Gone with the Wind: Dispersal of Ciomadul Tephra

Abstract

Ciomadul’s last explosive eruptions produced large volumes of pumice and ash, so-called tephra, which had the potential to be dispersed by wind over wide areas and deposited in geological archives (e.g., lakes and ocean floors). Using the chemical fingerprinting of volcanic glass in tephra deposits, at least four main eruptive events can be distinguished for the last 100 thousand years: the “Turia” (older than 51 ka), the “BTS” (40–42 ka), the “TGS” (31.5 ka), and the latest “St. Ana” eruptions (28–29 ka). Most of these tephras have been found only in proximal (near-vent) and medial-distal (15–30 km) locations around the volcano. One tephra showing a typical Ciomadul chemical fingerprint and correlated preliminarily with the “St. Ana’’ eruption, but probably much older in age, has proven a much further dispersal as far as 350 km towards the Ukraine, highlighting the violent explosive nature of the Ciomadul volcano and its volcanic ash impact also on distal areas.