Modeling volcano growth on the Island of Hawaii:
Deep-water perspectives
Peter W. Lipman and Andrew T. Calvert
U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
ABSTRACT
Recent ocean-bottom geophysical surveys,
dredging, and dives, which complement surface data and scientific drilling at the Island
of Hawaii, document that evolutionary stages
during volcano growth are more diverse than
previously described. Based on combining
available composition, isotopic age, and geologically constrained volume data for each of
the component volcanoes, this overview provides the first integrated models for overall
growth of any Hawaiian island. In contrast
to prior morphologic models for volcano
evolution (preshield, shield, postshield),
growth increasingly can be tracked by age
and volume (magma supply), defining waxing alkalic, sustained tholeiitic, and waning
alkalic stages. Data and estimates for individual volcanoes are used to model changing
magma supply during successive compositional stages, to place limits on volcano life
spans, and to interpret composite assembly
of the island. Volcano volumes vary by an
order of magnitude; peak magma supply
also varies sizably among edifices but is challenging to quantify because of uncertainty
about volcano life spans. Three alternative
models are compared: (1) near-constant
volcano propagation, (2) near-equal volcano
durations, (3) high peak-tholeiite magma
supply. These models define inconsistencies with prior geodynamic models, indicate
that composite growth at Hawaii peaked ca.
800–400 ka, and demonstrate a lower current rate. Recent age determinations for
Kilauea and Kohala define a volcano propagation rate of 8.6 cm/yr that yields plausible
inception ages for other volcanoes of the Kea
trend. In contrast, a similar propagation rate
for the less-constrained Loa trend would
require inception of Loihi Seamount in the
future and ages that become implausibly
large for the older volcanoes. An alternative
rate of 10.6 cm/yr for Loa-trend volcanoes is
reasonably consistent with ages and volcano
spacing, but younger Loa volcanoes are offset from the Kea trend in age-distance plots.
Variable magma flux at the Island of Hawaii,
and longer-term growth of the Hawaiian
chain as discrete islands rather than a continuous ridge, may record pulsed magma
flow in the hotspot/plume source.
INTRODUCTION
This overview, inspired by the 100th anniversary of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
Hawaii Volcano Observatory (HVO) in 2012,
focuses on results of underwater studies of
Hawaiian volcanoes that provide new perspectives on the growth of intraplate volcanoes.
Recent studies have been especially productive
for the Island of Hawaii (Fig. 1), where sonar
surveys, dives, and dredging by the University
of Hawaii, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research
Institute, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), and USGS, and collaborations with the Japan Agency for MarineEarth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC)
have complemented on-land scientific drilling
and abundant data from HVO.
These results, in combination with a vast body
of older data, provide new insights about volcano growth on Hawaii. More prior studies than
can be acknowledged have evaluated growth of
Hawaii in relation to longer-term evolution of the
Hawaiian Ridge. Notable were early recognition
of the southeastward younging of volcanoes
and distinction of the parallel Kea and Loa volcanic trends (Dana, 1849; Jackson et al., 1972),
and of course the insights about ocean-island
volcanism that emerged in the 1960s from the
plate-tectonic paradigm. Among recent critical
observations and interpretations are: quantifying
propagation rates along the Hawaiian-Emperor
Ridge by isotopic dating (McDougall and
Swanson, 1972; Jackson et al., 1972; Clague
and Dalrymple, 1987), volume estimates from
submarine bathymetry (Bargar and Jackson,
1974; Robinson and Eakins, 2006), recognition
of an early-alkalic (“preshield”) stage at Loihi
Seamount (Moore et al., 1982; Garcia et al.,
1995a), insights into volcano growth based on
ages of submerged slope breaks and coral reefs
(Moore and Campbell, 1987; Ludwig et al.,
1991), and geodynamic models for growth rates
and compositional evolution in response to plate
motion over a hotspot (Moore and Clague, 1992;
DePaolo and Stolper, 1996; Ribe and Christensen, 1999; DePaolo et al., 2001).
Until recently, compositions and ages bearing
on growth of Hawaiian volcanoes have largely
come from subaerial sampling of late eruptive
stages, and estimates of inception and early evolution have been heavily model dependent, using
volcano spacing and plate motion to infer propagation rates and duration of edifice growth. The
present interpretive synthesis, by combining
recent chemical and 40Ar/39Ar isotopic-age data
(mainly from underwater and drill-hole samples), revised edifice volumes, limitations from
volcano structures and eruptive processes, and
geodynamic constraints, attempts to interpret
the growth histories of individual volcanoes and
the composite growth of the entire island. While
focused on construction of Hawaii Island, some
data from older islands are referenced briefly
where helpful to constrain volcano-growth
models. In part, this analysis is a sequel to the
impressive synthesis by Moore and Clague
(1992), while benefiting from compilations for
the geologic map of Hawaii Island (Wolfe and
Morris, 1996a, 1996b) and the state map of
Hawaii (Sherrod et al., 2007). Particularly useful samples, compositional data, and imaging
of deep structure have come from the Hawaii
Scientific Drilling Project (HSDP; Stolper et al.,
1996, 2009) and ~100 submersible dives and
bathymetric surveys during JAMSTEC cruises
in 1998–2002 (Takahashi et al., 2002; Robinson
et al., 2003; Coombs et al., 2006a).
Reliable age determinations for old Hawaiian
lavas remain sparse, but recent application of
40
Ar/39Ar methods to young basalts, especially
Geosphere; October 2013; v. 9; no. 5; p. 1348–1383; doi:10.1130/GES00935.1; 15 figures; 11 tables.
Received 2 April 2013 ♦ Revision received 6 July 2013 ♦ Accepted 29 July 2013 ♦ Published online 14 August 2013
1348
For permission to copy, contact [email protected]
© 2013 Geological Society of America
21° N
Volcano growth on Hawaii
HA
Hana Ridge
K
A
B′
La
M-G
KP
up
a
Slu hoe
mp hoe
KO
M-C
Kiho
lo R
Hilo Ridge
MK
mp
Slu
ona
NK
B
H
HU
A′
Figure 7
ge
id
aR
n
Pu
ML
KL
19° N
MSB
Ka L
ae R
LO
100 km
154°
156°
Figure 1. Map of the Island of Hawaii and adjacent sea floor, showing locations of volcanoes (Kea trend in black;
Loa trend in blue): HA—Haleakala; HU—Hualalai; K—Kahoolawe; KL—Kilauea; KO—Kohala; LO—Loihi;
M-G—Mahukona (summit location of Garcia et al. [1990]); M-C—Mahukona (summit location of Clague and
Moore [1991]); MK—Mauna Kea; ML—Mauna Loa. Historical eruptions are in red. Dashed line is the inferred
buried east rift of Kohala that continues into Hilo Ridge. H—Hilo (site of HSDP hole); KP—Kohala platform;
MSB—mid-slope bench offshore of Kilauea. Modified from Robinson et al. (2006). Cross sections A–A′ and B–B′
(short dotted lines) are depicted in Figure 6. Arrow at the base of Hilo Ridge is the site of dive K215 (Fig. 7).
underwater and subsurface samples, has
improved controls on volcano growth (Table 1).
Alkalic lavas have yielded stratigraphically
coherent results for Mauna Kea and Kilauea
(Sharp and Renne, 2005; Calvert and Lanphere,
2006), but dating of low-K tholeiites continues
to be problematic because of low radiogenicargon yields. In such tholeiites, K resides
mainly in glassy selvages next to groundmass
minerals, leaving samples vulnerable to argon
loss and/or argon-recoil problems in the reactor.
Some tholeiite samples fail to yield meaningful
ages without apparent petrographic or chemical reasons. In the most detailed 40Ar/39Ar study
Volcano
Kilauea
TABLE 1. RECENT 40Ar/ 39Ar GEOCHRONOLOGIC RESULTS, ISLAND OF HAWAII
Rock type
(number of ages)
References
Alkalic and transitional basalt (13)
Calvert and Lanphere (2006)
Transitional basalt (2)
Hanyu et al. (2010)
Mauna Loa
Tholeiite (1)
Tholeiite (1)
Tholeiite (14)
Sharp et al. (1996)
Sharp and Renne (2005)
Jicha et al. (2012)
Mauna Kea
Alkalic and tholeiitic basalt (9)
Alkalic and tholeiitic basalt (9)
Sharp et al. (1996)
Sharp and Renne (2005)
Kohala
Transitional-alkalic basalt (2)
Mahukona
Transitional and tholeiitic basalt (2)
Transitional and tholeiitic basalt (3)
Note: Ages and analytical data are listed in Appendix A.
Geosphere, October 2013
Lipman and Calvert (2011)
Clague and Calvert (2009)
Garcia et al. (2012)
1349
Lipman and Calvert
100
Total volcano volume, 103 km3
to date of Hawaiian tholeiites, on the 1.5 km
scarp along the submarine southwest rift zone
of Mauna Loa, only 14 of 45 analyzed samples
yielded “successful ages” (Jicha et al., 2012).
Less precise K-Ar determinations remain the
main data for subaerial lavas on Kohala and
Mauna Kea, and attempts to improve resolution by unspiked K-Ar methods for Kilauea
and Loihi basalts (Guillou et al., 1997a, 1997b)
yielded some results that are internally contradictory or inconsistent with 40Ar/39Ar dates
(Calvert and Lanphere, 2006). Appendix A lists
the published 40Ar/39Ar and some recent K-Ar
age determinations used for estimating volcano
growth rates for the Island of Hawaii and underwater slopes.
Volumes of individual volcanoes are also
difficult to estimate, with probable uncertainties of 10%–20%, but constrained by the composite island construct (213,000 km3; Robinson
and Eakins, 2006). Deep subsidence along the
Hawaiian Ridge, defined by seismic profiling
(Hill and Zucca, 1987), requires volumes nearly
twice early estimates that assumed growth on
flat ocean floor (Bargar and Jackson, 1974). The
prior estimates used vertical contacts between
volcanoes; here, edifice volumes are adjusted for
sloping and interfingering boundaries (Table 2;
Fig. 2; and discussion below). Effects of old
seamounts and other irregularities of the ocean
floor are neglected, as in prior estimates, but
are unlikely to increase significantly uncertainties about total volume of the island construct.
Positive gravity anomalies at volcano summits
and proximal rift zones (Kinoshita et al., 1963;
Kauahikaua et al., 2000), interpreted as recording dense intrusions and olivine cumulates, also
help locate volcano boundaries where concealed
by younger deposits. Each edifice is divided into
subsections for which volumes can be calculated
from simplified models, as done previously for
Kilauea (Lipman et al., 2006). Further constraints come from eruption and lava-accumulation rates, especially for younger volcanoes. For
volcanoes that onlap older edifices, an additional
adjustment is made for the volume of deep intru-
Robinson & Eakins (2006)
80
This review
60
40
20
0
Mahukona Kohala
Hualalai
Mauna
Loa
Kilauea
Loihi
Figure 2. Interpreted volumes of volcanoes, Island of Hawaii: published (Robinson and Eakins, 2006) and proposed revised values
(assumption of small Mahukona; Garcia et al., 2012).
sions and olivine cumulates. Details of volume
calculations are tabulated in Appendix B.
The age, composition, structural, and volume data for individual volcanoes can then be
used to model changing magma supply during
sequential compositional stages, to place limits on the duration of volcano growth, and to
evaluate the composite assembly of the island
(Table 3). These data show that the growth
stages of Hawaiian volcanoes are more diverse
than previously documented, define inconsistencies at various scales with geodynamic models,
and indicate that composite volcanic growth at
Hawaii peaked ca. 800–400 ka.
MORPHOLOGIC AND
COMPOSITIONAL GROWTH STAGES
Building on pioneering insights by Stearns
(1946), Hawaiian volcanoes have commonly
been discussed in terms of preshield, shield,
postshield, and rejuvenated stages (e.g., Clague
and Dalrymple, 1987; Peterson and Moore,
1987; Clague and Sherrod, in press). These
TABLE 2. ESTIMATED VOLCANO VOLUMES, ISLAND OF HAWAII
Total volume (103 km3)
Basis for changed volume
Volcano
(see text for details)
Published* Revised
Alternate†
Loihi
1.7
1.0
1.0
Built on Punaluu slump
Kilauea
31.6
11
11
Overlies south flank of Mauna Loa
Mauna Loa
74.0
83
83
Includes sub-Kilauea flank; underlain by south Hualalai
Mauna Kea
41.9
22
22
Above large east rift (Hilo Ridge) of Kohala
Hualalai
14.2
26
24
Projected south, beneath Mauna Loa
Kohala
36.4
64
54
Includes Hilo Ridge; underlies Mauna Kea
Mahukona
13.5
6
18
Unlikely to extend NE, beneath Kohala (Garcia et al., 2012)
Total
213.3
213
213
Island volume held constant
Note: Blue italics—Loa-trend volcanoes; others are Kea-trend volcanoes.
*Robinson and Eakins (2006).
†
Using larger Mahukona (Clague and Moore, 1991; Clague and Calvert, 2009) and decreased Kohala and
Hualalai.
1350
Mauna
Kea
Geosphere, October 2013
terms have been used, somewhat ambiguously,
concurrently to reference both morphology and
composition. As chemical and age data become
more abundant, especially for underwater
samples that record early growth, tracking volcanic evolution primarily by composition and
time seems increasingly desirable. Much more
is known about later stages than earlier ones,
although reliable age and eruption-rate data
remain sparse. Modeling of growth commonly
has assumed uniformly changing compositions
and magma supply as the Pacific plate moves
across a hotspot source, but recent data document considerable variation in stage durations,
transitions between stages, periods of quiescence, and interactions between concurrently
active edifices.
This paper distinguishes three main compositional stages: waxing early alkalic, sustained
main tholeiite, and waning late alkalic, versus
morphologic evolution of the edifice (submarine, subaerial shield, late submergence). No
volcano on Hawaii Island contains highly alkalic
late volcanism considered characteristic of the
rejuvenated stage, and the age significance of
this stage at older Hawaiian volcanoes currently
seems uncertain. Rocks assigned to this stage at
volcanoes like East Maui (Haleakala) form an
age continuum with prior waning-alkalic eruptions, while similar late-erupted rocks are separated from waning-alkalic lavas by long intervals
at West Maui or are absent at volcanoes such as
Lanai (Sherrod et al., 2007; Clague and Sherrod,
in press).
All Hawaiian volcanoes are broadly shield
shaped in morphology regardless of composition, with sustained slopes rarely >15° both
underwater and on land, except along fault and
Early-alkalic stage similar to Kilauea?
Only dated duration of early-alkalic stage
Loa-trend propagation rate
330 k.y. late-alkalic stage
End of main-tholeiite stage, ~120 ka
Only dated duration of tholeiite-stage
End of main-tholeiite stage, ~450 ka?
—
100+
450
300
580
800
350
100
275
550
750
850
1300
900
—
100+
850+
650
830
800
700
150
275
950
1100
1100
1300
1250
—
100+
700+
500
830
800
1050
125
275
800
850
1100
1300
1600
Maui Nui
Haleakala
2200
1050
2100
950
2000
850
End of main-tholeiite stage, ~1000 ka
Kahoolawe
2250
900
2200
850
2100
750
End of main-tholeiite stage, ~1200 ka
Note: Complete age-volume models are presented in text sections for individual volcanoes. Italics indicate Loa-trend volcanoes; others are Kea-trend volcanoes. Bold indicates best-constrained ages.
Volcano
Island of Hawaii
Loihi
Kilauea
Mauna Loa
Mauna Kea
Hualalai
Kohala
Mahukona
TABLE 3. SUMMARY OF ESTIMATED INCEPTION AGES AND DURATIONS OF MAIN-THOLEIITE STAGE, BASED ON ALTERNATIVE MODELS FOR VOLCANO GROWTH
Near-constant propagation
Near-constant lifespan
Variable life (high-tholeiite)
Inception
Inception
Tholeiite-stage duration
Inception
Tholeiite-stage duration
Tholeiite-stage duration
Notes
(ka)
(ka)
(k.y.)
(k.y.)
(ka)
(k.y.)
Volcano growth on Hawaii
landslide scarps. Slopes are steeper underwater
(Mark and Moore, 1987), in part because much
shoreline-generated hyaloclastite breccia accumulates at angle of repose, in part because of
steep slope-failure scarps at heads of submarine
landslides.
The most pronounced change in topographic
profile, from steeper submarine slopes to more
gentle subaerial deposition as a seamount
becomes an island (Mark and Moore, 1987),
typically occurs during eruption of relatively
uniform tholeiite that constitutes >90% of volcano volume. Although subaerial slopes are generally low during the tholeiitic stage (commonly
<5°), much variation is present as a function
of eruptive style. Sustained tube-fed pahoehoe
sheet flows that grow by inflation have dips of
only a few degrees (Hon et al., 1994), while
slopes reach 10° or steeper where built by small
tholeiite eruptions as on upper slopes of Mauna
Loa (above ~3000 m; Mark and Moore, 1987,
their figure 3.2).
Independently of morphology and whether
on land or underwater, edifice growth can be
tracked by composition and magma supply.
Tholeiitic lavas typically define coherent majorelement arrays varying mainly in olivine content, as well documented for Kilauea and Mauna
Loa (Wright, 1971; Clague et al., 1995; Sisson
et al., 2002). Early- and late-alkalic lavas are
more variable. Compositions that plot between
the dominant tholeiite array and the alkali-basalt
boundary of MacDonald and Katsura (1964)
have commonly been designated transitional
basalt (Wolfe and Morris, 1996a, 1996b; Sisson
et al., 2002; Coombs et al., 2006b), a usage continued here (see Fig. 4). Such transitional basalts,
which are abundant during shifts between compositional stages at some volcanoes, have also
been described as low-silica tholeiite, especially
in HSDP studies (e.g., Stolper et al., 2004;
Rhodes et al., 2012). Even more subtle compositional variations among tholeiites at individual volcanoes, over varied time scales, are
documented by trace-element and isotopic studies (Frey and Rhodes, 1993; Kurz et al., 1995;
Pietruszka and Garcia, 1999; Marske et al.,
2007; Weis et al., 2011).
The change from sustained-tholeiite (“shield”)
to waning-alkalic eruptions (“postshield”) typically coincides with declining eruption rates,
accompanied by submergence of the shoreline
as volcano loading outpaces lava accumulation (Moore and Clague, 1992). Late-alkalic
lavas also form steeper slopes than during the
sustained tholeiite stage (up to 20°; Mark and
Moore, 1987), a change probably resulting from
smaller and briefer eruptions of alkalic basalt
and more silicic lavas (hawaiite, mugearite) that
form thicker and more viscous flows. Both com-
Geosphere, October 2013
positional and morphologic changes have been
widely referenced as the shield-postshield transition. However, capacity of a volcano to sustain
subaerial growth is a function of volcano size
in relation to magma supply. At a large volcano
such as Mauna Loa, subsidence can outpace
coastal lava accumulation late during the tholeiitic stage (Lipman, 1995; Lipman and Moore,
1996). In contrast, Mauna Kea continued subaerial growth well after the change to late alkalic
volcanism (ca. 330 ka; Sharp and Renne, 2005),
with submergence beginning to outpace growth
only at ca. 130 ka (Moore and Clague, 1992).
As a result of such competing processes, the
dueling balance between growth and subsidence
at the shoreline can terminate at different stages
of compositional evolution. Accordingly, the
record of slope-break (shoreline) submergence (Moore and Campbell, 1987; Moore and
Clague, 1992) provides critical evidence for
declining eruption rates, but does not necessarily coincide with the shift from main-tholeiite
to late-alkalic stage. Additional factors modulating volcano growth include changes in eruption
sites and duration: distal segments of rift zones
can shut down as volcano size increases (e.g.,
Mauna Loa southwest rift zone [Moore et al.,
1990b], Hilo Ridge of Kohala [Lipman and Calvert, 2011]), eruptions become focused higher
on the edifice, and shorter-lived eruptions with
high proportions of a’a to pahoehoe tend to generate steeper slopes higher on volcanoes.
