake, following a rainy period, broke out and drained within several hours causing a locally damaging flood. This 9-day field trip will expose participants to very active volcanic systems with differing mafic eruption styles, and deposits, as well as a dynamic caldera-sedimentation system.

Title: Auckland Volcanic Field: basaltic volcanism and society

Leaders: Jan Lindsay and Phil Shane (Auckland University)
Location: New Zealand (Auckland) - View on Google Maps
IUGG Association: IAVCEI

Summary

This one-day field trip will visit several of the volcanoes of the Auckland Volcanic Field (AVF), New Zealand. Auckland City (pop. 1.3 million) is built on this young basaltic field. The AVF covers an area of 360 km2 and comprises a minimum of 49 scattered volcanic centres in the form of maars, tuff rings, cinder cones and associated lava fields, with an estimated erupted magma volume of ~3 km3. The earliest activity may date back to 250,000 years BP and the youngest and largest eruption, forming Rangitoto Island, occurred about 600 years ago and was witnessed by early Maori living on nearby islands. During this field trip we will visit several different volcanoes to examine the variety of landforms and deposits produced by past activity in the AVF. We will discuss the latest research into the AVF, and the measures in place to mitigate the hazard and risk associated with a future eruption.

Title: Gravel Bed Rivers

Leaders: Tim Davie (Environment Canterbury)
Location: New Zealand (Christchurch) - View on Google Maps
IUGG Association: IAHS

Summary

The South Island of New Zealand has some of the most spectacular gravel bed rivers in the world. Starting from the mountains of the Southern Alps and spreading across coastal plains these rivers are a hugely important part of the local economy being used for potable water supply, irrigation and recreation. This workshop will explore different themes of gravel-bed rivers such as: sediment transport; link to groundwater; hydrometric assessment of flow and losses; importance of braided nature for habitat.

This workshop is being organised by the New Zealand Hydrological Society as part of its’ 50th anniversary celebrations. It is hoped to attract a wide range of international experts in fluvial geomorphology and hydrology.

Title: The Calderas of Taupo Volcanic Zone: Supervolcanoes Revealed

Leaders: Bruce Houghton (University of Hawaii), Rebecca Carey (and other)
Location: New Zealand (cental North Island) - View on Google Maps
IUGG Association: IAVCEI

Summary

Taupo Volcanic Zone in central New Zealand is one of the most intense loci of young rhyolitic volcanism in the world. Taupo Volcanic Zone has had 3 intense sustained eruptions in the last 2000 years. Two are the holotypes for ultraplinian and phreatoplinian explosions and low aspect ratio ignimbrites (Taupo 233) and basaltic Plinian eruptions (Tarawera 1886) respectively. This field trip looks at new physical volcanology and modeling approaches to the two most active centres, Taupo and Okataina, with a strong focus on the three youthful eruptions from Taupo and Tarawera.

Title: Getting into Hot Water: Geological Controls on Fluid Flow in the central Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand

Leaders: D.M. Gravley (University of Auckland), J.V. Rowland, G.S. Leonard, M.D. Rosenberg and others
Location: Indonesia (Java) - View on Google Maps
IUGG Association: IAVCEI

Summary

The central Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ) is one of the most spectacular areas of silicic volcanism and geothermal activity in the world. Both geological phenomena owe their existence to magmatism and tectonics, which provide the fuel and the pathways, respectively. Intrusions into the mid-crust are responsible for the transfer of c. 4,200 MWe of heat to the ground surface through over 20 geothermal fields. An additional quarter of this output manifests as volcanic eruptions (i.e. ~13 km3 of erupted magma per year over the past 61 ka, on average). This field trip will be a journey through time and space, as we track fluid flow from its source to the surface. Specifically we will traverse silicic calderas, explore geothermal wonderlands, cruise to an active island volcano, and visit geothermal power stations and bore fields.

Title: New Zealand Glaciers in a Changing Climate

Leaders: Wolfgang Rack (University of Cantebury)
Location: New Zealand (southern Alps)
IUGG Association: IACS

A distinctive feature of New Zealand’s Southern Alps is the more than 3000 maritime glaciers covering an area of 1150km2 and containing 50km3 of ice. Systematic observations over the past decades and dating of moraines reveal a complex pattern of glacier advance and retreat in response to climate change throughout the Holocene and differences to the northern hemisphere. New Zealand glaciers can be broadly divided into two main categories along the alpine main divide: very dynamic glaciers in areas with extremely high precipitation flowing towards the west, and slow moving glaciers in the east. During this field trip glaciers of both categories will be visited: Glaciers in the central Mount Cook area, like Tasman Glacier, and Fox and Franz-Josef Glaciers near the coast of the Tasman Sea. These glaciers are easy accessible but nevertheless impressive. The relaxing bus drive through the stunning winter scenery of the Southern Alps will give opportunity to discover the morphology of a landscape shaped during New Zealand’s glacial past.

