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Extending the limit of widespread dispersed Toba volcanic glass shards and identification of new in-situ volcanic events in the Central Indian Ocean Basin

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Abstract

We report the widespread extent of Toba volcanic glass shards in the Central Indian Ocean Basin. Investigation of four sediment cores (7º–17ºS) revealed several shard-rich horizons (SRH) that provide the first detailed tephrochronology for volcanic glass shards in the CIOB. A comparative study of surface sediments floored with Youngest Toba Tuff (YTT), indicate that irrespective of the rate of sedimentation, YTT in the basin is restricted to a depth of <35 cm-bsf. We utilized microtektites (0.77 Ma), associated with the Oldest Toba Tuff (OTT) glass shards, as a proxy for age calculation of the SRH. The results are comparable with well-established ages derived from paleomagnetic and δ18O methods for the Leg 21 ODP Site 758. The other significant finding of this study includes the first report of Middle Toba Tuff (equivalent to Layer C) and Layer D that are present between YTT and OTT (Layer E) and also Layers G, H, h, I, J, K, L and M. All these layers correspond with those reported for ODP Site 758. Furthermore, two SRH between layers G and H show signatures of localized in-situ phreatomagmatic origin, suggesting that CIOB is apparently more active – tectonically and volcanically than it is presumed.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the Director of CSIR-NIO, Goa for providing facilities to carry out the study. We thank Dr Martin Jutzeler, University of Tasmania for his invaluable suggestions on an earlier version of the manuscript. We are grateful to Mr. V Khedekar, Ms. Sahina and Ms. Valency for the assistance during the SEM-EDS analysis and to Mrs. Charushila and Mr. V Gaikwad for helping in preparing figures 1 and 3. AA thanks CSIR (Direct SRF) and the project ‘Surveys for Polymetallic Nodules’ (GAP 2175) for the research funds. We profusely thank the two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments which helped us to improve the manuscript. We are grateful to the Editor-in-Chief, Dr N V Chalapathi Rao, for encouraging us to submit the revised manuscript. We appreciate the help rendered by the Captain, crew, and participants of the AAS-22 cruise during sediment coring operations. This is NIO’s contribution number 6558.

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  1. CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa, 403 004, India

    Ankeeta Amonkar & Sridhar D Iyer

  2. CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana, 500 007, India

    E V S S K Babu & S Manju

  3. Marine Science, School of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Goa University, Taleigao, Goa, 403 206, India

    Ankeeta Amonkar

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  1. Ankeeta Amonkar
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Amonkar, A., Iyer, S.D., Babu, E.V.S.S.K. et al. Extending the limit of widespread dispersed Toba volcanic glass shards and identification of new in-situ volcanic events in the Central Indian Ocean Basin. J Earth Syst Sci 129, 175 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-020-01429-6

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