Sparse age-volume results suggest modest
asymmetry in volcano growth, with rapid early
increase in magma supply, followed by a more
protracted waning stage. As detailed later, the
only documented duration for early-alkalic stage
volcanism (Kilauea) is fairly brief (~150 k.y.),
but volume and average magma supply are
relatively large at Kilauea (~2500 km3, 0.017
km3/yr) and Loihi (~1000 km3 in ~125 k.y.,
0.008 km3/yr), in comparison to late-stage
alkalic volcanism at Mauna Kea (~800 km3 in
330 k.y., 0.0025 km3/yr), Kohala (~300 km3 in
~230 k.y., 0.0013 km3/yr), Haleakala (300 km3
in 950 k.y.: 0.0003 km3/yr), and none at Lanai
(Sherrod et al., 2007).
Shifts between compositional stages are
probably all gradational to varying degree
(Clague and Sherrod, in press). The shift from
waxing-alkalic to tholeiitic stage is in progress
at Loihi Seamount, where compositional types
interfinger on upper slopes (Moore et al., 1982;
Garcia et al., 1995a). Thick lava sequences
also interfinger during prolonged transitions
from sustained-tholeiite to waning-alkalic stage
(described as “late-shield”; Sherrod et al., 2007)
at Mauna Kea (Wolfe et al., 1997; Rhodes and
Vollinger, 2004) and Kohala (Lanphere and
Frey, 1987).
1351
Lipman and Calvert
Where stage transitions involve prolonged
interfingering, dating of the change is inherently approximate. Perhaps the shift from earlyalkalic to main-tholeiite stage should be defined
by the initial appearance of abundant tholeiite
(as currently at Loihi)—a time of increasing
magma supply, when the continued eruption
of alkalic basalt becomes volumetrically overwhelmed by tholeiitic lavas. For the change
from main-tholeiite to late-alkalic stage, the
transition could similarly be defined at the initial
appearance of abundant transitional and alkalic
lava. For the growth models in this overview,
however, uncertainties about transition ages are
rarely significant at the precision of available
age control.
GROWTH AND MAGMA-SUPPLY
MODELS
Modeling growth of Hawaiian volcanoes is
complicated by many interacting processes.
Factors favoring augmented growth in edifice
size and height include increasing lava-accumulation and magma-supply rates during the
progression from early-alkalic to main-tholeiite
stage, along with intrusion-driven inflation and
expansion. At large tholeiite-stage edifices, volcano height can be negatively impacted by loaddriven subsidence, summit deflation, caldera
collapse, flank spreading, and catastrophic slope
failures. All Hawaiian volcanoes likely increase
in height rapidly during early submarine growth
because of initially small size. Subaerial volcanoes rise more slowly, even when eruption
rates are higher, as the volcano area becomes
large and subsidence modulates growth by lava
accumulation.
Most previous volcano-growth models for
Hawaii have portrayed age-volume relations
as variants of a flattened bell curve, in which
magma-supply and lava-accumulation rates
increase during early growth, peak during the
tholeiitic stage, and diminish during late alkalic
volcanism. A perceptive early model for Mauna
Kea (Wise, 1982; Fig. 3A) has been proposed
with only modest differences for other volcanoes (Clague, 1987; Garcia et al., 1995a;
Lipman, 1995).
Duration of eruptive stages has also been
evaluated by geodynamic models involving
steady-state plate motion over a fixed hotspot,
as recorded by volcano spacing (Fig. 3C–3D;
Moore and Clague, 1992; DePaolo and Stolper, 1996; DePaolo et al., 2001), but eruptive
behavior in Hawaii appears to be non–steady
state over a wide range of scales. Magma supply
has increased markedly during the last few million years (Bargar and Jackson, 1974; Clague
and Dalrymple, 1987), volcano spacing along
1352
the young end of the Hawaiian Ridge varies
by at least a factor of two (40–80 km), major
fluctuations in magma-generation and eruptive
processes are recorded by the gaps between
islands and seamounts, volcano volumes vary
by an order of magnitude (Table 2), propagation
rates are inconsistent for some adjacent volcanoes, historical magma-supply and eruption
rates have varied at individual volcanoes, and
life spans of volcanoes also may vary substantially as discussed later. Simple time-volume
models, such as depicted in Figs. 3A and 3B,
likely are generalizations of magma-supply
fluctuations with fractal geometry on time
scales from decades or less to that for growth
of individual volcanoes, entire islands, and the
ocean-channel gaps that separate them.
Determining long-term magma supply is
especially challenging (Wright and Klein, 2013;
Poland et al., in press). Short-term shallow
magma supply at volcanoes like Kilauea has
been estimated by combining historical observations, rates measured during eruptions, and
intrusion volumes determined from geodetic
data (Swanson, 1972; Dzurisin et al., 1984;
Dvorak and Dzurisin, 1993; Cayol et al., 2000;
Wright and Klein, 2013). Changes in magma
supply also have been inferred from lava-accumulation rates at dated stratigraphic sections
(e.g., Lipman, 1995; Sharp et al., 1996; Quane
et al., 2000), but accumulation rates inevitably
vary greatly with distance from vents and relation to local topography.
Late growth histories of the older Hawaiian volcanoes that are extinct or nearly so are
constrained by data from subaerial lavas, but
reconstructions of early evolution depend heavily on deep-water sampling. Even with recent
drill-hole and submarine sampling, no Hawaiian
volcano exposes a complete record of all growth
stages. Accordingly, to evaluate magma supply
during assembly of Hawaii, eruption rates that
have been determined for a stage at one volcano
are used to approximate volume-age evolution
at others. For each volcano, one or more growth
models are developed for 100 k.y. intervals
(25 k.y. for Kilauea and Loihi), constrained by
available composition, age, and volume data,
and also by analogies with growth stages at other
volcanoes, to permit inter-volcano comparisons and to interpret overall growth of Hawaii
(Table 3). As these growth models are variably
subjective and dependent on data availability,
uncertainties are accordingly large. One major
uncertainty involves volcanoes of differing size
and volume: do smaller volcanoes have briefer
life spans than large ones, or are they characterized by lower eruption rates, especially during
the main-tholeiite stage? Nevertheless, available
age, compositional, and volume data provide a
Geosphere, October 2013
framework to infer overall growth histories and
make comparisons with geodynamic models.
The time-volume distributions can be adjusted
to varying degrees without violating available
data, but application of consistent assumptions
to the entire suite of volcanoes potentially provides insights about their diverse histories and
the composite assembly of Hawaii.
Existing data are inadequate to evaluate
whether the main-tholeiite stage is characterized
by sustained near-constant magma supply (Fig.
3A; Wise, 1982), by a bell-curve peak (Fig. 3B;
Holcomb et al., 2000), or by major variability
from volcano to volcano. For the historical time
frame at Kilauea and Mauna Loa, eruption and
magma-supply rates have fluctuated on intervals of decades to centuries, perhaps antithetically, with periods of intense eruptions alternating with sustained intervals of reduced activity
(Stearns and Macdonald, 1946; Lipman, 1980a;
Klein, 1982; Swanson et al., 2011; Wright and
Klein, 2013; Gonnermann et al., 2012; Poland
et al., in press). Similar or longer-wavelength
fluctuations are likely to have characterized
earlier activity, but data to evaluate long-term
trends are sparse.
Because the volcanoes of Hawaii differ
substantially in volume (by an order of magnitude or more; Table 2), either the duration of
volcano growth or peak magma supply must
vary greatly. Several alternatives are explored
for growth of less-constrained volcanoes:
(1) near-steady-state progression of volcano
inception, in accord with plate-motion models; (2) semi-equal durations (~1100 k.y.) but
varied peak-eruption rates; and (3) shorter
durations at smaller volcanoes that maximize
peak-eruption rate during the tholeiite stage
(Table 3). In addition, recent ages suggest that
volcano progression has been asynchronous
between the Kea and Loa trends (~N35°W on
Hawaii). Measured and modeled propagation
rates and growth stages, discussed in later sections, suggest that volcanoes grew earlier along
the Loa trend than for similar positions along
the Kea trend, at least for the more recent volcanoes. Accordingly, growth along each trend
is summarized separately, in general order
from younger volcanoes to less-documented
older ones.
These discussions of available age, composition, and volume data, which are the framework
for proposed growth models of individual edifices, provide the basis for evaluating overall
island growth and resulting implications for
geodynamic models of the Hawaiian hotspot/
plume. Readers mainly interested in general
interpretations and conclusions may prefer to go
directly to the sections “Assembly of the Island
of Hawaii” and “Discussion.”
Volcano growth on Hawaii
B
A
D
C
Figure 3. Some prior age-volume and volcano-propagation models for growth of Hawaiian volcanoes. (A) Volume-time framework for the
evolution of Mauna Kea volcano (Wise, 1982); the inferred rapid inception, sustained tholeiite stage, and prolonged late-alkalic stage are
consistent with much of the more recent data summarized in this review. (B) Diagrammatic growth models for Hawaiian volcanoes (Holcomb
et al., 2000, their figure 5B), inferring constant volcano volumes and propagation rates. (C) Estimated ages for stages in the life histories of
volcanoes on or adjacent to the Island of Hawaii (Moore and Clague, 1992, their figure 8), inferring growth at constant propagation rates
based largely on the end of shield building as determined from submerged slope breaks and the compositional change from tholeiite (shield)
to late-alkalic (postshield) stage. (D) Map of Hawaii showing volcano locations as a function of time (DePaolo et al., 2001, their figure 1B),
assuming a Pacific plate velocity of 9 cm/yr (numbered circles indicate volcano positions for which isotopic data are available), superimposed
on the melt-supply model of DePaolo and Stolper (1996). HSDP—Hawaii Scientific Drilling Project. Abbreviations: H—Hualalai; HA—
Haleakala; KI—Kilauea; KO—Kohala; L—Loihi; MK—Mauna Kea; ML—Mauna Loa. See cited papers for details about construction and
interpretation of these published figures.
KEA-TREND VOLCANOES
Because age and volume data are more
robust for the Kea trend, these volcanoes are
discussed first, starting with Kilauea where
composition, age, and eruptive evolution are
constrained by study of its young subaerial
deposits, abundant seismic and other geophysical data on three-dimensional structure,
several multi-kilometer-deep drill holes, and
especially the submersible dives and samples
obtained during the Japan-USA research supported by JAMSTEC during 1998–2005 (Takahashi et al., 2002; Coombs et al., 2006a).
Kilauea
Subaerial and underwater slopes of Kilauea
display strikingly different records of growth.
The on-land surface is mantled by tholeiite
lava varying mainly in olivine content (Wright,
1971), mostly erupted <1.5 ka (Holcomb, 1987;
Geosphere, October 2013
Neal and Lockwood, 2003). Interlayered thin
tephra deposits record prolonged intervals of
volumetrically minor explosive activity, during
which lava eruptions were sparse (Fiske et al.,
2009; Swanson et al., 2012). Drill holes along
Kilauea’s subaerial east rift zone have penetrated similarly uniform tholeiites to depths as
great as 1700 m below present sea level (Quane
et al., 2000).
Offshore of Kilauea, all sampled pillow lavas
along Puna Ridge, the submarine continuation
1353
Lipman and Calvert
Age and Volume
Prior geometric analysis of Kilauea’s volume, including contrasts between subaerial and
submarine lava compositions, suggested a volume of ~10,000 km3 for the edifice, with about
one-quarter emplaced during the waxing-alkalic
stage (Lipman et al., 2006). This volume for the
alkalic part of the edifice, substantially larger
than that of Loihi Seamount at present, may
have been modestly overestimated, because
subaerially erupted shoreline-derived tholeiitic sand forms matrix between alkalic clasts
in some deep debris-flow deposits. The prior
estimate of total Kilauea volume also neglected
deep parts of associated summit and rift-zone
intrusions emplaced within the underlying
Mauna Loa flank, here roughly approximated
as an additional 750–1000 km3 (Appendix A,
Table A1); further interpretation assumes a total
Kilauea volume of ~11,000 km3.
Multiple 40Ar/39Ar incremental-heating ages
on early-alkalic and transitional basalts from
Kilauea’s submarine south flank provide especially tight constraints on ancestral growth of
this volcano, as well as a possible template for
early evolution of other Hawaiian volcanoes
1354
500,000
Thol- Transit- Weakly alkalic
ional
eiitic
Strongly alkalic
250,000
Age, years before present (log scale)
of the east rift zone, are similar tholeiite (Clague
et al., 1995; Johnson et al., 2002). In contrast, no
outcrops of Kilauea tholeiite have been found
along the submarine south flank downslope
from the summit. Below a prominent mid-slope
bench at ~3000 mbsl (meters below sea level)
(MSB, Fig. 1), bedded volcaniclastic rocks
interpreted as debris-flow deposits from ancestral Kilauea (Lipman et al., 2002) contain clasts
of diverse submarine-erupted (high sulfur) alkali
basalt, including nephelinite and tephriphonolite
(Sisson et al., 2002), that are more compositionally diverse than known elsewhere on Hawaiian
volcanoes except during the late “rejuvenated”
stage. These have been interpreted as recording
initial growth of Kilauea, broadly comparable to
the current Loihi Seamount but including lessevolved alkalic compositions. Breccia-matrix
and turbidite sands interbedded with the debrisflow breccias contain glass grains of submarine-erupted alkali basalt, mixed with degassed
tholeiitic grains generated by shoreline entry
of subaerially erupted lavas. This submarine
volcaniclastic sequence thins westward against
breccias of Loa-type tholeiite interpreted as the
underlying flank of Mauna Loa. Above the midslope bench, to the shallowest exposures at 1800
mbsl, scattered bedrock ribs expose only weakly
alkalic to transitional pillow basalts (Fig. 4).
The change to subaerial-type tholeiitic lavas
must lie concealed in shallower water, beneath
the angle-of-repose mantle of shoreline-derived
hyaloclastite.
Clasts below bench
100,000
? ?
Lower
Hilina
50,000
Upper
Hilina
25,000
Above
bench
- east
Pillow rib
- west
?
Two lower flows, Hilina Pali
(Chen et al., 1996)
10,000
5000
Lower
Puna
2500
Kulanaokuaiki
Tephra
(Fiske et al., 2009)
1000
Upper
500 Puna
Three flows (of 437 analyses)
(Wolfe & Morris, 1996b)
250
Historical
100
–2
0
+2
+4
+6
Alkalinity
Figure 4. Summary of alkalinity versus ages of Kilauea lavas, illustrating intermittent eruption of volumetrically minor transitional
basalt during the sustained-tholeiite stage since >50 ka. Calculated alkalinity [(Na2O + K2O) – 0.37*(SiO2 – 39)] is defined as the
weight percent difference in Na2O + K2O between the sample and
the alkali/tholeiitic basalt line of MacDonald and Katsura (1964).
Left column is the subaerial stratigraphic sequence of Kilauea
(Wolfe and Morris, 1996a); more alkalic lavas in the upper right
of the diagram are from the submarine south flank (italic labels).
The strongly alkalic samples are clasts in debris-flow deposits from
below the mid-slope bench (MSB, Fig. 1); weakly alkalic basalts are
from prominent rib outcrops above the western side of the bench;
and submarine transitional basalts form continuous exposures
above the eastern mid-slope bench.
(Calvert and Lanphere, 2006). Inception of
Kilauea no earlier than ca. 250–275 ka is inferred
from high-precision plateau ages of 234 ± 9 and
238 ± 10 ka on phlogopite from nephelinites that
record low magma supply generated by small
degrees of source melting at initial stages of
volcano growth. Ages on weakly alkalic pillow
basalt above the mid-slope bench range down to
135 ka. Two ages from a thick breccia section
of transitional lava are as young as 65 ± 28 ka
(Hanyu et al., 2010), suggesting that main-stage
tholeiites only became dominant at ca. 100 ka or
Geosphere, October 2013
even later (Fig. 4). These young ages for initial
eruptions and shift to the tholeiite stage contrast
with prior inference of earlier volcano inception
(600–700 ka) based on plate-motion models
(DePaolo and Stolper, 1996).
Geothermal drill holes along Kilauea’s east
rift have penetrated tholeiite sections 1700 m
or more thick (Quane et al., 2000), documenting proximal emplacement of this basalt type
at depths nearly to that of the shallowest alkalic
pillows on the offshore slope, helping to bracket
the shift between compositional stages and
Volcano growth on Hawaii
ume of ~11,000 km3, requires rapidly increasing average magma supply since 100 ka, with a
convex-upward slope that projects toward higher
future rates (Fig. 5B). Such a supply rate also
seems improbably high to be applicable for the
sustained-tholeiite stages at older volcanoes. As
presently modeled, a volcano as large as Mauna
Loa could maintain a rate of 0.2 km3/yr for at
most 100 k.y., even if its sustained-tholeiite stage
were relatively brief (~700 k.y.; see section on
Mauna Loa, especially Fig. 12). Even a lower
present magma supply, reaching 0.1 km3/yr at
Kilauea after 100 k.y. in the sustained-tholeiite
stage, produces a growth rate as high or higher
than modeled for a modestly asymmetrical
TABLE 4. ALTERNATIVE KILAUEA GROWTH MODELS, AT 25 K.Y. INTERVALS
A. 0.10 km3/yr current rate
B. 0.20 km3/yr current rate
Age
Volume
Magma supply
Volume
Magma supply
(ka)
Event
(103 km3)
(km3/yr)
(103 km3)
(km3/yr)
275
Inception
0.001
0.001
250
Waxing alkalic
0.002
0.04
0.002
0.04
225
Waxing alkalic
0.004
0.08
0.004
0.08
200
Waxing alkalic
0.007
0.14
0.007
0.14
175
Alkalic-transitional
0.012
0.24
0.012
0.24
150
Transitional
0.024
0.45
0.018
0.38
125
Transitional
0.040
0.80
0.025
0.54
100
Transitional-tholeiite
0.055
1.19
0.034
0.74
75
Sustained tholeiite
0.070
1.56
0.048
1.03
50
Sustained tholeiite
0.082
1.90
0.070
1.48
25
Sustained tholeiite
0.094
2.20
0.120
2.38
0
Sustained tholeiite
0.100
2.43
0.200
4.00
Total:
11.0
Total:
11.0
Note: Italics indicate the interval of compositional transition; colors indicate times of sustained compositional
uniformity.
Figure 5. Age and magma-supply growth models for Kilauea,
at 25 k.y. intervals. (A) Linear scale for magma supply.
(B) Semi-log scale that better
illustrates variations during low
magma supply. Data are from
Table 4, which also lists interval
volumes.
Magma supply, km3/yr (linear)
Magma-Supply and Growth Models
A prior effort to model growth of Kilauea
(Lipman et al., 2006), based on compositions
and ages of submarine samples collected during
JAMSTEC research, a revised edifice volume,
and published estimates of late-20th-century
magma supply (~0.1 km3/yr; Swanson, 1972;
Dvorak and Dzurisin, 1993), became the starting point for this summary that refines the
Kilauea result and applies similar methods to
the older volcanoes.
Diverse observations now suggest that
magma supply at Kilauea has varied sizably in
geologically recent time. Data from the continuing east rift eruption (since 1983) have documented varied eruptions rates, up to 0.2 km3/yr
(Wolfe, 1988; Wright and Klein, 2013; Poland
et al., 2012). Interpretation of geodetic data suggests that the total magma supply has been close
to 0.18 km3/yr since 1961, including intermittent dike intrusions along rift zones during this
interval (Cayol et al., 2000). Evaluation of the
longer-term historical record of Kilauea eruptions, in conjunction with analysis of seismic
data on magma-accumulation sites, also suggests supply rates to ~0.18 km3/yr since ca. 1960,
increasing from 19th- and earlier 20th-century
rates of only 0.01–0.08 km3/yr (Pietruszka and
Garcia, 1999; Wright and Klein, 2013). Examination of prehistorical eruptive deposits has
begun to document even more complex variability in eruptive rates at Kilauea, with multihundred-year periods of lava eruption at high
rates alternating with similarly long intervals
dominated by explosive eruptions of only modest volume (Swanson et al., 2011, 2012).