Title: The Australian ‘mega-tsunami’ debate

Leaders: Adam Switzer (Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University); Anne Felton (The Australian National University); Keith Crook, (The Australian National University)
Location: Australia (coastal New South Wales)
IUGG Association: IAPSO

The coastal zone south of Sydney, Australia is said to retain evidence of Holocene mega-tsunami. We will examine a wide variety of coastal geological features from Sydney to Jervis Bay, including megaclasts and boulder ridges on cliff tops and shore platforms, sandsheets in swamps, boulder beaches, and erosional features of shore platforms. Are they evidence of mega-tsunami, storm wave impacts, or a combination of ‘events’ and normal coastal processes? This coastline has been well-documented in publications over the last 15 years, most presenting geological evidence said to indicate impacts by one or more Holocene mega-tsunami. Many questions remain. The field trip leaders have worked on this coast since 2000, and are using cosmogenic isotopic dating to resolve some of the questions – a world first application of cosmogenics to the coastal zone. As we expect a number of international participants, we have included scenic routes and tourist stops.

Title: Where the Plate Boundary Meets the Capital: Active Faults and Earthquakes in and Around Wellington, New Zealand.

Leaders: Mark Stirling, Russ Van Dissen, Nicola Litchfield, and Robert Langridge (GNS Science, New Zealand), and Tim Little (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)
Location: New Zealand (Wellington)
IUGG Association: IASPEI

A large proportion of New Zealand's prime real estate lies on the boundary of the Australian and Pacific plates as the capital city of Wellington. Here, relative plate motion of about 40 mm/year is accommodated by a series of oblique-slip faults and a major subduction zone. No part of the greater Wellington city is further than about 5km from these faults, and not surprisingly, the earthquake risk (potential loss due to hazardous earthquake events) posed by these earthquake sources is by far the highest in the country. In this two day fieldtrip you will view the major faults of the Wellington region, and your fieldtrip leaders will be experts in the earthquake histories, prehistories and hazards of the faults. Primary foci will be the Wellington, Ohariu and Wairarapa Faults, the latter being the source of New Zealand's largest historical earthquake (Magnitude 8.1 in 1855). We hope you will join us on this exciting and thought-provoking fieldtrip to the place where the plate boundary meets the capital city.

Title: Drought-quenching submarine volcanic textures: lavas, sills and felsic pyroclastic deposits of the Ural Volcanics, New South Wales.

Leaders: Kate Bull (Alaskan Volcano Observatory) and Jocelyn McPhie (University of Tasmania)
Location: Australia (New South Wales)
IUGG Association: IAVCEI

The Ural Volcanics (UV), expose rarely accessible, remarkably well-preserved submarine felsic volcanic facies derived from at least two intrabasinal volcanic centres. One, in the north, was largely effusive and intrusive, building a lava-sill complex. Another, in the south, was effusive, intrusive and explosive, generating lavas and moderate-volume (~3 km3), pyroclastic facies. The UV form partially wooded hills up to 1500 m high and stretch for ~100 km, that rise quickly from the farmland plains west of central New South Wales. This 3-day field trip will visit the Ural Range, west of Lake Cargelligo. Our days will involve hiking in relatively rough, rocky desert terrain to look at exceptional exposures of the diverse textures associated with submarine perlitic and spherulitic lavas and shallow intrusions, and pumice- and shard-bearing felsic pyroclastic facies. Wildlife views should include flocks of gallahs and black cockatoos, ‘roo mobs, emu pairs and the occasional blue-tongued lizard.

Title: Tertiary submarine basaltic volcanism, Cape Grim and Stanley, NW Tasmania

Leaders: Jocelyn McPhie (University of Tasmania), possibly Yoshi Goto (Muroran, Japan)
Location: Australia (Tasmania)
IUGG Association: IAVCEI

Pillow lavas and related volcanic facies of Tertiary are well exposed in coastal sections near Stanley and Cape Grim in northwestern Tasmania. Two full field days are planned. Travel to and from Melbourne adds about half a day at the beginning and at the end.

The Stanley Peninsula provides excellent examples of pillow lavas, lava lobes, megapillows, peperite and a high-level basaltic intrusion. All exposures are in shore platforms and cliffs on the coast and easy to access although low tide is required.

At Cape Grim, pillow fragment breccia and pillow lavas related to a small seafloor volcano are very well exposed, together with basalt-derived sandstone intruded by basaltic dykes. Cape Grim is one of the type-localities of the mineral species Natrolite (a type of zeolite), which was found in vesicles and fractures of the pillow lavas.