Age-volume relations for the overall growth of
Kilauea, as modeled here (Table 4; Fig. 5), show
that magma-supply rates as high as 0.2 km3/yr
must be recent, intermittent, or both. Such a rate,
if representative during the ~100 k.y. duration
of main-stage tholeiite eruptions, would have
yielded a volcano volume almost twice that estimated from geometric modeling. Early growth
during the waxing-alkalic stage at Kilauea is
modeled to fit the estimated volume for this
interval (~2.5 × 103 km3, during 275–100 ka;
Lipman et al., 2006), so even a present-day rate
of 0.2 km3/yr, constrained by a total Kilauea vol-
0.25
0.20
0.20 km3/yr
current rate
0.15
0.10 km3/yr
current rate
0.10
0.05
0.00
Magma supply, km3/yr (semi-log)
suggesting that the change may have been fairly
abrupt. Drill-hole samples have ages as old
as 351 ± 12 ka by the unspiked K-Ar method
(Guillou et al., 1997b), but their reliability has
been questioned because of inconsistency with
40
Ar/39Ar dates from submarine alkalic rocks
and potential for excess Ar and K loss to disturb ages in low-K samples (Calvert and Lanphere, 2006).
Rare transitional flows and tephra with atypically high TiO2 and alkalis at low SiO2 (3 analyses of 437 tabulated for Kilauea; Wolfe and Morris, 1996b), erupted in the last few thousand years
at Kilauea, support inference that the change
to main-tholeiite stage is complex (Fig. 4) and
may still be incomplete, consistent with the relatively modest current volume estimated for the
growing volcano. Examples include the A.D.
600–1000 Kulanaokuaiki tephra (Dzurisin et al.,
1995; Fiske et al., 2009), an associated lava flow
(Lipman et al., 2006, their table 5), older flows
of transitional basalt in Hilina fault scarps (Chen
et al., 1996), and a young alkalic flow at the base
of the distal Puna Ridge (Clague et al., 1995;
Johnson et al., 2002).
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
150
100
50
0
1
0.20 km3/yr
current rate
0.10 km3/yr
current rate
0.1
0.01
0.001
300
250
200
Age, ka
Geosphere, October 2013
1355
Lipman and Calvert
magma-time plot for other volcanoes (see sections on Kohala, Mauna Kea, and Hualalai, especially Figs. 9, 10, and 13; also Wise, 1982; Frey
et al., 1990; Garcia et al., 1995a; Lipman, 1995).
More rapid onset of tholeiitic magma supply
to rates as high as 0.2 km3/yr would require a
strongly asymmetrical growth-time curve, relatively brief period of peak magma supply, and
prolonged decline in supply rates.
As an additional factor, the high supply rates
estimated from geodetic and seismic data for
rift extension during the past 50 years (Cayol
et al., 2000; Wright and Klein, 2013) omit any
component of passive flank motion and slumping driven by gravitational spreading (Fiske
and Jackson, 1972; Borgia et al., 2000; Morgan
et al., 2003; Byrne et al., 2013). The model of
Cayol et al. (2000) infers average dike-induced
rift opening of 40 cm/yr, which seems unsustainable for the prolonged duration of the tholeiitic stage at Kilauea. Such a dike-intrusion rate,
if active since inception of tholeiite eruptions at
ca. 100 ka, would have produced a zone 40 km
wide of 100% dikes along Kilauea’s proximal
east rift. In contrast, the intense dike swarm
forming >40% (to 70%) of rock along the northwest rift at the deeply eroded Koolau volcano on
Oahu, which appears geometrically analogous
to Kilauea, is ~10 km wide adjacent to its caldera and decreases to ~5 km width 15 km down
rift (Walker, 1986, 1987).
Because of these complexities and uncertainties, the preferred model for long-term magma
supply at Kilauea is that in Fig. 5A, gradually
reaching a multi-thousand-year average of 0.1
km3/yr since inception of its main-tholeiite stage
at ca. 100 ka or younger.
Kohala
Kohala is discussed before Mauna Kea
because its overall growth history is better constrained by dating, providing a possible template
for modeling early evolution of other Hawaiian
volcanoes. Recent underwater studies provide
unique information on early edifice growth at
Kohala, long recognized as the oldest subaerial
volcano on Hawaii, and show that this volcano
is larger than previously thought (Table 2).
Prior to the JAMSTEC-supported dives during 1998–2002, virtually all published compositional and age data for Kohala had been obtained
on land, where mixed tholeiitic to weakly alkalic
basalts (Pololu Volcanics) are capped by waning alkalic-stage lavas of the Hawi Volcanics
(Stearns and Macdonald, 1946; Lanphere and
Frey, 1987). However, many of the analyzed
subaerial samples, especially tholeiites of the
Pololu Volcanics, have been affected by variable
to extreme alkali leaching and exchange (Lip-
1356
man et al., 1990). Potassium-argon ages that
have sizable uncertainties suggest that exposed
Pololu rocks range from greater than 450 to ca.
300 ka, and that the overlying waning-alkalic
lavas were erupted from ca. 280 to 120 ka,
possibly as recently as 60 ka (McDougall and
Swanson, 1972; Sherrod et al., 2007). Largely
or entirely tholeiitic lower parts of the Pololu
Volcanics become more compositionally diverse
upward (Lanphere and Frey, 1987), recording a
broad “late-shield” transition, here estimated at
ca. 350 ka (280 ka in Moore and Clague [1992]).
A prominent slope break at 1000–1100 mbsl,
continuously traceable for at least 60 km around
the north submarine flank of the volcano, records
submergence associated with waning of the
sustained-tholeiitic stage at ca. 400 ka (Moore
and Clague, 1992; Smith et al., 2002) and shows
that Kohala was once much higher than its present summit elevation of 1678 m. Two large submarine slope failures of Kohala’s north flank,
the Laupahoehoe and Pololu slumps, occurred
late during the sustained-tholeiite eruptions,
then were onlapped by younger lavas from
Mauna Kea (Smith et al., 2002). Only a few tholeiite lavas have been sampled from underwater
slopes, but abundant turbidite sandstones from
the submarine north flank (37 samples from 3
dives) have uniform tholeiitic glass compositions without intermixed transitional or alkalic
compositions, providing an indirect record of
a long-lived tholeiite stage at Kohala (Lipman
and Calvert, 2011; M.L. Coombs, 2010, written
commun.).
The southeast-trending subaerial rift zone
of Kohala is interpreted as continuing beneath
Mauna Kea to reappear as the submarine Hilo
Ridge (Figs. 1 and 6), as initially proposed by
Holcomb et al. (2000) based on correlation of
submarine slope breaks. This interpretation, in
contrast to the more common depiction of Hilo
Ridge as a rift zone of Mauna Kea (Fiske and
Jackson, 1972; Moore and Clague, 1992; Wolfe
et al., 1997), is supported by a residual-gravity
anomaly along the Hilo Ridge that projects
more directly toward Kohala than toward Mauna
Kea (Kauahikaua et al., 2000) and by evidence
for early inception of the ridge. Transitional to
weakly alkalic pillow lavas that are overlain by
tholeiitic picrite at the toe of Hilo Ridge (Fig. 7),
interpreted to mark the change from waxingalkalic to tholeiitic volcanism, have yielded
40
Ar/39Ar plateau ages of ca. 1150 ± 35 ka (Lipman and Calvert, 2011). The ridge also has an
overall reverse magnetic direction, requiring the
bulk of rift growth before 760 ka (Naka et al.,
2002, p. 46), much earlier than any dated tholeiitic lavas on subaerial Kohala (ca. 400 ka). By
analogy with the 150–175 k.y. span interpreted
for the waxing-alkalic stage at Kilauea, inception
Geosphere, October 2013
of early-alkalic volcanism at Kohala is estimated
at 1300 ka (Table 5). These ages require the
growth of Hilo Ridge before plausible inception
of Mauna Kea related to semi-steady propagation along the Kea trend. For Hilo Ridge to be
part of Mauna Kea would require rapid propagation from Kohala to Mauna Kea (at least 20
cm/yr, even if Kohala began as early as 1.5 Ma),
then slowing greatly from Mauna Kea to Kilauea
(~5 cm/yr).
The reinterpreted Kohala east rift zone, as
inferred from the summit to the distal toe of
Hilo Ridge, is the longest among volcanoes
on Hawaii Island (135 km). In comparison,
Kilauea’s east rift zone, including its submarine
extension along Puna Ridge, is 115 km long.
The only longer Hawaiian rift zone would be
the east rift zone of Haleakala and its submarine
continuation along Hana Ridge, with an overall
length of 150 km.
Hana Ridge offers an instructive geometric
analog for evaluating size and geometry of the
inferred rift-zone connection from subaerial
Kohala to Hilo Ridge. This comparison can be
illustrated (Fig. 8) by transposing major morphologic features of eastern Haleakala onto
Kohala (present-day shoreline, submerged
slope break at ~2000 mbsl that marks decline
in tholeiitic-stage eruptions, and approximate
base of Hana Ridge adjusted on its north side
for large-scale slumping). The distance from the
present-day summits of the two volcanoes to
submerged slope breaks along their ridge crests
is similar (80–90 km), even though Hana Ridge
continues 15 km farther underwater than the
distal Hilo Ridge. The north-flank slope break
is convex northward for both volcanoes, despite
the presence of large submarine flank failures
(Laupahoehoe slump for Kohala, Hana slump
for Haleakala). The northward convexity along
the northeast coast and submerged slope break
of Hawaii results from younger infilling of lavas
from Mauna Kea and also probably from late
tholeiitic-stage Kohala (Smith et al., 2002, their
figure 4). The geometrically similar convexity on the north flank of Hana Ridge probably
records continued lava accumulation along this
originally subaerial segment after slope failure
generated the Hana slump (Eakins and Robinson, 2006). In contrast, the embayed south-flank
slope break on Hana Ridge, which is asymmetrically close to the ridge crest, suggests that
this side of the ridge was modified by late slope
failures, and the resulting deposits are now concealed beneath younger rocks from the Island of
Hawaii. Curvature of Hana Ridge appears somewhat less than that projected for the Kohala rift
zone, but even so, the south flank of the transposed Hana Ridge would pass beneath Hilo and
project beneath the summit of Mauna Kea.
Geosphere, October 2013
–8
–4
A
No V.E.
Oceanic crust
Paleo S.L. (–1,100 m)
V.E. = 2.8 ×
Water
Mahukona?
NW rift zone
Kohala (subaerial)
Summit
B
–10
–5
5
Sea
level
–10
–5
B
L
L
MK-SM
50
50
0
Hilo Ridge
KOHALA-SM
KOHALA-SA
Shield
tholeiite
H
Km
5 MK
summit
Sea
level
0
Kohala (submarine)
Mauna Kea, N slope
Curved longitudinal profile A-A′, along crest of Kohala and its rift zones
Figure 6. Cross sections illustrating interpreted long east rift of Kohala, onlapped by Mauna Kea (V.E.—vertical exaggeration). Locations of sections are shown on Figure 1. (A) Arcuate longitudinal profile A–A′, along
the crest of Kohala and its rift zones. Basal surface of Mauna Kea is constrained by the interpreted contact
at the slope break at 1100 meters below sea level along Hilo Ridge (Holcomb et al., 2000). S.L.—sea level.
(B) Radial profile B–B′, from the summit of Mauna Kea to the northeast base of the island; compare Wolfe
et al. (1997, their figure 3). H—Hamakua Volcanics; L—Laupahoehoe Volcanics; MK—Mauna Kea; SA—
subaerial; SM—submarine.
–12
S.L.
–4
–8
4
–12
Elevation, km
S.L.
NW
Section B-B’
4
Section A-A′
A
A′
V.E. = 5 ×
No V.E.
30 Km
Laupahoehoe
slump
-400 m slope break
-1,100 m slope break
100 KM
100 KM
SE
B′
Volcano growth on Hawaii
1357
Lipman and Calvert
Figure 7. Bathymetric map of Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology dive site K215, along pillow lavas on the south flank of distal Hilo Ridge,
showing locations of dated transitional-alkalic basalt and overlying >600 m of
tholeiitic picrite, and interpreted geologic relations (Lipman and Calvert, 2011).
Non-shaded areas are inferred to be largely exposed pillow basalt. Water depth
contour interval is 10 m. Location shown on Figure 1.
Age and Volume
Dates from subaerial samples of the waningalkalic stage document a broad transition from
tholeiitic eruptions at ca. 350–300 ka and probable termination of Kohala volcanism at ca.
120 ka (Sherrod et al., 2007). Interpretation
of Hilo Ridge as the distal east rift of Kohala
(Holcomb et al., 2000), in conjunction with ages
of transitional-composition basalt at its toe (ca.
1150 ka; Lipman and Calvert, 2011), allows
the first estimated duration for the sustainedtholeiite stage (~800–850 k.y.) of a Hawaiian
volcano. This duration is substantially longer
than that inferred from prior plate-motion
models (~500 k.y. [Moore and Clague, 1992];
600 k.y. [DePaolo and Stolper, 1996]).
These results also imply that the 135-kmlong east rift zone developed to near-total length
early during growth of Kohala and imply a volume (Table 2) substantially larger than the prior
estimate of 36,000 km3 (Robinson and Eakins,
2006). Any geometrically simple topographic
profile connecting Hilo Ridge to Kohala requires
the rift zone to have been subaerial at shallow
depth beneath the north flank of Mauna Kea,
limiting Mauna Kea to a much smaller volcano
perched on the south slope of the large Kohala
rift zone (Fig. 6). Kohala would have begun
largely or entirely on ocean floor as an elongate
northwest-southeast edifice without significant
interference from pre-existing volcanoes. Rapid
early growth of Hilo Ridge (Lipman and Calvert, 2011) suggests that at least distal parts of
Kohala reached near-present size prior to major
growth of Mauna Kea. Late interfingering of
lavas from these volcanoes may have been relatively minor, as Kohala eruptions increasingly
became focused closer to its present summit.
A more modest addition to the total volume
of Kohala results from reduced estimates for
Mahukona, as discussed for that volcano. If
the volume of Mahukona is ~6000 km3 (Garcia
et al., 2012), or if this construct were the distal
TABLE 5. ALTERNATIVE KOHALA GROWTH MODELS, AT 100 K.Y. INTERVALS, CONSTRAINED BY ESTIMATED TOTAL VOLUME OF 64 × 103 KM3
A. Sustained-tholeiite magma supply
B. High peak-tholeiite magma supply
Age
Volume
Cumulative
Magma supply
Volume
Cumulative
Magma supply
(ka)
Event
(103 km3)
(103 km3)
(km3/yr)
(103 km3)
(103 km3)
(km3/yr)
1300
Inception (alkalic)
0.001
0.001
Transition to tholeiite, ~ 1150 ka
1200
0.011
0.60
0.6
0.013
0.70
0.7
1100
Begin tholeiite
0.078
4.45
5.1
0.075
4.40
5.1
1000
Sustained tholeiite
0.100
8.90
14.0
0.200
13.75
18.9
900
Sustained tholeiite
0.105
10.25
24.2
0.140
17.00
35.9
800
Sustained tholeiite
0.100
10.25
34.5
0.085
11.25
47.1
700
Sustained tholeiite
0.085
9.25
43.7
0.056
7.05
54.2
600
Sustained tholeiite
0.075
8.00
51.7
0.036
4.60
58.8
500
Sustained tholeiite
0.055
6.50
58.2
0.020
2.80
61.6
Sustained tholeiite
400
0.025
4.00
62.2
0.010
1.50
63.1
Transitional volcanism, after ~ 340 ka
300
0.004
1.45
63.7
0.003
0.65
63.7
Hilo Ridge submerged, after 130 ka
200
0.001
0.25
63.9
0.001
0.20
63.9
Termination at 120 ka
100
0.000
0.05
64.0
0.000
0.05
64.0
64.0
64.0
0
0.000
0.0
0.000
0.00
Note: Bold indicates best-constrained events and ages, and total cumulative volumes. Shading indicates duration of sustained-tholeiite stage.
1358
Geosphere, October 2013
21° N
Volcano growth on Hawaii
HA
Subaerial
Hana Ridge
Submarine
K
La
M-G
up
a
Slu hoe
mp hoe
KO
M-C
Kiho
lo R
ona
NK
H
HU
e
R
na
idg
Pu
mp
Slu
19° N
Hilo Ridge
MK
ML
KL
100 km
156°
LO
154°
Figure 8. Diagram comparing the geometry of Hilo Ridge with Hana Ridge of Haleakala. Solid line is the constructional base of Hana Ridge; dotted line is the slope break marking the original submarine-subaerial shoreline at the
end of shield growth; dashed line is the crest of the rift zone. South flank of Hana Ridge is embayed by landslide
scars and partly covered by deposits of the Laupahoehoe Slump. Geometry is similar when these features of Hana
Ridge are juxtaposed onto Kohala, Hilo Ridge, and the rift crest beneath Mauna Kea. Abbreviations as in Figure 1.
west rift zone of Kohala onlapped by a Hualalai
rift, then half or more of its previously estimated
volume (15,500 km3; Robinson and Eakins,
2006) becomes part of Kohala. Based on a
simple geometric model of elongate ellipsoidal
prisms for Hilo Ridge and northwest rifts of
Kohala, while retaining the smaller Mahukona
estimate from Garcia et al. (2012), a revised volume for Kohala is ~64,000 km3 (Table 2; Appendix B, Table B2), nearly as large as previously
estimated for Haleakala (69,800 km3; Robinson
and Eakins, 2006). Of this increased Kohala
volume, 7500 km3 was previously included with
Mahukona and 20,000 km3 with Mauna Kea
(Hilo Ridge and landward continuation).
Growth Model
By these volume interpretations, Kohala is
among the largest Hawaiian volcanoes. Its lifespan (~1200 k.y.) and duration of main-tholeiitic
stage (~800–850 k.y.) are relatively well con-
strained by the recent ages from the Hilo Ridge
(Lipman and Calvert, 2011), in conjunction with
prior K-Ar dating of its late-alkalic stage and
analogy with duration of the early-alkalic stage
at Kilauea. The Kohala ages provide the only
measured duration for the main-tholeiite stage
at a Hawaiian volcano, and simple geometric
modeling of its growth as dominated by a mildly
asymmetric trend of sustained tholeiite eruptions (Fig. 9A) yields peak magma-supply rates
of ~0.10 km3/yr that are similar to estimates of
long-term historical rates at Kilauea (Swanson,
1972; Dzurisin et al., 1984; Wright and Klein,
2013). A rate this high can characterize only a
fraction of Kohala’s tholeiite stage; otherwise,
its total volume would be even larger than the
64,000 km3 estimated here (Table 2). An alternative growth model, in which magma supply
becomes comparable to the 0.20 km3/yr peak
rate during recent Kilauea activity, produces a
high-amplitude short-wavelength growth curve
Geosphere, October 2013
(Fig. 9B) that could persist for only a brief
interval without exceeding the total volume of
this volcano. Even Mauna Loa, with its greater
total volume, yields a compressed growth
curve at such magma production rates. Such a
short-duration high magma supply would also
be inconsistent with a large-diameter hotspot
source (100–150 km), as commonly inferred for
the Hawaiian chain from diverse geochemical
and geophysical evidence (e.g., Ribe and Christensen, 1999; DePaolo et al., 2001).
No estimates have been published for volumes of the late-alkalic lavas at Kohala, but no
more than a few hundred cubic kilometers seems
likely, judging by the widely exposed transitional
and tholeiitic flows low on subaerial slopes and
absence of alkalic clasts or sand grains in landslide and turbidite deposits sampled on the north
submarine flank during the JAMSTEC dives.
For a volume of ~300 km3, erupted between 350
and 120 ka, average late-alkalic magma supply
1359
Lipman and Calvert
A Sustained growth
B High peak-tholeiite growth—linear
(Kilauea @ 0.1 km3/yr)
(Kilauea @ 0.2 km3/yr)
0.25
Magma supply, km3/yr (linear)
Kilauea
0.20
Mauna Loa
A
0.15
0.10
0.05
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.10
0.01
1400
Mauna Kea
Based on reinterpretation of the size and shape
of Kohala including the Hilo Ridge, Mauna
Kea is interpreted as a topographically high
edifice (4205 m) of relatively modest volume
(22,000 km3) among the volcanoes of Hawaii,
500
0
500
0
0.10
0.01
0.00
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
Age, ka
would have been ~0.0013 km3/yr, significantly
lower than for the shorter duration of waxingalkalic eruptions at Kilauea or Loihi.
Despite uncertainties, the time-volume plots
for Kohala provide a possible template for
inferring growth rates at other less-constrained
volcanoes. Based on its interpreted inception
at ca. 1300 (± 50?) ka, and that of Kilauea at
275 ka, the distance between these two volcanoes (88 km) yields a propagation rate of
8.6 ± ~0.4 cm/yr. This rate, similar to that for the
entire Hawaiian Ridge (8.6 ± 0.2 cm/yr; Clague
and Dalrymple, 1987) and to current motion of
the Pacific plate (~7 cm/yr; http://sideshow.jpl
.nasa.gov/post/series.html), can then be used to
infer inception ages for other volcanoes along
the Kea trend. As discussed later, interpretation
of propagation rates is more complex for volcanoes of the Loa trend.
1000
0
Magma supply, km3/yr (semi--log)
1400
0.00
1360
0.20
0.00
0.00
Magma supply, km3/yr (semi--log)
Figure 9. Age and magma-supply growth models for Kohala,
at 100 k.y. intervals, in comparison to Kilauea (Fig. 5) and
Mauna Loa (Fig. 12). (A) Sustained-tholeiite growth (Kilauea
at 0.1 km3/yr). (B) High peaktholeiite growth (Kilauea at 0.2
km3/yr). The semi-log scale better illustrates variations during
intervals of low magma supply.
Data are from Table 5, which
also lists interval and cumulative volumes.
Magma supply, km3/yr (linear)
0.25
which onlaps the flank of a much larger Kohala.
The late eruptive record of Mauna Kea has been
deciphered in detail, both from surface geology
(Wolfe et al., 1997) and from the impressively
documented HSDP holes targeted to penetrate
Mauna Kea lavas near Hilo (DePaolo and Stolper, 1996; Sharp and Renne, 2005; Stolper et al.,
2004; Rhodes and Vollinger, 2004; Stolper et al.,
2009; among many publications). In contrast,
the early growth history of Mauna Kea remains
poorly known.
The 3506 m HSDP2 hole (Stolper et al., 2009)
contains an ~500 k.y. record of upper parts of
the sustained-tholeiite stage and the change to
late-alkalic lavas. The lowermost 2 km of the
HSDP hole consist of submarine-emplaced
tholeiitic pillow lavas and hyaloclastite breccias, all tholeiitic but including more variable
compositional subgroups than characterize
other main-stage tholeiites such as at Mauna
Loa (Stolper et al., 2004; Rhodes and Vollinger,
2004). Extrapolation of 40Ar/39Ar ages suggests
that the submarine section accumulated from ca.
635 to 400 ka (Sharp and Renne, 2005), when
(at 1080 m depth in the hole) an abrupt change
to subaerial lavas of similar tholeiitic composition continues to 352 m (ca. 330 ka). The
Geosphere, October 2013
1000
Age, ka
entire 3.1 km tholeiitic sequence accumulated
at an average rate of 8–9 mm/yr. Above 352 m
to the top of the Mauna Kea section at 245 m
(>200 ka), interlayered alkalic to tholeiitic lavas
(Hamakua Volcanics) define evolution from the
main-stage tholeiite to more uniform late-alkalic
lavas and tephra (Laupahoehoe Volcanics) that
are largely confined to upper subaerial slopes of
the volcano. These compositionally transitional
flows accumulated at a much lower average rate,
~0.9 mm/yr (Sharp and Renne, 2005), and were
capped at ca. 100 ka by Mauna Loa lavas in the
upper 245 m of the hole.
The oldest subaerial lavas on Mauna Kea,
the Hamakua Volcanics, include interbedded
tholeiitic and alkalic flows with ages (K-Ar
determinations only) of ca. 300–65 ka (Wolfe
et al., 1997; Sherrod et al., 2007). The Hamakua
Volcanics therefore are at least largely correlative with the transitional-composition lavas at
352–245 m in the drill hole. The alkalic Laupahoehoe Volcanics on upper slopes of Mauna Kea
have ages from 65 ka to 4–5 ka (summarized by
Sherrod et al., 2007); no deposits in the HSDP
hole are equivalent to the Laupahoehoe rocks.
Diverse compositional, morphologic, and
structural features of Mauna Kea are consistent
Volcano growth on Hawaii
with its interpretation as a relatively small volcano in volume, despite the high elevation of its
summit. Without Hilo Ridge (here interpreted
as a distal part of Kohala), Mauna Kea lacks
morphologically or geophysically defined sizable rift zones. Late-alkalic vents scatter widely
on its flanks without clear alignment that might
reflect rift geometry, in contrast to more linear trends of late vents on volcanoes such as
Haleakala, Kohala, and Hualalai. The volume
of waning-stage alkalic lavas on Mauna Kea,
estimated at 875 km3 (Wolfe et al., 1997), also
seems large relative to overall size of this volcano, in contrast to 300 km3 for the much bigger Haleakala edifice (Sherrod et al., 2003).
The apparent less-complete development of a
sustained-tholeiite stage at Mauna Kea, in comparison to other Hawaiian volcanoes, may be
related to the lower magma-supply rates modeled in following sections.
Additionally, the HSDP hole encountered
compositional complexities in the 3.1 km maintholeiite sequence (Stolper et al., 2004; Rhodes
et al., 2012) that could be consistent with relatively small edifice volume, low magma supply,
or interfingering with concurrently growing
Kohala (compare projected location of Hilo
Ridge’s south flank beneath Mauna Kea, at
the HSDP site; Fig. 8). Almost a third (31%)
of the submarine glass samples from the drill
hole are low-Si tholeiite (<50% SiO2) that are
atypical in the main-tholeiite stage at Kilauea
and Mauna Loa (<1% of the analyses for these
volcanoes, as tabulated by Wolfe and Morris
[1996b]). Only about a third of the section, at
800–1950 m depth corresponding to ages of ca.
380–515 ka (Sharp and Renne, 2005), consists
mainly of high-Si tholeiite; within this interval
are two excursions to low-Si tholeiite. Deeper
in the hole, proportions of high- and low-Si
tholeiite are subequal, and the longest interval without low-Si samples (2650–2800 m)
has been interpreted to span only ~20 k.y. (ca.
595–615 ka; Stolper et al., 2004; Sharp and
Renne, 2005). These tholeiites are compositionally more variable than thick main-stage
sequences where sampled on other volcanoes
such as Mauna Loa (Garcia et al., 1995b) or
Kilauea (Quane et al., 2000). The abundance of
low-Si tholeiite at Mauna Kea is consistent with
lower partial melting and magma supply during
shield growth than typical of other Hawaiian
volcanoes (Sisson et al., 2002).
These compositional variations, and repeated
alternation of subaerially erupted hyaloclastites
with pillow basalts in the drill hole, might also in
part result from interfingering with another concurrently growing volcano. In the drill hole at
2000–2900 m depth (ca. 520–625 ka; Sharp and
Renne, 2005), degassed hyaloclastites (erupted
on land, quenched at the shoreline) interfinger
with pillow lavas that erupted underwater. The
Hilo Ridge crest, projected 15 km north of the
HSDP site, would have been near sea level in
the vicinity of the drill site during formation of
the bench at 1100 mbsl (425–450 ka, estimated
from isostatic subsidence at 2.4–2.6 mm/yr
[Moore, 1987]). Hyaloclastites in the drill hole
could have come from the shoreline of one volcano, while pillow lavas erupted from the other
(Lipman and Calvert, 2011). High-Si tholeiites
of Kea-trend volcanoes are petrologically similar, making sources challenging to distinguish,
but isotopic studies also suggest lavas from
more than one volcano in the drill hole: the “lost
volcano” of Blichert-Toft and Albarede (2009).
Age and Volume
Based on results from subaerial and the HSDP
samples (Wolfe et al., 1997; Sharp and Renne,
2005), Mauna Kea progressed from maintholeiite to late-alkalic stage during a lengthy
transition interval from 330 to 65 ka, and is now
near the end of its lifetime, at least in terms of
total eruptive volume. The subaerial edifice continued to grow during much of this interval, as
indicated by the submerged offshore slope break
that marks decline in growth, at a water depth
of 400 mbsl with an estimated age of 130 ka
(Moore and Clague, 1992). The prolonged
transitional volcanism and delayed decline in
subaerial growth at Mauna Kea is in contrast to
these events at Kohala, where the compositional
change and shoreline submergence appear to
have been nearly concurrent at ca. 350 ka.
The downward-revised volume estimate,
from ~42,000 to 22,000 km3 (Table 2; Appendix B, Table B3), results mainly from exclusion of Hilo Ridge and its landward projection
beneath Mauna Kea. Also excluded is the
Laupahoehoe slump area, depicted as part of
Mauna Kea by Robinson and Eakins (2006)
but interpreted here, and by Smith et al. (2002),
as the northeast flank of Kohala overlain at a
submerged slope break (1100 mbsl) by Mauna
Kea lavas. The southwestern boundary between
Mauna Kea and Hualalai is inferred to involve
steep interfingering, because these two volcanoes are interpreted to have grown concurrently, at similar distance along the trend of the
Hawaiian Ridge, and with similar ages of eruptive decline as marked by 130 ka submerged
slope breaks (400 mbsl). Geometry of the deep
boundary with Mauna Loa to the south is less
certain, but also inferred to be steep in most
sectors. Mauna Loa is only 25 km farther along
the Hawaiian Ridge propagation trend, and the
volcano-propagation model developed in a later
section predicts nearly concurrent inception of
these two volcanoes, resulting in large overlap
Geosphere, October 2013
in the sustained-tholeiite stages. In addition,
Mauna Loa as the larger volcano may have a
longer overall life span, and initial eruptions
there could have begun earlier than projected
from simple plate-motion models. Finally,
because of higher magma-supply rates, Mauna
Loa would likely have grown more rapidly and
may have encroached on a concurrently active
Mauna Kea.
A relatively minor uncertainty involves the
probability that deep solidified intrusions of
Mauna Kea magma, which generate the positive
gravity anomaly below the summit, continue
at depth into the underlying flank of Kohala.
Assuming that the total thickness of the Kohala
flank could be as much as 10 km, reaching as
shallow as sea level (Fig. 6), and that intrusive
feeders and solidified tholeiite-stage reservoirs
were as much as 5 km in radius beneath Mauna
Kea, this volume could be ~800 km3, but well
within uncertainties for the total volume. In the
absence of geophysically detectable rift zones,
no sizable volume of deep dike intrusions seems
likely beneath the Mauna Kea edifice.
Growth Models
As a mid-sized volcano, for which age and
volume are well constrained only for late growth,
the early history of Mauna Kea is modeled by
analogy with information from other Hawaiian
volcanoes. Based on propagation of 8.6 cm/yr
along the Kea trend as bracketed by results from
Kilauea and Kohala (Table 3), volcanism at
Mauna Kea is modeled to have begun at 850 ka,
with a relatively brief ~400 k.y. duration for its
sustained-tholeiite stage, and a likely peak eruption rate of ~0.07 km3/yr (Table 6; Fig. 10A).
Alternatively, if overall lifespan (1100 k.y.)
and duration of the sustained-tholeiitic stage
(700 k.y.) were closer to that for Kohala, the
peak eruption rate would have been lower,
~0.06 km3/yr (Fig. 10B). Such an early inception and long lifespan, however, would require
divergent propagation rates between Mauna
Kea and adjacent volcanoes, rapid from Kohala
and much slower to Kilauea. In either case, the
highest eruption rate is about two-thirds the
0.1 km3/yr inferred for peak 100 k.y. intervals
at Kohala or observed at present-day Kilauea.
For Mauna Kea to have achieved even a brief
interval of tholeiitic eruptions at a rate as high as
0.1 km3/yr, its modeled eruptive duration would
have been shorter, ~700 k.y. with a sustainedtholeiite stage of only 250–300 k.y. (Fig. 10C),
timing that appears inconsistent with the ages
from deep in the HSDP hole (Sharp and Renne,
2005). With an estimated volume of 875 km3
(Wolfe et al., 1997) and a 330 k.y. duration for
the prolonged transitional and waning-alkalic
stage at Mauna Kea (Sharp and Renne, 2005),
1361
Lipman and Calvert
TABLE 6. ALTERNATIVE MAUNA KEA GROWTH MODELS, AT 50 TO 100 K.Y. INTERVALS
Volume
Cumulative
Age
Magma supply
(103 km3)
(103 km3)
(ka)
Event
(km3/yr)
A. Kea-trend propagation at 8.6 cm/yr, volcano inception at 850 ka
850
800
750
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Inception (alkalic), high on Kohala
Waxing alkalic
Transition, to tholeiite
Emergence
Sustained tholeiite
Sustained tholeiite
Shore at HSDP site
Transitional compositions, starting at 330 ka
Transitional alkalic
Equilibrium shoreline?
Submergence, at 130 ka
Only alkalic, <60 ka
0.001
0.015
0.045
0.070
0.057
0.045
0.40
1.50
2.88
6.35
5.10
3.50
0.40
1.90
4.78
11.13
16.23
19.73
0.025
1.60
21.33
0.007
0.45
21.78
0.002
0.15
21.93
0.001
0.0001
0.06
21.98
0.001
0.010
0.040
0.060
0.050
0.030
0.015
0.55
2.50
5.00
5.50
4.00
2.25
1.10
0.6
3.1
8.1
13.6
17.6
19.8
20.9
as 1 km thick but only ~300 km3 in volume
(Sherrod et al., 2007). No distinct time break
accompanies the compositional shift from lavas
designated “postshield” (Kula Volcanics) to the
more alkalic Hana Volcanics (Sherrod et al.,
2003), which previously had been interpreted as
a “rejuvenated stage” (Clague and Dalrymple,
1987). The average magma supply for this prolonged interval of late-alkalic volcanism is only
0.0003 km3/yr, almost three orders of magnitude
lower than during the main-tholeiite stage.
LOA-TREND VOLCANOES
B. Near-constant lifespan, volcano inception at 1100 ka
1100
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Inception (alkalic), high on Kohala
Waxing alkalic
Transition, to tholeiite
Sustained tholeiite
Emergence
Sustained tholeiite
Sustained tholeiite
Shore at HSDP site
Transitional compositions, starting at 330 ka
Transitional alkalic
Equilibrium shoreline?
Submergence, at 130 ka
Only alkalic, <60 ka
0.007
0.55
21.5
0.004
0.30
21.8
0.002
0.15
21.9
0.001
0.0001
0.06
21.96
0.001
0.013
0.070
0.090
0.055
0.05
0.65
3.50
9.00
5.50
0.1
0.70
4.20
13.20
18.70
C. High peak-tholeiite magma supply, volcano inception at 750 ka
750
700
650
600
500
400
300
200
Inception (alkalic), high on Kohala
Waxing alkalic
Transition, to tholeiite
Sustained tholeiite (oldest HSDP date)
Sustained tholeiite
Shore at HSDP site
Transitional compositions, starting at 330 ka
Transitional alkalic
Equilibrium shoreline?
Submergence, at 130 ka
Only alkalic, <60 ka
0.025
2.50
21.20
0.005
0.50
21.70
0.002
0.20
21.90
22.00
100
0.001
0.10
0
0.001
Note: Shading indicates durations of sustained-tholeiite stage; italics indicate interval of compositional transition;
HSDP—Hawaii Scientific Drilling Program.
its late-stage eruption rate is 0.003 km3/yr, 1–2
orders of magnitude lower than that modeled for
its earlier tholeiite stage (Table 6).
Haleakala
As the youngest volcano north of Hawaii and
the largest edifice in the Kea trend, Haleakala
provides a framework for interpreting growth of
the younger Kea-trend volcanoes. Haleakala has
a volume estimated at ~70,000 km3 (Robinson
and Eakins, 2006), an original summit probably
4–5 km above sea level—1–2 km higher than
the present summit (3055 m) as result of subsidence, and an exceptionally long rift zone—
the 150 km Hana Ridge (Fig. 1).
No observational data bear on early growth,
but based on the size of Haleakala, propagation rate along the Kea trend, and analogy
with younger volcanoes like Kohala, volcano
inception is modeled at 2000–2200 ka. A 900–
1362
1000 k.y. tholeiite stage ended at ca. 1000 ka,
with estimated peak magma supply at ~0.12
km3/yr. Lava compositions alternated for at
least 100 k.y. during the shift to waning-alkalic
stage on land (available dates, 1100–970 ka;
Chen et al., 1991), after which only alkalic
lavas erupted. A widespread submerged slope
break, at ~2000 mbsl, is interpreted to record
submergence of the subaerial shoreline at ca.
950 ka (Faichney et al., 2009), near the end of
the tholeiite stage (Moore et al., 1990a; Eakins
and Robinson, 2006). In contrast to Mauna Kea,
some tholeiitic volcanism continued after inception of shoreline submergence, as indicated by
dredged tholeiitic hyaloclastite along the ridge
crest (Moore et al., 1990a).
Diverse alkalic lavas then erupted for more
than 900 k.y. at Haleakala (youngest flow, ca.
A.D. 1600). The waning-alkalic rocks on Haleakala, accumulating concurrently with growth
of Hawaii, formed a subaerial cap as much
Geosphere, October 2013
Growth and magma supply for the Loa-trend
volcanoes are discussed separately from the Kea
trend, because the two groups appear to have
contrasting eruptive histories, propagation rates,
and inception ages that diverge on Hawaii (see
Discussion, especially Table 11 and Fig. 15).
A common propagation rate for the two trends
would require the younger volcanoes along the
Loa trend (Loihi, Mauna Loa) to have begun
more recently than seems possible, as evaluated
in a later section.
Loihi Seamount
Upper slopes of Loihi, the youngest and
smallest of the clustered volcanoes that form
Hawaii Island, with a summit about a kilometer below sea level, contain interlayered alkalic,
transitional, and tholeiitic basalts. These provided the first compelling evidence for a waxing-alkalic stage in Hawaii and showed that this
volcano is currently in early transition to the
sustained-tholeiite stage (Moore et al., 1982;
Garcia et al., 1995a, 2006). No lavas have thus
far been sampled at Loihi that are as mafic and
primitive as the nephelinites and other highly
alkalic rocks from the submarine south flank of
Kilauea, and the increased proportions of Loatrend tholeiite high on Loihi suggests a stage
comparable to that of Kilauea at ca. 100–125 ka.
Many published Loihi glass analyses that have
been described as tholeiite are less silicic (<50%
SiO2, ~3% total alkalis) than typical Loa-trend
tholeiites from Mauna Loa or Hualalai; these
would be classed as transitional or low-Si tholeiites in plots for other Loa or Kea volcanoes
(Sisson et al., 2002; Stolper et al., 2004).
Age and Volume
Inception of volcanism at Loihi was estimated
at ca. 100 ka by Moore and Clague (1992),
based on plate-motion modeling and inferred
duration of early-alkalic volcanism. In contrast,
from unspiked K-Ar age determinations (Guillou et al., 1997b), Garcia et al. (2006) inferred
that Loihi eruptions had already begun on the
Volcano growth on Hawaii
B
Near-constant volcano-progression
0.10
0.05
Magma supply, km3/yr (semi-log)
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0.10
0.01
0.00
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
Mauna Kea
0.15
0
Age, ka
Mauna Loa–B
0.10
0.05
0.00
1400
0
Magma supply, km3/yr (linear)
Magma supply, km3/yr (linear)
Kohala
0.00
1400
High peak-tholeiite magma supply
0.20
Mauna Kea
Magma supply, km3/yr (semi-log)
Magma supply, km3/yr (linear)
0.15
C
Near-constant lifespan
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0.10
0.01
0.00
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
Age, ka
Mauna Kea
0.20
Kohala
0.10
0.00
1400
0
Magma supply, km3/yr (semi-log)
A
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
0.10
0.01
0.00
1400
Age, ka
Figure 10. Age and magma-supply growth models for Mauna Kea, at 50 and 100 k.y. intervals. (A) Near-constant volcano-propagation
model. (B) Near-constant lifespan model. (C) High peak-tholeiite model. The semi-log scale better illustrates variations during intervals of
low magma supply. Data are from Table 6, which also lists interval and cumulative volumes. Growth curves for Kohala and Mauna Loa
are from Figures 9 and 12, respectively.
sea floor at depths of ~5000 m by 330–400 ka.
Some reported Loihi ages are internally inconsistent with sample depth, however, and ages
obtained by this method for young basalts can
be too old because of potential effects of excess
Ar (Calvert and Lanphere, 2006). Alternatively,
based on rates of volcano propagation discussed
in a later section and analogy with duration
of the early-alkalic stage at Kilauea, Loihi is
inferred to have commenced at ca. 100–150 ka.
Although no 40Ar/39Ar isotopic ages have been
determined yet for Loihi basalts, alkalic rocks
from deep on the landslide-scarred eastern and
western flanks could be sufficiently old to yield
reliable dates.
The volume of Loihi has been estimated as
1700 km3, with lower parts of the edifice concealed beneath the volcaniclastic apron derived
from subaerial Hawaii Island (Garcia et al.,
2006; Robinson and Eakins, 2006). By analogy
with age-volume parameters for the waxingalkalic volcanism at Kilauea, however, this
volume at Loihi could have accumulated within
150 k.y. or less, also suggesting that the unspiked
K-Ar ages are too old. In addition, the Loihi volume estimate seems high. Rather than initiated
directly on deep-sea floor, Loihi appears to have
grown over lower flanks of the large Punaluu
slump derived from the south flank of Mauna
Loa, where the latest major downslope movement is recorded by faulting in the Ninole Hills
at 100–200 ka (Lipman et al., 1990; Jicha et al.,
2012). If constructed on the Punaluu slump,
much less of Loihi’s lower slopes would be concealed by younger volcaniclastic deposits, the
erupted volume of the volcano would be significantly smaller at ~800 km3 (Appendix B, Table
B4), and it could have grown to present size in
125 k.y. or less. This smaller volume estimate
neglects dense olivine-rich cumulates within the
Mauna Loa flank beneath the summit of Loihi.
As discussed for Kilauea, such deep cumulate
may be as much as 20% of total magma supply,
and accordingly, the estimated total Loihi volume is reduced to 1000 km3 (Table 2). Because
Loihi is relatively young, its volume small, and
magma supply low, such volume uncertainties
play little role in modeling the overall growth
of Hawaii.
Growth Model
With likely inception at 100–150 ka, and a
volume of ~1000 km3, Loihi’s growth would be
dominated by increasing eruption rates during
Geosphere, October 2013
the waxing-alkalic stage (Fig. 11). Its in-progress shift to main-tholeiite stage, after erupting
only about half the total volume as Kilauea at
a similar stage, suggests that it may become a
smaller or shorter-lived volcano. Loihi’s current
volume would be comparable in size to Kilauea
at ca. 150 ka (125 k.y. after initial Kilauea
growth), and an inception age of 125 ka is modeled for Loihi (Table 7). For an earlier inception
at 150–175 ka that would be most comparable
to the early-alkalic duration at Kilauea, Loihi’s
magma supply would be lower and seemingly
less likely to have begun to erupt tholeiite. More
recent inception at 100 ka would be consistent
with a rapidly increasing magma supply, perhaps more appropriate for the shift to tholeiite.
No data exist for present-day magma supply at
Loihi, but by analogy with Kilauea’s transition
to tholeiitic eruptions, the modeled rate of 0.03
km3/yr seems plausible.
A more significant problem in relation to
Kilauea is the volcano-propagation rate; Loihi is
too distant for its inferred age. Projected along
the composite Kea-Loa trend (N35°W), Loihi is
45 km southeast of Kilauea. Based on an inception age (125 ka) only 150 k.y. younger than
for Kilauea, the propagation rate between these
1363
Lipman and Calvert
Magma supply, km3/yr (linear)
0.12
Kilauea
0.06
0.03
0
Magma supply, km3/yr (semi-log)
Loihi
0.09
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
0.1
Loihi
Kilauea
0.01
0.001
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
Age, ka
Figure 11. Age and magma-supply growth model for Loihi (estimated inception at 125 ka), at 25 k.y. intervals, and comparison
with Kilauea (at 0.1 km3/yr) (Fig. 5). As with other figures, the semilog scale better illustrates variations during intervals of low magma
supply. Data are from Table 7, which also lists interval and cumulative volumes.
volcanoes would be an improbable 30 cm/yr
(see Discussion, especially Table 11B). Even for
inception of Loihi at 75 ka, the propagation rate
would be 22.5 cm/yr. Alternatively, at the Keatrend propagation rate of 8.6 cm/yr, activity at
Loihi should not have commenced until 525 k.y.
after Kilauea, ~250 k.y. in the future (see Discussion, especially Table 11A). A related problem with propagation rates between Mauna Loa
and Kilauea is discussed next.
Mauna Loa
Kilauea (Lipman et al., 2006). Despite its size
amounting to 35%–50% of the volcanic volume
of Hawaii, and in part because of it, the growth
history of Mauna Loa is perhaps the least constrained of the island’s volcanoes.
Historical eruptions, surface exposures of
lavas as old as several hundred thousand years,
on-land and underwater fault and landslide
scarps as much as 1.6 km high, and the 245 m
Mauna Loa section in the HSDP drill core,
expose only tholeiitic lavas that have similar
compositions modulated by olivine-control
trends (Wright, 1971; Garcia et al., 1995b;
Rhodes and Vollinger, 2004). No deep samples
recovered to date provide compositional or age
information bearing on an early-alkalic stage.
While Mauna Loa continues to erupt frequently,
diverse evidence suggests it is late in its maintholeiite stage (Moore et al., 1990b; Lipman,
1995). Only three subaerial lavas (of 468 analyses; Wolfe and Morris, 1996b) have transitional
compositions, but several young-appearing
underwater cones on Mauna Loa’s west submarine flank are alkalic (Wanless et al., 2006),
hinting that a transition to late-alkalic volcanism
may be imminent. Additional evidence for eruptive decline comes from ages and lava-accumulation rates in relation to island subsidence.
Age and Volume
Several hundred surface flows from Mauna
Loa have radiocarbon ages back to 30–40 ka,
the effective resolution for this method (Lockwood, 1995), but older tholeiites have been a
geochronometric challenge. Early attempts to
analyze tholeiitic samples by K-Ar methods
yielded ages with large analytical uncertainties, as well as some dates that are spurious on
geologic grounds (Dalrymple and Moore, 1968;
Lipman et al., 1990).
Recent results by 40Ar/39Ar methods have met
with greater success, although analyses of low-K
tholeiites remain difficult and uncertainties large.
A flow from the base of the Mauna Loa section
in the HSDP core yielded a groundmass date of
132 ± 32 ka (Sharp et al., 1996), consistent with
the age (ca. 100 ka) inferred from lava-accumulation and coastal-subsidence rates at this site
(Lipman and Moore, 1996). In the most substantial effort thus far, 11 dates on submersible
and dredge samples from the 1.6-km-long scarp
along Ka Lae Ridge (underwater southwest rift
zone, Fig. 1) are broadly consistent with stratigraphic position, defining slowing of eruptions
at ca. 400 ka while documenting that Mauna
Loa was already a large subaerial volcano by
that time (Jicha et al., 2012). A deeper sample
dredged from the distal ridge yielded an age of
657 ± 175 ka, further helping delimit inception
of tholeiitic volcanism at Mauna Loa. On the
submarine west flank, a few ages in the range
240–460 ka, with large analytical uncertainties,
As the largest volcano on Earth, rising ~15 km
above oceanic crust down-bowed beneath
the Hawaiian Ridge, Mauna Loa dominates
growth models for Hawaii. Its volume has been
approximated at 80 × 103 km3 (Lipman, 1995),
as much as 105 × 103 km3 (Garcia et al., 1995b),
and as little as 74 × 103 km3 (Robinson and
Eakins, 2006) by a model that did not include
the substantial subsurface flank onlapped by
TABLE 7. MAGMA-SUPPLY GROWTH MODEL FOR LOIHI , AT 25 K.Y. INTERVALS
Volume
Cumulative
Age
Event
Magma supply
(103 km3)
(103 km3)
(ka)
(inception at 125 ka)
(km3/yr)
125
Inception
0.001
100
Waxing alkalic
0.0015
0.03
0.03
75
Waxing alkalic
0.003
0.06
0.09
50
Waxing alkalic
0.006
0.11
0.20
25
Alkalic-transitional
0.014
0.25
0.45
0
Transitional-tholeiite
0.030
1.00
0.55
3
3
Note: Intervals are constrained by estimated total volume of 1.0 × 10 km .
1364
Geosphere, October 2013
Volcano growth on Hawaii
have been obtained from tholeiites that have
compositions similar to recent Mauna Loa lavas
(Morgan et al., 2007). In addition, two tholeiite
samples from the Ninole Hills on Mauna Loa’s
south flank yielded ages of 227–108 ka, demonstrating that by this time, the subaerial Mauna
Loa edifice was approaching its present size.
This geochronologic evidence for early rapid
growth to form Ka Lae Ridge, followed by a
lengthy period of eruptive decline later during
the main-tholeiite stage at Mauna Loa, support a
general model of asymmetric growth during the
lifespan of Hawaiian volcanoes, as initially diagrammed perceptively by Wise (1982).
The volume of Mauna Loa, estimated here as
83 × 103 km3 (Appendix B, Table B5), adjusts
the Robinson and Eakins (2006) value of 74 ×
103 km3, based on a substantially reduced volume of Kilauea and increased volume of Hualalai. Because Kilauea onlaps the south flank of
Mauna Loa (Lipman et al., 2006), the volume
of Kilauea is here estimated at 11 × 103 km3, in
contrast to the previous 32 × 103 km3 (Robinson and Eakins, 2006). Inferred to offset some
of this component, however, is evidence from
gravity data that the south rift zone of Hualalai
continues beneath the west flank of Mauna Loa
for at least 20 km beyond any surface outcrops
of Hualalai lavas (Kauahikaua et al., 2000).
Accordingly, Hualalai is interpreted to be larger
than previously estimated, at the expense of
Mauna Loa volume (Table 2).
Two additional difficult-to-evaluate uncertainties further complicate these volume estimates: (1) a plausible but untested inference
that the relatively short present northeast rift
of Mauna Loa formerly may have continued
beneath the east rift and Puna Ridge of Kilauea
(Lipman, 1980b, p. 772; Flanigan and Long,
1987), and (2) a proposal that Hualalai’s south
rift zone might once have continued as far south
as Ka Lae Ridge (Holcomb et al., 2000). Neither
of these alternatives can be evaluated unambiguously from available data. As possible support
for alternative 2, a drowned seacliff along Ka
Lae Ridge (Moore et al., 1990b; Garcia et al.,
1995b) is similar in depth (430–450 m) to a submerged reef that drapes the northwest (Kiholo
Ridge) of Hualalai (Moore and Clague, 1992).
Alternative 1 would further increase the volume of Mauna Loa relative to that of Kilauea
because much of Kilauea’s volume as currently
interpreted resides in its long east rift zone
(~3000 km3, 30% of total Kilauea volume in just
the submarine Puna Ridge; Lipman et al., 2006).
Alternative 2, discussed further in the section on
Hualalai, if valid, would increase that volcano’s
volume substantially and reduce Mauna Loa’s.
If both alternatives were valid, impact on the
volume of Mauna Loa could be modest. Either
alternative would transfer volume to an older
adjacent edifice, thereby augmenting conclusions concerning timing of peak overall growth
of Hawaii.
An additional proposal, that an ancient buried
“Ninole rift zone” underlying the south flank of
Mauna Loa predates the present-day configuration of the southwest rift (Morgan et al., 2010),
is inconsistent with isotopic ages that are older
for distal southwest rift lavas (400–650 ka) than
for the Ninole Basalt (100–200 ka; Lipman
et al., 1990; Jicha et al., 2012). Profiles of high
seismic velocity and positive gravity, cited as
evidence for a Ninole rift (Morgan et al., 2010,
their figures 2 and 4), appear to have juxtaposed
the large velocity/density anomaly associated
with the summit magma reservoir of Mauna
Loa and analogous geophysical expression of
Kilauea’s distal southwest rift.
Growth Models
Multiple scenarios are possible for Mauna
Loa’s growth, depending on estimates of its
lifespan. As the largest Hawaiian volcano,
would duration of its growth also be relatively
lengthy? The recent 40Ar/39Ar ages from Ka Lae
Ridge (Jicha et al., 2012) appear to document
600 k.y. or more of sustained eruption of compositionally similar tholeiite, without any hint
of inception. If a duration of 100–150 k.y. is
assumed for an early-alkalic stage by analogy
with Loihi and Kilauea, and a future late-alkalic
stage of ~200 k.y., the lifespan of Mauna Loa
would be at least 900 k.y.
Mauna Loa and Kilauea are the only Hawaiian volcanoes for which historical records and
geologic mapping of young prehistoric flows
provide quantitative data on eruption rates and
magma supply. Total lava output for the 170
years of historical record (A.D. 1843–2012) is
~4.1 km3 (Lockwood and Lipman, 1987), or
0.024 km3/yr. Detailed mapping of prehistoric
lava flows on Mauna Loa suggests a roughly
similar rate for at least the past 3000 years
(Trusdell, 2010).
Intrusive contributions to the recent magma
supply of Mauna Loa are difficult to estimate
but seem likely to be less than at Kilauea where
the rift-bounded south flank is spreading seaward much more rapidly than its geometric
counterpart on Mauna Loa (Miklius et al., 1995;
Miklius and Cervelli, 2003). The long-term
intrusive contribution to Kilauea’s magma supply has been estimated at 30%–50% (Dvorak
and Dzurisin, 1993; Cayol et al., 2000; Wright
and Klein, 2013; Poland et al., in press); an
assumed 30% for Mauna Loa would yield a
historical magma supply of ~0.035 km3/yr, only
about a third of the estimated average historical
rate at Kilauea (~0.1 km3/yr).
Geosphere, October 2013
In addition to isotopic and historical age data,
coastal lava-accumulation rates and ages of submerged shorelines and coral reefs provide evidence for decline in magma supply late during
the tholeiite stage. While Mauna Loa has been
interpreted to be continuing vigorous growth
because its historical lava volume (4.1 km3),
if spread uniformly over the subaerial volcano
(5125 km2), would have an average lava-accumulation rate of ~5 mm/yr (Jicha et al., 2012),
coastal accumulation has been insufficient to
grow the subaerial edifice. About a quarter of
historically erupted lava has ponded within the
summit caldera (Lockwood and Lipman, 1987),
some historical eruptions crossed the shoreline to deposit on submarine slopes, and much
of the on-land lava accumulated preferentially
in proximity to vents high on the edifice. With
adjustments for these factors, overall coverage
rates for subaerial slopes during the historical
period averages only ~3 mm/yr, and coastal
rates would necessarily be lower. With shoreline
subsidence at ~2.6 mm/yr (Moore, 1970, 1987;
Ludwig et al., 1991), the historical period thus
provides little evidence for continued vigorous
growth, or even maintaining the subaerial size
of the edifice.
Along much of the present coastline, average lava accumulation is only approximately
keeping pace with subsidence (Lipman, 1995),
even though the on-land area of Mauna Loa
has decreased by ~20% as Kilauea has grown
above sea level and overlapped the south flank
of its large neighbor. The low rate of subaerial
lava accumulation for Mauna Loa is well documented in the HSDP core, where average accumulation has been balanced by subsidence since
at least ca. 100–120 ka (Lipman and Moore,
1996), despite funneling of Mauna Loa flows
toward the drill site, from its northeast rift into
the broad valley between Mauna Kea and the
growing Kilauea shield.
The dated decline in lava accumulation at ca.
400 ka along the submarine southwest rift zone
(Jicha et al., 2012) may result mainly from the
apparent tendency for Hawaiian rift zones to be
established early during volcano growth, then
to become less active (“drying up”) as tholeiite
eruptions become focused higher on the growing edifice (Moore and Clague, 1992; Lipman
and Calvert, 2011). Alternatively, reduced activity along the lower southwest rift may have
been caused by dislocations in response to
large-scale landslides and slumps along Mauna
Loa’s west flank (Lipman, 1980b; Lipman et al.,
1990). Whatever the initial cause, decline in
lava-accumulation rate along the lower southwest rift is further documented by a submerged
paleo-shoreline, marked by an ~10-m-high sea
cliff with wave-rounded boulders at its base, 450
1365
Lipman and Calvert
mbsl, with an interpreted age of 170 ka (Moore
et al., 1990b; Garcia et al., 1995b).
Growth of the submarine Ka Lae Ridge
(Fig. 1) to near present size by 400 ka (Jicha
et al., 2012) and maintenance of its subaerial
shoreline 8.5 km seaward of the present one until
ca. 170 ka demonstrate that Mauna Loa already
was a large subaerial edifice by these times, with
topographic profiles projecting close to its present slopes. Accordingly, growth models developed here (Table 8) assume substantial decline in
tholeiite eruption rates, starting ca. 400 ka. Even
if volcano inception began as early as ca. 950 ka,
about concurrently with Mauna Kea (and requiring a long gap before initial volcanism at Kilauea
at ca. 275 ka), peak sustained magma supply for
100 k.y. periods at Mauna Loa likely approached
0.17 km3/yr (Fig. 12B), 50% greater than for
present-day Kilauea. Alternately, if inception
of Mauna Loa were younger, at ca. 850 ka, to
allow for a more nearly constant age progression
among the island’s volcanoes, the time interval
for main-stage tholeiite magma supply becomes
shorter and the estimated peak rate higher, ~0.20
km3/yr (Fig. 12A).
The timing of volcano inception at Mauna
Loa, as at Loihi, is a special problem in relation to propagation along the Kea trend. While
Loihi is too distant from Kilauea to have a
propagation rate consistent with motion of the
Pacific plate, the proximity of Mauna Loa to
Kilauea (23 km, along the composite volcano
trend) would imply volcano inception at only
ca. 540 ka, at the average progression rate (8.6
cm/yr) for the Kea trend (see Discussion, especially Table 11). Modeling of young inception
of Mauna Loa (at ca. 540 ka) would also require
extremely high magma production during the
peak-tholeiitic stage (~0.5 km3/yr at 450 ka) that
then declined rapidly to the present-day rate of
~0.035 km3/yr (Fig. 12C). Such a recent inception for Mauna Loa seems inconsistent, however, with dates as old as 657 ± 175 ka (Jicha
et al., 2012) on submarine tholeiite from Ka
Lae Ridge. Alternatively, Mauna Loa and Loihi
could record volcano inception asynchronously
older by several hundred thousand years than
for counterparts along the Kea trend. Such an
interpretation seems required by the young ages
for waxing-alkalic growth of Kilauea (Calvert
and Lanphere, 2006).
Hualalai
Hualalai appears to have begun growing
before Mauna Kea even though it has erupted
more frequently in recent time. The location
of Hualalai slightly farther northwest along the
Hawaiian Ridge suggests earlier inception, it
appears to have grown mainly on ocean floor
1366
TABLE 8. ALTERNATIVE MAUNA LOA MODELS AT 50 TO 100 K.Y. INTERVALS
Volume
Cumulative
Age
Magma supply
(103 km3)
(103 km3)
(ka)
Event
(km3/yr)
A. Near constant Loa-trend propagation (10.6 cm/yr), inception at 800 ka
800 Inception
0.001
750 Waxing alkalic
0.016
700 Transition, to tholeiite
0.135
600 Sustained tholeiite
0.200
0.180
500 Sustained tholeiite
0.140
400 Sustained tholeiite
0.100
300 Equilibrium shoreline?
0.070
200 Equilibrium shoreline?
0.050
100 Waning tholeiite
0.035
0 Incipient alkalic submarine, South Kona
B. Near-constant lifespan, volcano inception at 950 ka
0.03
0.43
16.75
19.00
16.00
12.00
8.50
6.00
4.25
0.03
0.45
17.20
36.20
52.20
64.20
72.70
78.70
83.0
950 Inception
0.001
900 Waxing alkalic
0.010
800 Transition, to tholeiite
0.120
700 Sustained tholeiite
0.160
0.170
600 Sustained tholeiite
0.140
500 Sustained tholeiite
0.075
400 Sustained tholeiite
0.055
300 Equilibrium shoreline?
0.045
200 Equilibrium shoreline?
0.040
100 Waning tholeiite
0.035
0 Incipient alkalic submarine, South Kona
C. High peak-tholeiite magma supply, volcano inception at 550 ka
0.28
6.50
14.00
16.50
15.50
10.75
6.50
5.00
4.25
3.75
0.3
6.8
20.8
37.3
52.8
63.5
70.0
75.0
79.3
83.0
550 Inception: early alkalic
0.001
500 Transition, to tholeiite
0.100
2.53
2.5
450 Sustained tholeiite
0.500
15.00
17.5
0.350
21.25
38.8
400 Sustained tholeiite
0.200
13.75
52.5
350 Sustained tholeiite
0.120
8.00
60.5
300 Equilibrium shoreline?
0.090
10.50
71.0
200 Equilibrium shoreline?
0.055
7.25
78.3
100 Waning tholeiite
83.0
0.040
0 Incipient alkalic submarine, South Kona
4.75
Note: Intervals constrained by estimated total volume of 83 × 103 km3. Southwest rift zone (SWR)
submergence, after ca. 400 ka. Shading indicates duration of sustained-tholeiite stage.
rather than on the flank of another volcano, and
its estimated volume is larger than Mauna Kea.
Its relatively small surface exposures are deceptive because of widespread cover by Mauna
Loa, probable submarine overlap of Mahukona,
and large-scale flank failure along the west
coast. Hualalai remains active, in its late-alkalic
stage (Moore et al., 1987), but the relatively
infrequent eruptions are not keeping pace with
shoreline subsidence (Moore and Clague, 1992).
Future volumetric growth will be modest.
Subaerial Hualalai exposes only waningstage alkalic lavas, but tholeiite crops out offshore and has been penetrated above sea level in
water wells (Moore et al., 1987; Cousens et al.,
2003). The topographic summit of alkalic basalt
lies 5–7 km north of the gravity maximum that
likely images intrusions associated with the tholeiitic stage (Kauahikaua et al., 2000), perhaps
reflecting late vent migration in response to buttressing by Mauna Loa (Lipman, 1980b). Northwest- and south-trending rift zones are marked
by late-alkalic vents that coincide with residualgravity highs, in contrast to absence of similar
alignments on Mauna Kea. The underwater
continuation of the northwest rift zone (Kiholo
Ridge) has bathymetric expression for >70 km
from the subaerial summit (Fig. 1), and the asso-
Geosphere, October 2013
ciated gravity high continues to the Mahukona
platform (Garcia et al., 2012). The south rift
zone can be traced for at least 40 km, including
its gravity expression beyond exposed Hualalai
lavas (Kauahikaua et al., 2000).
Age and Volume
As for most old volcanoes on the island,
direct information is unavailable for inception
of the early-alkalic stage or the change to tholeiitic volcanism. A submerged slope break and
coral reef, widely traceable at ~400 mbsl and
dated at ca. 130 ka, mark decline in main-stage
activity at Hualalai, although some tholeiitic
flows drape the reef (Moore and Clague, 1987).
Trachyte lavas at Puu Waawaa on Hualalai’s
north flank, inferred to record beginning of the
waning-alkalic stage, have K-Ar ages as old as
114 ka (Clague, 1987; Cousens et al., 2003).
The shift from tholeiite to waning alkalic stages
is thus closely bracketed, <130 to >114 ka.
The volume of Hualalai, previously estimated at 14,200 km3 (Robinson and Eakins,
2006), is particularly uncertain because of cover
by Mauna Loa lavas, gravitational failure of
its southwest flank (North Kona slump), difficulty in tracing extent of rift zones, and likely
complex interfingering with Mauna Kea to the
Volcano growth on Hawaii
A Near-constant Loa-trend propagation (10.6 cm/yr),
B Near-constant lifespan,
volcano inception at 950 ka
volcano inception at 800 ka
0.50
0.10
0.05
1000
500
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00
0
Magma supply, km3/yr (linear)
0.15
0.20
0.40
.030
.020
0.10
0.00
1000
500
0
1000
500
0
500
0
1.00
0.10
0.01
0.00
1000
500
0
Age, ka
Magma supply, km3/yr (semilog)
Magma supply, km3/yr (semilog)
Magma supply, km3/yr (linear)
0.20
0.00
volcano inception at 550 ka
0.25
Magma supply, km3/yr (semilog)
Magma supply, km3/yr (linear)
0.25
C High peak-tholeiite magma supply,
0.10
0.01
0.00
1000
500
0
0.10
0.01
0.00
Age, ka
1000
Age, ka
Figure 12. Age and magma-supply growth models for Mauna Loa, at 100 k.y. intervals. (A) Near-constant volcano-propagation model
(10.6 cm/yr). (B) Near-constant lifespan model (volcano inception at 950 ka). (C) High peak-tholeiite model (volcano inception at 550 ka).
The semi-log scale better illustrates variations during intervals of low magma supply. Data are from Table 8, which also lists interval and
cumulative volumes.
east. A larger estimate of 26,000 km3 (Table 2;
Appendix B, Table B6) is based on assumption that the perimeter of subaerial Hualalai lies
5–15 km beyond present exposures, onlapped
by Mauna Loa flows, and that distal rift zones
continue farther than estimated by Robinson
and Eakins (2006).
An additional uncertainty is the speculative
proposal that deeper parts of Ka Lae Ridge
could be the distal continuation of Hualalai’s
south rift (Holcomb et al., 2000). No petrologic
distinctions are known between Mauna Loa versus Hualalai tholeiites that could help evaluate
this alternative, but a Hualalai connection could
be consistent with the abrupt decline in eruption
rate at ca. 400 ka at Ka Lae Ridge (Jicha et al.,
2012). Gravity data show a density gap between
Hualalai and the southwest rift of Mauna Loa
(Kauahikaua et al., 2000); however, making
such an interpretation seem improbable. In
addition, a lengthy south rift of Hualalai all the
way to Ka La Ridge would likely have formed
a structural barrier to large slope failures (as on
the northeast side of Mauna Kea), but the west
side of Mauna Loa instead has been the site of
numerous giant landslides and slumps. If Ka
Lae Ridge were part of Hualalai, its volume
would be considerably larger, perhaps 45,000–
50,000 km3, and that of Mauna Loa accordingly
smaller. Broader implications of this uncertain
hypothesis (Holcomb et al., 2000) are considered further in the section on overall assembly
of Hawaii.
thousand years shorter than at Kohala (Table
9B; Fig. 13B). With a rough volume estimate of
500 km3 and a 115 k.y. duration for the waningalkalic stage at Hualalai, the late-stage eruption
rate averages 0.004 km3/yr, similar to that for
Mauna Kea but an order of magnitude or more
lower than during the sustained-tholeiite stage.
Mahukona
Growth Models
As a mid-sized volcano, for which age and
volume are well constrained only for late growth,
Hualalai’s earlier eruptive history is modeled by
analogy with other volcanoes. Based on distance from Mauna Loa (37 km) and a Loa-trend
propagation rate (10.6 cm/yr), Hualalai would
have begun at ca. 1100 ka, with a relatively long
sustained-tholeiite stage (Table 9A; Fig. 13A).
Without inclusion of Ka Lae Ridge, peak tholeiitic magma supply would have been ~0.05
km3/yr (Fig. 13A), about half that inferred for
peak 100 k.y. intervals at Kohala or observed
at present-day Kilauea. For Hualalai to have a
tholeiitic stage approaching 0.1 km3/yr, its eruptive duration would have been several hundred
Geosphere, October 2013
The broad Kohala platform extending ~50 km
offshore from northwest Hawaii (Fig. 1), first
proposed as the site of a submarine volcano
by Stearns and Macdonald (1946, p. 56), was
named Mahukona volcano and inferred to mark
initial volcanism of Hawaii (Moore and Campbell, 1987). Dredging and submersible sampling have recovered tholeiitic, transitional, and
weakly alkalic basalt along the broad ridge at
the west end of the platform, which has been
interpreted as the “missing volcano” along the
Loa trend between Kahoolawe and Hualalai
(Garcia et al., 1990; Clague and Moore, 1991).
Most sites yielded tholeiite; transitional to
weakly alkalic basalt has been recovered mainly
1367
Lipman and Calvert
TABLE 9. ALTERNATIVE HUALALAI GROWTH MODELS, AT 50 TO 100 K.Y. INTERVALS
Volume
Cumulative
Age
Magma supply
(103 km3)
(103 km3)
(ka)
Event
(km3/yr)
A. Near-constant Loa-trend propagation (10.6 cm/yr), volcano inception at 1100 ka
1100
Inception (alkalic)
0.001
1000
Early alkalic
0.005
0.30
0.30
900
Transition to tholeiite
0.014
0.95
1.25
800
Increased tholeiite
0.05
3.20
4.45
700
Sustained tholeiite
0.065
5.75
10.20
600
Sustained tholeiite
0.045
5.50
15.70
500
Sustained tholeiite
0.03
3.75
19.45
400
Sustained tholeiite
0.02
2.50
21.95
300
Sustained tholeiite
0.015
1.75
23.70
Alkalic after ~ 130 ka
200
0.01
1.25
24.95
100
Late alkalic
0.005
0.75
25.70
26.00
0
Late alkalic
0.001
0.30
B. High peak-tholeiite magma supply, volcano inception at 750 ka
850
Inception (alkalic)
0.001
800
Early alkalic
0.005
0.15
0.15
700
Transition to tholeiite
0.040
2.25
2.4
600
Sustained tholeiite
0.100
7.00
9.4
500
Sustained tholeiite
0.060
8.00
17.4
400
Sustained tholeiite
0.025
4.25
21.7
300
Sustained tholeiite
0.015
2.00
23.7
Alkalic after ~ 130 ka
200
0.010
1.25
24.9
100
Late alkalic
0.005
0.75
25.7
26.0
0
Late alkalic
0.001
0.30
3
3
Note: Constrained by estimated total volume of 26 × 10 km . Shading indicates duration of
sustained-tholeiite stage. Bold indicates best constrained events and ages.
from the large cone that forms the youngest part
of Mahukona as currently interpreted. The eastern extent of Mahukona is hidden beneath the
Kohala platform, which contains a stepped succession of at least six drowned coral reefs. Isotopic ages from the coral constrain late growth
and termination of volcanism at Mahukona,
as well as island subsidence rates (Moore and
Campbell, 1987; Moore and Clague, 1992).
Is Mahukona Really a Volcano?
Despite much elemental and isotopic chemistry, 40Ar/39Ar age determinations, and detailed
bathymetric and gravity surveys, uncertainty
continues about the shape and volume of the
Mahukona construct, location of its summit,
whether the edifice ever rose above sea level,
causes of compositionally diverse lavas, timing of the change from tholeiitic to late-alkalic
stages, and even whether this feature constitutes
a discrete volcano. Analogous interpretive ambiguities and possible alternative origins also exist
for several other shallow elongate platforms
offshore of older Hawaiian islands: Penguin
Bank southwest of Molokai, Kaena and Waialu
Ridges west of Oahu, and Pauwela Ridge north
of Maui (Robinson et al., 2006).
Garcia et al. (1990, 2012) inferred a relatively
small Mahukona seamount, having an area of
~1600 km2, and a summit location marked by
a large steep-sided cone that grew only to ~270
mbsl. In contrast, Clague and Moore (1991) and
Clague and Calvert (2009) interpreted a larger
edifice that formerly rose above sea level, as now
marked by a submerged platform ~30 km across
1368
that contains a filled caldera. These contrasting
views are closely tied to alternative interpretations of the submarine slope breaks that mark
the end of sustained-tholeiitic growth in relation
to ages of coral reefs on the platform (Fig. 1).
Clague and Moore (1991) interpreted reef 6 and
associated slope break as the paleo-shoreline of
Mahukona, and correlated the Kohala tholeiitic
shoreline with a shallower coral reef at 950 mbsl
(reef 4) on the platform. They also interpreted
“trains of basalt rubble in chutes” (Clague and
Moore, 1991, p. 161) on an intermediate-depth
reef (~1150 mbsl, reef 5) as erupted from Mahukona, requiring that its summit lay to the east.
All the reefs on the Kohala terrace are tilted
southward in response to volcanic loading on
the Hawaiian Ridge (Moore and Campbell,
1987), however, and the deeper reefs (5–6) rise
and merge northward with a single slope break
at a depth of ~1000 mbsl. This break continues
clockwise around the north flank of Kohala volcano and marks the decline of tholeiitic eruptions
(Moore and Clague, 1992; Smith et al., 2002).
Recent geophysical, bathymetric, and petrologic data provide additional perspectives on
complexities and uncertainties concerning the
summit location and shape of Mahukona. An
elliptical positive residual-gravity anomaly that
trends northwest from Hualalai (Garcia et al.,
2012, their figure 4) coincides with neither of the
proposed summit locations nor the morphologically expressed west-trending Mahukona ridge.
Absence of a dense core sufficient to generate
a gravity anomaly at Mahukona was inferred to
result from slow growth and small size (Garcia
Geosphere, October 2013
et al., 2012), but other Hawaiian volcanoes, and
even the relatively small Loihi Seamount at an
early growth stage, have large positive gravity
anomalies associated with summits and proximal rift zones (Kinoshita et al., 1963; Strange
et al., 1965; Kauahikaua et al., 2000). Absence of
a positive anomaly marking a Mahukona summit
would seem especially problematic for a relatively large edifice hosting a summit caldera and
accompanying shallow magma chamber, such as
proposed by Clague and Moore (1991). In addition, the broad Kohala platform seems puzzling
morphologically for a waning-alkalic stage of a
Hawaiian volcano; such late volcanism typically
generates steeper slopes than the tholeiite stage.
As an additional complexity, tholeiitic lavas
attributed to Mahukona are unusually diverse
in elemental and isotopic composition, including subequal proportions of Loa and Kea types
(Clague and Moore, 1991; Garcia et al., 2012).
This variability, which differs from the other
volcanoes of Hawaii Island, might be related to
a diffuse magmatic system without a long-lived
central reservoir, or possibly to overlapping
by nearby volcanoes. For this last speculative
alternative, based on geometry of the gravity
anomaly and the mixture of Kea and Loa compositions, no discrete Mahukona volcano need
exist. Instead, the western ridge of the Kohala
platform perhaps could be an early-formed
broad rift zone from Kohala (Kea composition),
onlapped by continuation of the northwest rift
zone from Hualalai (Loa composition). A larger
analog for such distal widening of a submarine
rift could be the landside-modified tip of the
Hana Ridge of Haleakala (Eakins and Robinson, 2006). If part of the Mahukona edifice
were a west ridge of Kohala, this rift would be
~100 km long, and Kohala in broad form would
be a 230-km-long ridge, paralleling the arcuate
south flank of the clustered older volcanoes of
Maui Nui (submerged platform of Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe).
Volume and Age
The volume of any Hawaiian volcano is
inherently difficult to determine, because of
uncertainties about edifice overlaps and effects
of crustal subsidence beneath the Hawaiian
Ridge. For Mahukona, these complexities are
augmented by the uncertainties concerning
volcano area, summit location, and origin. Possible alternatives include: (1) small western edifice, volume of ~6000 km3 (Garcia et al., 1990,
2012); (2) larger edifice with summit farther
east and a concealed flank onlapped by Kohala
(Clague and Moore, 1991; Clague and Calvert,
2009), volume here estimated as ~20,000 km3;
or speculatively (3) even absence of Mahukona
as a discrete volcano. In absence of positive
Volcano growth on Hawaii
A
B
Loa-trend propagation at 10.6 cm/yr,
volcano inception at 850 ka
Mauna Loa A
Hualalai
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00
1400
Magma supply, km3/yr (semi-log)
Magma supply, km3/yr (linear)
0.20
0.50
0.10
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
Mauna Loa A
Hualalai
0.01
0.00
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
0.40
Mauna Loa C
0.30
Hualalai
0.20
0.10
0.00
1400
0
Magma supply, km3/yr (semi-log)
Magma supply, km3/yr (linear)
0.25
High peak-tholeiite magma supply,
volcano inception at 850 ka
0.10
1200
1000
800
600
800
600
400
200
0
Mauna Loa C
Hualalai
0.01
0.00
1400
1200
1000
Age, ka
400
200
0
Age, ka
Figure 13. Age and magma-supply growth models for Hualalai and comparisons with Mauna Loa, at 100 k.y.
intervals. (A) Near-constant volcano-propagation model (10.6 cm/yr; near-constant lifespan model is the same).
(B) High peak-tholeiite model (volcano inception at 850 ka). The semi-log scale better illustrates variations during
intervals of low magma supply. Data are from Table 9, which also lists interval and cumulative volumes. Growth
curves for Mauna Loa are from Figures 12A and 12C.
evidence for alternative 3, or gravity data in support of alternative 2, models for this overview
are based conservatively on the ~6000 km3
estimate of Garcia et al. (2012). Because the
volume of the Mahukona construct would be
relatively small by whatever alternative, none of
them substantially affects broad conclusions of
overall magma supply and eruption rates during
composite growth of Hawaii, discussed later.
Age estimates are also problematic, because
of uncertainties concerning which dates are reliably associated with growth at Mahukona. Based
on a coral age from the 1350-mbsl shelf break
at reef 6, Clague and Moore (1991) estimated
that tholeiite-stage eruptions began to decline
by ca. 470 ka but persisted to at least 430 ka,
the coral age of reef 5 that is draped by tholeiitic rubble inferred from Mahukona. Recent
40
Ar/39Ar ages from transitional basalt on the
shallow cone along the western Mahukona ridge
are 300–350 ka (Clague and Calvert, 2009; Gar-
cia et al., 2012), probably representing the near
termination of eruptions. An age of 481 ± 37 ka
for transitional basalt from deeper on the flank
of the same cone suggests a possibly prolonged
interval of waning volcanism, but no highly
alkalic lavas have been sampled at Mahukona.
An age of 654 ± 36 ka on tholeiite from a deeper
cone farther west provides another limit on late
activity (Garcia et al., 2012). Generalizing from
these results, the putative Mahukona volcano is
interpreted to have changed from main-tholeiite
to late-alkalic stage at ca. 400–450 ka and to
have terminated by 300 ka. No data exist for
waxing-alkalic stage at Mahukona, but the bulk
of this edifice must be tholeiite; only two sites
have yielded transitional samples.
Growth Model
A 6000 km3 volume for Mahukona would
imply growth markedly different from larger
Hawaiian volcanoes. If its lifespan were com-
Geosphere, October 2013
parable to volcanoes such as Kohala (~1200
k.y.), then even with prolonged (100–200 k.y.)
waxing and waning stages, peak magma supply
would have been ~0.01 km3/yr, an order of magnitude less than for larger volcanoes or presentday Kilauea. Peak tholeiite activity at even half
the rate of larger volcanoes would require a
much briefer lifespan (600 k.y. or less), but this
would delay inception of Mahukona until ~400
k.y. later than initial activity at adjacent Kohala
or predicted from geodynamic models of volcano propagation.
Kahoolawe
In parallel to Haleakala on Maui Nui, the
growth history of Kahoolawe bears on initiation of the Loa trend on Hawaii, but modern
geologic data are sparse because of island use
as a military bombing range. Available K-Ar
ages roughly define the end of sustained-
1369
Lipman and Calvert
tholeiite eruptions at ca. 1200 ka, followed by
late-alkalic volcanism until ca. 900 ka (Sherrod
et al., 2007); analogies with other volcanoes
suggest inception at 2100–2250 ka (Table 3).
ASSEMBLY OF THE ISLAND
OF HAWAII
Composition, age, and volume data for individual volcanoes, while of uneven quality, quantity, and completeness, provide a framework
for modeling the composite growth of Hawaii
Island. Ages and volumes have been combined
for three alternative magma-supply models for
100 k.y. intervals from each volcano: (1) nearconstant propagation of volcano inception;
(2) near-equal lifespan, varied peak-tholeiite
rate; and (3) varied duration, high peak-tholeiite
rate (Table 10). These models then can generate age-volume growth plots for the entire island
(Fig. 14).
Somewhat unexpectedly, the three growth
models yield generally similar results despite
the varied assumptions and inputs. Each model
has a broad peak of high magma supply (20–
35 × 103 km3/100 k.y.) from ca. 400 to 800 ka,
when four Hawaiian volcanoes (Kohala, Hualalai, Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa) were erupting
tholeiite voluminously. The lower magma volumes for earlier time intervals reflect ramping
up of volcanism at Hawaii as it waned on Maui
Nui, and an interval of diminished magma supply along the Hawaiian Ridge as recorded by
the inter-island channel. The lower volumes
for younger intervals largely reflect existence
of only a single volcano, Kilauea, with a recent
magma supply of 0.1 km3/yr or higher. For the
other two highly active volcanoes, Loihi is transitioning from its waxing-alkalic stage while
tholeiitic eruption rates have been declining at
Mauna Loa, resulting in lower overall magma
supply. Because Kilauea only entered its maintholeiite stage at ca. 100 ka or more recently,
magma volumes were lower for the preceding
few hundred thousand years as tholeiite eruptions diminished at Kohala, Hualalai, Mauna
Kea, and Mauna Loa.
In comparison to the near-constant propagation plot (Table 10A; Fig. 14A), the age-volume
distribution of magma supply shifts to a slightly
earlier peak time for near-constant volcano
life spans (Table 10B), because these models lengthen eruptive duration and lower peak
magma supply for volcanoes with small total
volume. In contrast, models of higher tholeiite
production and variable lifespan (Table 10C)
shift peak magma supply to younger times,
because the reduced life spans require younger
inception ages and reduced durations of the
main-tholeiite stage. The high volume at 400 ka
1370
TABLE 10. VOLCANO-GROWTH MODELS, WITH VOLUMES (103 KM3) AT 100 K.Y. INTERVALS,
FOR COMPOSITE ASSEMBLY OF THE ISLAND OF HAWAII
Time
Total
(ka)
Mahukona
Kohala
Hualalai Mauna Kea Mauna Loa
Kilauea
Loihi
island
A. Near-constant propagation of volcano inception (difference between Kea and Loa trends)
1600
1500
1400
1300
1200
1100
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Total
—
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.5
0.8
1.0
1.0
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
0.0
0.0
6.0
—
0.6
4.5
8.9
10.3
10.3
9.3
8.0
6.5
4.0
1.5
0.3
0.1
0.0
64.0
—
0.3
1.0
3.2
5.8
5.5
3.8
2.5
1.8
1.3
0.8
0.3
26.0
—
0.40
4.38
6.35
5.10
3.50
1.60
0.45
0.15
0.05
22.0
—
0.48
16.75
19.00
16.00
12.00
8.50
6.00
4.25
83.0
—
0.3
2.3
8.4
11.0
—
0.1
0.9
1.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
1.1
5.3
10.2
12.2
14.5
20.4
37.0
34.7
26.2
16.9
10.8
9.4
13.9
212.9
—
0.1
0.9
1.0
0.0
0.7
4.8
10.8
15.5
26.2
35.3
34.5
28.3
18.6
10.4
7.1
7.6
13.4
212.9
B. Near-constant long lifespan (~1.1 m.y.); variably lower tholeiite rates
1400
1300
1200
1100
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
Total
—
0.1
0.3
1.0
1.5
1.2
0.8
0.5
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
6.0
—
0.6
4.5
8.9
10.3
10.3
9.3
8.0
6.5
4.0
1.5
0.3
0.1
0.0
64.0
—
0.3
1.0
3.2
5.8
5.5
3.8
2.5
1.8
1.3
0.8
0.3
26.0
—
0.55
2.5
5.0
5.5
4.0
2.3
1.1
0.6
0.3
0.2
0.1
22.0
—
0.3
6.5
14.0
16.5
15.5
10.8
6.5
5.0
4.3
3.8
83.0
—
0.3
2.3
8.4
11.0
C. Variable volcano lifespan; high peak-tholeiite eruption
1400
0.0
1300
—
0.7
1200
0.7
4.4
1100
4.4
13.8
13.8
1000
17.0
900
—
17.0
—
11.5
800
0.1
11.3
0.2
—
10.3
700
0.8
7.1
2.3
0.2
18.2
600
4.0
4.6
7.0
2.6
—
1.0
8.0
22.3
500
2.8
8.0
2.5
0.1
7.3
36.2
49.3
400
1.5
4.3
0.0
0.7
3.1
21.7
27.5
300
2.0
—
—
0.2
0.5
10.5
0.3
12.8
200
1.3
—
0.1
0.8
0.3
7.3
2.3
0.1
10.8
100
0.0
0.3
4.8
8.4
0.9
14.5
0
0.1
Total
6.0
64.0
26.0
22.0
83.0
11.0
1.0
212.9
Note: Bold indicates best constrained age intervals; italics indicate volumes during peak of sustained-tholeiite
stage; dashes indicate time interval before volcano inception. Based on small Mahukona (Garcia et al., 2012).
Shading indicates duration of sustained-tholeiite stage.
in this model is dominated by Mauna Loa input,
a result probably inconsistent with available
ages as discussed earlier. Although the differences among the plots are relatively modest,
they incorporate substantially different growth
models for some volcanoes. For example, the
inception age for Mauna Kea varies from 1100
to 750 ka, and duration of its main-tholeiite
stage 650–300 k.y.; for Mauna Loa, 950–550 ka,
and 850–450 k.y., respectively (Table 3). These
time-volume plots for composite assembly of
Geosphere, October 2013
the Hawaii construct thus broadly mirror, on
different scales, the growth histories of the individual component volcanoes (Figs. 3A, 9–10,
12–13), and define an intense pulse of magma
supply that has diminished during the last few
hundred thousand years.
The growth models for individual volcanoes
can be adjusted to varying degrees without violating available age data and uncertainties in
volume estimates, and multiple iterations were
explored. However, no seemingly reasonable
Volcano growth on Hawaii
A
NEAR--CONSTANT PROPAGATION
40
NEAR-CONSTANT LIFESPAN
20
30
VARIABLE HI-THOLEIITE LIFESPAN
0
10
VOLUME, 103 km3/100 ka
50
60
HAWAII ISLAND, ALL VOLCANOES: ALTERNATIVE GROWTH MODELS
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
AGE, ka
B
Cumulave volcano volume (near-constant propagaon)
200
Loihi
Kilauea
Mauna Loa
150
Volume, 103 km3
Mauna Kea
Hualalai
Kohala
100
Mahukona
50
0
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
Years, ka
Figure 14 (on this and following page). Volcano-growth models, at 100 k.y. intervals, for composite assembly of
the Island of Hawaii. Volume versus age data are from Table 10. (A) Time-volume plot, illustrating three alternative growth models (near-constant propagation, near-constant lifespan, high peak-tholeiite).(B) Time-volume plot
(near-constant propagation), illustrating cumulative contributions of each volcano.
Geosphere, October 2013
1371
Lipman and Calvert
C
40
GROWTH OF HAWAII ISLAND
Near-constant volcano propagation;
VOLUME, km3/100 ka
30
Total island volume, 213 km3;
average eruption rate, ~0.14
km3/yr
[Lighter shades of colors:
transitional & alkalic lavas]
Mauna Loa
20
Mauna Kea
Loihi
Hualalai
10
Kilauea
Kohala
Mahukona
0
1,500
1,000
AGE, ka
0
500
Figure 14 (continued). (C) Time-volume plot (near-constant propagation), illustrating contributions of each volcano.
models produced substantial changes to the
growth geometries plotted in Figure 14, and
some adjustments lead to improbable models.
For example, models that raise peak-tholeiite
magma supply for smaller-volume volcanoes,
closer to the current 0.1 km3/yr rate for
Kilauea and that modeled for large volcanoes
like Kohala, reduce the time span for this stage
and yield a narrow steep growth curve, rather
than a broad plateau of sustained growth (e.g.,
Mauna Kea, Fig. 10C; Mauna Loa, Fig. 12C).
Such abbreviated intervals of peak growth
would likely require a hotspot magma source
of much smaller magma-capture diameter
than the 100–150 km inferred for the Hawaiian Ridge, based on duration of activity at
individual volcanoes and distribution of concurrently active ones (Ribe and Christensen,
1999; Quane et al., 2000; DePaolo et al.,
2001). A small hotspot locus would also make
the sustained compositional contrast between
the Kea and Loa trends (Weis et al., 2011)
even more difficult to interpret, as well as the
cause for eruptive loci along separate trends
rather than a single one centralized over the
propagation axis.
Evidence for decline in the overall magma
supply during the last few hundred thousand
years seems robust unless the models for Mauna
1372
Loa were drastically in error. No obvious alternatives seem adequate. Even if Mauna Loa
were much younger than the models preferred
here or previously proposed (800–900 ka; Lipman, 1995; DePaolo et al., 2001), with inception as recent as 550 ka and thereby requiring
very high tholeiite-stage magma supply (up to
0.5 km3/yr; Table 8C; Fig. 12C), the island-wide
magma-supply rate (at 300–500 ka) would still
be about triple that since 200 ka (Table 10C;
Fig. 14A). An even more speculative alternative might be the previously noted possibility
that Ka Lae Ridge could be the distal south rift
of Hualalai (Holcomb et al., 2000), thereby
permitting eruptive decline at Mauna Loa to
have begun as recently as 100 ka, rather than
decreasing in growth at ca. 400 ka as implied
by age determinations at Ka Lae (Jicha et al.,
2012). This interpretation, although seemingly
inconsistent with gravity expression for the rift
zones of these volcanoes (Kauahikaua et al.,
2000), could lower peak magma production
and broaden the time span for growth at Mauna
Loa, especially if combined with a young
inception age as in Figure 12C. Such a model
would also reduce the total volume of Mauna
Loa and greatly augment that of Hualalai, however, precluding large increase in total magma
supply for the island in the interval 400–100 ka.
Geosphere, October 2013
In this seemingly extreme model (not illustrated separately), the main-tholeiite stage during sustained growth of Mauna Loa would have
been atypically brief (400–450 k.y.) compared
to that documented for Kohala, and the islandwide magma supply would still have peaked
at ca. 400 ka with a rate more than double that
since 200 ka.
Magma-supply and eruption rates change by
an order of magnitude or more at some individual volcanoes and between adjacent ones during the tholeiite stage, despite relatively uniform
major-element melt compositions. These ranges
suggest near-constant proportions of melting but large changes in source volume. Such
source variations are likely recorded by more
subtle trace-element and isotopic variations during tholeiitic growth (Frey and Rhodes, 1993;
Rhodes and Hart, 1995; Pietruszka and Garcia,
1999; Marske et al., 2007; Weis et al., 2011).
DISCUSSION
Major results from this summary include recognition that no one-size-fits-all growth model
accounts for the diverse age, volume, composition, and magma-supply variations among
Hawaiian volcanoes. Volumes of the older volcanoes that have nearly completed their growth
Volcano growth on Hawaii
TABLE 11. MODELED VOLCANO-INCEPTION AGES, PROPAGATION RATES, AND DURATIONS OF MAIN-THOLEIITE STAGE, KEA AND LOA TRENDS
Distance between
Propagation rate, from
Cumulative
Volcano-to-volcano
Duration of the main
Inception age§
volcanoes*
Kilauea
distance†
propagation rate
tholeiite stage#
Volcano
(km)
(ka)
(calculated, k.y.)
(km)
(calculated, cm/yr)
(calculated, cm/yr)
A. Calculated inception and main-tholeiite ages, based on Kilauea to Kohala propagation rates (8.6 cm/yr)
Loihi
–45
–248
8.6
—
45
8.6
275
Kilauea
0
—
—
23
8.6
Mauna Loa
23
542
8.6
442
25
8.6
48
833
8.6
403
Mauna Kea
12
8.6
Hualalai
60
973
8.6
703
28
8.6
1300
8.6
88
800
Kohala
24
8.7
Mahukona
112
1577
8.6
977
60
8.6
172
2275
8.6
1125
Haleakala
6
8.6
Kahoolawe
178
2345
8.6
1095
B. Calculated propagation rates: distance from Kilauea, and volcano to volcano
125
Loihi
–45
45
275
Kilauea
0
23
Mauna Loa
23
540
25
48
825
Mauna Kea
12
Hualalai
60
975
28
1300
88
Kohala
24
Mahukona
112
1600
60
172
2200
Haleakala
6
Kahoolawe
178
2250
C. Kea trend only, fixed Kilauea-Kohala propagation (8.6 cm/yr)
Kilauea
45
48
Mauna Kea
93
40
Kohala
133
84
Haleakala
217
—
30.0
—
—
8.7
8.7
440
8.8
8.7
395
8.0
8.6
705
8.6
8.6
800
8.0
8.5
1000
10.0
8.9
1050
12.0
10.4
1000
275
>100
8.7
850
8.7
345
8.4
1300
8.6
850
8.8
2250
Mean: Kilauea to Haleakala
D. Loa trend only, inception of Loihi Seamount, at 125 ka
Loihi
0
68
Mauna Loa
68
37
Hualalai
105
52
Mahukona
157
66
Kahoolawe
223
30.0
8.7
8.67
125
1100
8.66
10.5
—
775
10.5
11.4
675
1100
10.8
10.4
830
1600
10.6
10.2
1000
2250
10.5
900
Mean: Loihi to Kahoolawe
10.6
10.6
Note: Loa-trend volcanoes in blue. Best-constrained ages in bold. Anomalous values in italics. Dashes indicate sustained-tholeiite stages at Kilauea and Loihi that
continue long into the future.
*Projected along trend N 35° W.
†
For A. and B., distances are from Kilauea; for C. and D., distances are from Loihi.
§
A. Calculated, assuming constant propagation, extrapolated from early-akalic ages for Kilauea and Kohala (in bold). B. and D. Estimated inception ages, fixed
rather than calculated.
#
Calculated: inception ages, minus duration of early-alkalic stage, minus inception date for late-alkalic stage.
Geosphere, October 2013
1373
Lipman and Calvert
(Table 2) vary by up to an order of magnitude
(if Mahukona is a separate edifice), volcano
spacing along the Kea and Loa trends by a
factor of two (Tables 11C and 11D), and peak
magma supply probably by a factor of five or
more during the tholeiite stage that accounts for
the bulk of each volcano. The growth models
also show that the evolutionary stages during
volcano growth are more varied than previously discussed, demonstrate inconsistencies
with prior geodynamic models, indicate that
composite volcanic growth at Hawaii peaked
ca. 800–400 ka, and suggest that current island
growth is at reduced rates.
Variable durations of growth stages are well
documented for the waning-alkalic stage on
the older volcanoes: commonly a few hundred
thousand years, but ranging from >950 k.y.
at Haleakala to absent at Lanai (Moore and
Clague, 1992; Sherrod et al., 2007). Much variability also seems likely for the earlier growth
stages, for which age data are sparse. The waxing-alkalic stage is ~50% longer at Kilauea than
at Loihi. Modeling suggests that durations of
tholeiitic activity were briefer at smaller-volume
volcanoes like Mauna Kea than at larger ones
such as Kohala (Table 3). As a result, the shifts
between growth stages correlate inconsistently
with propagation and inception rates estimated
from volcano spacing and plate motion. For
example, the tholeiite–late alkalic transition was
nearly concurrent at ca. 330–350 ka for Kohala
and Mauna Kea, 40 km distant. For Mauna Kea
and Hualalai, the decline in morphologic shield
growth (shoreline subsidence) was nearly concurrent at ca. 130 ka, while their tholeiite stages
ended asynchronously at ca. 330 and ca. 120 ka,
respectively.
Interpretations that have modeled growth at
near-constant values for total volcano lifespan,
duration of growth stages, and propagation over
a fixed hotspot, thus are difficult to reconcile in
detail with even the limited age and volume data
now available. The constant propagation rate
and growth-stage duration model for Hawaii
by Moore and Clague (1992) required propagation at 13 cm/yr (Fig. 3C) that is much faster
than present-day or longer-duration Pacific plate
motion (7–9 cm/yr), inception ages for Kohala
and Mauna Loa that are younger than can be
reconciled with recent 40Ar/39Ar dates, and duration of the main-tholeiite stage of only 500 k.y.
that would require magma supply at the larger
volcanoes to be much higher than at presentday Kilauea (five times as high for Mauna Loa;
Table 8C). Geometric models for the varied size
and duration of Hawaiian volcanoes in relation
to location along the trace of the hotspot by
DePaolo and Stolper (1996) led to inference of
a 600 ka inception age for Kilauea, more than
twice that implied by recent isotopic ages (Calvert and Lanphere, 2006). Their steady-state
geometric model, which related volcano lifespan and size to varied distance from the axis of
hotspot progression, also lacks an explanation
for alternation of large and small volcanoes
on both the Kea and Loa trends. The uniform
growth curves (Fig. 3B) modeled by Holcomb
et al. (2000) are incompatible with the orderof-magnitude variation in volume among the
island’s volcanoes (Table 2).
No single propagation rate works for the
combined volcanoes of the two trends, either.
The best-constrained rate for any of the Kea
or Loa volcanoes is 8.6 cm/yr (Table 11; Fig.
15), calculated from time-distance relations for
the waxing-alkalic and volcano-inception ages
at Kilauea and Kohala (Calvert and Lanphere,
2006; Lipman and Calvert, 2011). In contrast,
a propagation rate of 8.6 cm/yr from Kilauea
yields an impossible future inception age for
Loihi Seamount (-248 ka; Table 11A) and an
implausibly young age for Mauna Loa (540 ka;
Table 11B), younger than some isotopic ages
on main-stage tholeiite from the distal Ka Lae
Ridge (Jicha et al., 2012). At the best estimate of
inception age for Loihi (ca. 125 ka), the propagation rate from Kilauea would be an improbably rapid 30 cm/yr (Table 11B). If Loihi were
older than 125 ka (e.g., 330–400 ka, as inferred
by Garcia et al. [2006]), the divergence between
trends would be even greater.
Alternatively, a separate distance-inception
age plot for Loa-trend volcanoes, both projected
from Loihi inception at 125 ka and for individual volcano pairs, yields more rapid propagation
rates of 10.5–10.7 cm/yr (Table 11D; Fig. 15B).
This rate produces offsets to earlier inception
ages for the younger Loa-trend volcanoes, relative to distance along the Kea trend, that reduce
or eliminate inconsistencies in age-distance plots
for these two volcano groups (Fig. 15B). Most
importantly, the model inception age for Mauna
Loa becomes geologically more plausible (ca.
800 ka). Such an average Loa-trend rate (~10.6
cm/yr) would converge with the Kea trend on
Maui Nui, yielding near-concurrent distances
and ages for Haleakala and Kahoolawe.
A semi-constant Loa-trend propagation rate
(10.6 cm/yr) yields an inception age of 2250 ka
(Table 11) and a sustained-tholeiite stage of
~900 k.y. for Kahoolawe, consistent with the
slightly younger age (by only 50 k.y.) estimated independently for Haleakala, based on
the lower propagation rate for the Kea trend.
These inception ages for volcanoes on Maui
Nui may be somewhat old, generating durations of 900–1000 k.y. for their main-tholeiite
stage (Table 11, models C–D), and suggesting
that propagation rates across the Maui Channel
Figure 15 (on following page). Modeled volcano propagation rates and inception ages, illustrating divergence between younger volcanoes
of the Kea and Loa trends, Hawaii Island and Maui Nui. (A) Modeled volcano-inception ages versus distance from Kilauea (Kea and Loa
trends plotted together; data from Table 11B), illustrating divergence of Loihi from the best-fit trend anchored by dated rocks from Kilauea
and Kohala. The propagation rate of 8.6 cm/yr for the Kea trend is calculated from the time-distance relation for the dated volcano inception and the early-alkalic transition at Kilauea and Kohala (Tables 11A and 11C). For the Loa trend to converge with the better-constrained
Kea trend, anchored by Kilauea inception at 275 ka, Loihi activity should not begin until ~250 k.y. in the future, and inception of Mauna
Loa at ca. 540 ka would be younger than some dated tholeiite pillow lavas from Ka Lae Ridge (Jicha et al., 2012). Alternatively, an estimated
125 ka inception age for Loihi would require an implausibly rapid propagation rate (~30 cm/yr) from Kilauea (Table 11B). Alternatively, if
volcano inception is plotted separately along the Kea and Loa trends, the plots are linear but divergent (shown in B). (B) Modeled volcanoinception ages versus distance from Loihi (Kea and Loa trends plotted separately; data from Table 11C–D), illustrating divergence between
younger volcanoes of the Kea and Loa trends, Hawaii and Maui Nui. The best-fit rate of 10.6 cm/yr for the Loa trend is based on an estimated 125 ka inception age for Loihi, projected to converge with near-concurrent distances and ages for Haleakala and Kahoolawe on Maui
Nui (Table 11D). If Loihi commenced earlier (e.g., 330–400 ka, as proposed by Garcia et al. [2006]), the propagation from Kilauea would be
negative (Loihi older than Kilauea), and the divergence between the two trends would become even greater. Major results from plotting the
Loa trend separately are the more consistent propagation rate, both progressing from Loihi inception at 125 ka and for individual volcano
pairs, and the offset to an older inception age for Mauna Loa (ca. 800 ka) that is more geologically reasonable. Abbreviations: H—Hualalai;
HA—Haleakala; KI—Kilauea; KO—Kohala; L—Loihi; MK—Mauna Kea; ML—Mauna Loa.
1374
Geosphere, October 2013
Volcano growth on Hawaii
Modeled volcano incepon age, ka
0
A
KL
LO
Kea and Loa Trends Combined
500
ML
MK
1000
HU
KO
/yr
1500
8.6
2000
cm
M
HA
K
2500
200
150
100
50
0
–50
Distance from Kilauea, km
0
B
KL
Modeled volcano incepon age, ka
LO
Kea Trend
500
/yr
MK
Loa Trend
yr
.
KO 8
.
ML
/
m
6c
1000
m
6c
10
HU
1500
M
2000
2500
HA
Modeled propagation:
separate Kea and Loa trends,
distance from Loihi
K
250
200
150
100
50
0
Distance from Loihi, km
Figure 15.
Geosphere, October 2013
1375
Lipman and Calvert
may have been more rapid, perhaps ~11 cm/yr
for both trends. The combined average Kea and
Loa propagation rates agree reasonably with
a prior estimate of 9 cm/yr by DePaolo and
Stolper (1996), but are lower than the 13 cm/yr
suggested by Moore and Clague (1992). However, such comparisons are based on limited
data: ages and volumes are less known for the
older Loa-tend volcanoes, and interpretation of
the Kohala terrace (Mahukona) is especially
problematic.
Inception ages and sites for new volcanoes
along the Hawaiian Ridge, rather than following any simple geometric propagation, are
likely nonlinear in detail, jumping ahead of the
plate-motion progression or lagging behind in
response to availability of favorable structures in
the oceanic lithosphere or in adjacent volcanoes.
Perhaps volcano inception can be triggered by
controls other than just location relative to the
melting zone. Some volcanoes could be conceived in the headwalls of slumps or slides on
older volcanoes; Kilauea and Loihi both could
have started this way. Complexities of the geometric models explored here may be indicating
that other factors are involved in inception and
growth of Hawaiian volcanoes. Although existing age data are inadequate to evaluate such
alternatives, they demonstrate that volcano
inception cannot be rigorously modeled based
solely on motion of the Pacific plate. In addition,
absolute southwestward motion of the hotspot at
4–5.5 cm/yr seems required by the divergence
of direction and velocity for volcano propagation along the Kea and Loa trends on Hawaii
(N35°W, 8.6–10.6 cm/yr) from the longer-term
trend of the Hawaiian chain (N65°W, 9.6 cm/yr;
Clague and Dalrymple, 1987) and from present GPS-measured motion of the Pacific plate
(N65°W, ~7 cm/yr; http://sideshow.jpl.nasa
.gov/post/series.html). This hotspot motion
thus would be about three-quarters as large as
the plate motion, contributing significantly to
the geometry of volcano propagation. Recent
southwestward motion of the Hawaiian hotspot,
also inferred from trends of isotopic and seismic
data (DePaolo et al., 2001; Wright and Klein,
2006), could account for the change in trend of
the Hawaiian Ridge at Maui Nui.
The variable growth histories of individual
volcanoes, divergent propagation rates along
the Kea and Loa trends, discontinuous magma
flux during assembly of Hawaii Island, and
1376
longer-term growth of the Hawaiian chain as
discrete islands rather than a continuous ridge,
may record strongly pulsed magma flow in the
hotspot/plume source, similar to that recorded
in tomographic images of the mantle beneath
Yellowstone (Schmandt et al., 2012). For the
growth of Hawaii, the magma pulse took ~500–
600 k.y. to reach maximum supply, then was sustained for ~400 k.y. before diminishing steeply.
Peak growth of Hawaii Island between ca. 400
and 800 ka was probably preceded by another
period of high magma supply at ca. 1.5–2.0 Ma
during composite growth of Maui Nui. Such
episodic magma flux and island growth along
the Hawaiian chain thus may constitute an intraoceanic analog to the intermittent recurrence of
ignimbrite super-eruptions and attendant caldera
formation along the Snake River–Yellowstone
hotspot track (Pierce and Morgan, 2009).
The conclusions presented here are largely
based on sparse results from rocks that are challenging to date, while volume estimates remain
poorly constrained because of limited control
on dimensions of volcano onlap, the component
of intrusive and cumulate bodies at depth below
the associated volcano construct, and even
uncertainty about the existence of Mahukona
volcano. Inconsistent relations between location and inception age among the youngest volcanoes on Hawaii (Loihi, Kilauea, Mauna Loa),
leading to interpreted offset between the Kea
and Loa trends, suggest that comparable complexities probably characterize the older edifices
for which early growth is even less constrained.
Particularly needed are additional ages from
early-alkalic basalts on other volcanoes, perhaps from submarine samples low along landslide scarps or distal rift zones, and controls on
rate of main-stage tholeiite lava accumulation
sampled from drill holes or submarine scarps.
Much more could be learned from such additional sampling, along with efforts to improve
capacity to determine reliable isotopic ages for
low-K basalt (discussed further in Appendix A).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This overview, initiated as an invited keynote talk
at the 2012 American Geophysical Union Chapman
Conference on Hawaiian Volcanoes, has roots in
decades of interactions with colleagues too numerous to acknowledge, but especially including Dave
Clague, Michelle Coombs, Don DePaolo, Mike
Geosphere, October 2013
Garcia, Jack Lockwood, Jim Moore, Bill Normark,
Tom Sisson, Don Swanson, and Bob Tilling. Much
appreciated are thoughtful comments on an early draft
by Bob Tilling, Jim Moore, Tom Sisson, and Brian
Jicha, and helpful reviews for the journal by Dennis
Geist and Dave Clague.
APPENDIX A. GEOCHRONOLOGY
Geochronology of Hawaiian lavas is extremely difficult due to modest K contents, difficult rock textures,
and tropical weathering. Early results were often
plagued by excess argon (implausibly old ages), negative or zero ages, and results that violated superposition. Recent studies using careful sample selection,
preparation, and analytical techniques have obtained
promising results. 40Ar/39Ar results from relatively
high-K, crystalline-lava groundmass concentrates
separated from submarine and borehole samples are
reproducible, satisfy stratigraphic constraints, and
appear reliable. Unspiked K-Ar samples using novel
methods yield promising results, though occasionally in conflict with 40Ar/39Ar results. Tholeiitic lavas
continue to yield little useable data, due to low potassium (K2O generally <0.4 wt%) and difficult textures,
although Jicha et al. (2012) managed to produce 14
reasonable ages from 41 candidate tholeiitic lavas. All
known published 40Ar/39Ar and unspiked K-Ar results
for the Island of Hawaii are compiled in Table A1,
along with representative radiogenic argon yields and
bulk-rock potassium contents.
Armed with this improved chronologic framework
and understanding of rock samples and analytical
techniques necessary for reliable ages, we recommend
several directions for future research:
(1) Loihi samples dated by Guillou et al. (1997a)
should be analyzed using 40Ar/39Ar incremental-heating techniques, such as employed in laboratories at the
Berkeley Geochronology Center, University of Wisconsin, Oregon State University, and U.S. Geological
Survey. This sample suite contains 0.6–1 wt% K2O
and yielded reproducible but stratigraphically inconsistent ages. 40Ar/39Ar techniques may solve those
issues.
(2) Mauna Loa’s Ninole Hills have produced complicated K-Ar (Lipman et al., 1990) and 40Ar/39Ar
results (Jicha et al., 2012) that suggest eruption at
100–200 ka. Further careful sample collection and
analysis may yield more reliable results for these
Mauna Loa units.
(3) Subaerial transitional and alkalic rocks from
Kohala (Pololu and Hawi Volcanics) should be analyzed using 40Ar/39Ar techniques.
Finally, we encourage full disclosure of future
Hawaii geochronologic work to help understand limitations of the techniques. It is tempting to publish only
data that yield positive or stratigraphically consistent
ages; however, Hawaiian rocks are unusually difficult
to date and eventual success will require a collective
effort. While discussing problematic samples often
complicates and lengthens manuscripts, authors and
editors are encouraged to present all data, not only
those that yield satisfactory results.
Sample Number
S508-2A
S508-2C
S509-2A
S509-4B
S710-4A
K208-2A
K208-5B
K208-7
K208-14
S505-2B
S505-10B
S504-1
S504-4
SOH-1-234
SOH-1-409
SOH-1-537
SOH-1-692
SOH-1-756
SOH-1-941
SOH-1-1551
7 samples not reported
K207-1
K207-4
K215-2
K215-6
186-14
187-6
158-6
158-5
186-2
F288HW-D18-R3
F288HW-D18-R7
F288HW-D18-R9
F288HW-D18-R11
MVD6-R2
MVD6-R6
160-5
159-6
161-2
R158-0.1
R164-1.6
R164-1.6-plag
R174-8.3
R177-6.0
Volcano
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kilauea
Kohala
Kohala
Loihi
Loihi
Loihi
Loihi
Loihi
Mahukona
Mahukona
Mahukona
Mahukona
Mahukona
Mahukona
Mahukona
Mahukona
Mahukona
Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea
Mauna Kea
Location
Submarine S flank
Submarine S flank
Submarine S flank
Submarine S flank
Submarine S flank
Submarine S flank
Submarine S flank
Submarine S flank
Submarine S flank
Submarine S flank
Submarine S flank
Submarine S flank
Submarine S flank
SOH-1 hole
SOH-1 hole
SOH-1 hole
SOH-1 hole
SOH-1 hole
SOH-1 hole
SOH-1 hole
SOH-1 hole
Submarine S flank
Submarine S flank
Submarine Hilo Ridge
Submarine Hilo Ridge
Submarine E flank
Submarine E flank
Submarine E flank
Submarine E flank
Submarine E flank
Submarine Mahukona
Submarine Mahukona
Submarine Mahukona
Submarine Mahukona
Submarine Mahukona
Submarine Mahukona
Submarine Mahukona
Submarine Mahukona
Submarine Mahukona
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
–1130
–1475
–1650
–1830
–1960
–1425
–1425
–1425
–1425
–2990
–2990
–1200
–1685
–1970
–281
–299
–299
–327
–333
Elevation
(m)
–3954
–3954
–4132
–4013
–4122
–2539
–2472
–2372
–2080
–4599
–4234
–3877
–3528
–45
–220
–348
–503
–567
–752
–1362
?
–2935
–2883
30
6
15
12
29
28
67
68
3
7
4
4
9
26
36
30
32
42
38
33
74
72
196
18
220
8
10
67
65
1159
1139
3
201
44
10
101
306
280
312
237
285
329
350
480
654
346
199
140
232
241
5
Age
(ka)
234
239
280
248
212
159
138
144
166
192
123
138
228
<0
5
<0
3
28
174
351
±2s
(ka)
9
10
20
150
38
19
30
25
26
111
56
115
114
Technique
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
Unspiked K/Ar
Unspiked K/Ar
Unspiked K/Ar
Unspiked K/Ar
Unspiked K/Ar
Unspiked K/Ar
Unspiked K/Ar
Unspiked K/Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
Unspiked K/Ar
Unspiked K/Ar
Unspiked K/Ar
Unspiked K/Ar
Unspiked K/Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
40
Ar/39Ar
%radiogenic
0.9–13.8%
2.1–11.1%
2.4–11.5%
1.1–4.7%
1.4–3.0%
0.9–6.8%
2.5–4.3%
1.6–4.2%
0.7–6.2%
2.0–5.4%
0.9–5.1%
1.0–3.0%
2.1–4.4%
–0.16%
0.01%
–0.03%
0.01%
0.12%
0.42%
0.22%
—
0.3–1.7%
1.3–1.9%
3.5–5.9%
4.7–6.5%
0.023, 0.086%
0.677, 0.686%
0.402, 0.300%
0.085, 0.099%
0.201, 0.202%
4.4–10.3%
2.7–6.8%
4.0–7.8%
1.8–7.8%
1.8–6.6%
3.8–8.2%
3.5–17.4%
2.2–15.9%
1.1–13.5%
0.5–10.1%
2.8–22.1%
−2.3–3.4%
0.3–30.8%
3.4–21.0%
Median
%rad
4.4
5.6
6.9
3.2
2.1
3.7
3.1
2.6
3.8
4.0
4.3
2.6
3.3
–0.2
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.1
0.4
0.2
—
1.2
1.4
4.9
5.2
0.1
0.7
0.4
0.1
0.0
7.9
5.8
6.1
3.7
4.4
6.6
12.9
7.0
9.5
2.6
14.9
0.9
6.8
10.5
Rock
K2O
2.03
1.75
1.05
1.29
2.34*
0.82
0.73
0.77
0.74
0.95
1.28
0.74
0.80
0.43
0.39
0.55
0.50
0.49
0.28
0.17
—
0.57
0.42
0.64
0.50
1.03
0.89
0.80
0.96
0.62
0.47
0.47
0.45
0.45
0.44
0.44
0.45
0.46
0.40
0.51
0.74
0.74
—
—
Notes
Plateau age
Plateau age
Plateau age
Isochron age
Plateau age
Plateau age, weighted mean
Plateau age
Plateau age
Plateau age, weighted mean
Isochron age
Isochron age
Plateau age
Plateau age
Rejected by authors, –0.16% rad
0.02% rad, 2nd split ignored –0.008%rad
Rejected by authors, –0.03% rad
Rejected by authors, 0.01% rad
0.12% rad, weighted mean
0.42% rad, weighted mean
0.22% rad, weighted mean
Rejected by authors, no data reported
Plateau age
Plateau age
Plateau age
Plateau age
Weighted mean of two splits
Weighted mean of two splits, rejected by authors
Weighted mean of two splits
Weighted mean of two splits, rejected by authors
Weighted mean of two splits
Plateau age, weighted mean
Plateau age, weighted mean
Plateau age, weighted mean
Plateau age, weighted mean
Plateau age, weighted mean
Plateau age, weighted mean
Plateau age
Plateau age
Plateau age
Integrated age
Isochron age
Integrated age
Plateau age
Plateau age
APPENDIX TABLE A1. ALL PUBLISHED 40Ar/39Ar AND SOME RECENT K/Ar AGE DETERMINATIONS USED FOR ESTIMATING VOLCANO GROWTH RATES, ISLAND OF HAWAII AND UNDERWATER SLOPES
Reference
1
1
1
1
1, 11
1, 12
1, 12
1, 12
1, 12
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
3, 12
3, 12
4
4
5
5
5
5
5
6
6
6
6
6
6
7
7
7
8, 13
8, 13
8, 13
8
8
(continued)
Volcano growth on Hawaii
Geosphere, October 2013
1377
1378
Elevation Age ±2s
Median Rock
Sample Number
Location
Volcano
(m)
(ka) (ka)
Technique
%radiogenic
%rad K2O
Notes
Reference
40
Ar/39Ar
R208-5.0
Mauna Kea
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
–416
326
46
−0.5–4.1%
3.6
—
Plateau age
8
40
R243-8.4
Mauna Kea
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
Ar/39Ar
–513
500 320
−2.2–5.0%
2.8 0.24
Integrated age
8, 13
–658
R315-3.6
Mauna Kea
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
114 174
K/Ar
n.a.
0.5 0.58
K-Ar, weighted mean
8
40
Ar/39Ar
0–7.5%
3.1 0.29
Integrated age
8
R340-5.1
Mauna Kea
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
–720
790 360
R340-5.1
Mauna Kea
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
–720
352 210
K/Ar
n.a.
1.6 0.37
K-Ar, weighted mean
8
40
Ar/39Ar
0.2–6.7%
2.0
—
Integrated age
8
R350-5.0
Mauna Kea
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
–748
550 280
40
Ar/39Ar
R371-0.3
Mauna Kea
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
–797
760 280
−0.4–6.0%
2.5 0.33
Integrated age
8, 13
R371-0.3
Mauna Kea
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
–797
378 218
K/Ar
n.a.
1.4 0.46
K-Ar, weighted mean
8
40
Ar/39Ar
0.5–6.5%
5.1
—
Preferred Age
8
R423-7.2
Mauna Kea
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
–935
400
52
40
Ar/39Ar
3.9
8
0.1–9.6%
—
Integrated age
R428-2.8
Mauna Kea
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
–946
550 320
40
Ar/39Ar
2.7
8
1.4–9.1%
—
Plateau age
R446-3.6
Mauna Kea
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
–995
391
80
40
Ar/39Ar
9.4
8
1.7–13.4%
—
Preferred Age
R446-3.6II
Mauna Kea
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
–995
385 112
40
Ar/39Ar
−0.1–4.1%
Integrated age
8
R452-5.9
Mauna Kea
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
–1010 1080 1040
2.4
—
322 414
0.6 0.49
R452-5.9
Mauna Kea
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
–1010
K/Ar
n.a.
K-Ar, weighted mean
8
40
Ar/39Ar
2.9 0.27
8, 13
1.2–4.7%
Integrated age
R466-5.0
Mauna Kea
HSDP-1 (subaerial flow)
–1052
780 220
40
Ar/39Ar
n.a.
n.a.
Composite Isochron age
—
9
SR0132-1.5
Mauna Kea (subaerial flow)
HSDP-2 (subaerial flow)
–277
236
16
40
Ar/39Ar
n.a.
n.a.
Isochron age
9
—
SR0413-4.0
Mauna Kea
HSDP-2 (subaerial flow)
–984
370 180
40
Ar/39Ar
SR0781-21.2
Mauna Kea
HSDP-2 (submarine)
–2242
482
67
n.a.
n.a.
—
Weighted mean of composite isochron ages
9
40
Ar/39Ar
n.a.
n.a. 0.32
Composite Isochron age
9, 14
SR0860-8.1
Mauna Kea
HSDP-2 (submarine)
–2614
560 150
40
Ar/39Ar
SR0907-1.6
Mauna Kea
HSDP-2 (submarine)
–2789
683
82
n.a.
n.a. 0.27
Weighted mean of isochron ages
9, 14
40
Ar/39Ar
n.a.
n.a. 0.27
Isochron age
9, 14
SR0907-1.6-plag
Mauna Kea
HSDP-2 (submarine)
–2789
760 380
40
Ar/39Ar
2.0
0.8–4.2%
—
Plateau age, weighted mean
10
SR413-4.0
Mauna Kea
HSDP-2 (subaerial flow)
–984.2 364
93
40
Ar/39Ar
2.8
0.3–4.8%
—
Plateau age, weighted mean
10
SR781-21.2
Mauna Kea
HSDP-2 (submarine)
–2242
488
75
40
Ar/39Ar
1.6 0.60
10, 15
J2-20-22
Mauna Loa
Submarine Ka Lae Ridge
–501
59
16
0.8–2.7%
Plateau age, weighted mean
40
Ar/39Ar
1.2 0.26
10, 15
0.4–2.4%
Plateau age, weighted mean
184-13
Mauna Loa
Submarine Ka Lae Ridge
–550
120
43
40
Ar/39Ar
4.5 0.66
10, 15
2.7–16.4%
Plateau age, weighted mean
J2-20-20
Mauna Loa
Submarine Ka Lae Ridge
–600
196
12
40
Ar/39Ar
2.6 0.29
10, 15
0.6–30.1%
Plateau age, weighted mean
J2-20-17
Mauna Loa
Submarine Ka Lae Ridge
–668
273
55
40
Ar/39Ar
3.3 0.31
10, 15
0.7–14.6%
Plateau age, weighted mean
J2-20-14
Mauna Loa
Submarine Ka Lae Ridge
–857
474
27
40
Ar/39Ar
3.5 0.36
10, 15
0.9–43.0%
Plateau age, weighted mean
184-8
Mauna Loa
Submarine Ka Lae Ridge
–1020
461
36
40
Ar/39Ar
2.8 0.43
10, 15
1.3–77.4%
Plateau age, weighted mean
183-4
Mauna Loa
Submarine Ka Lae Ridge
–1075
468
38
40
Ar/39Ar
4.1 0.28
10, 15
0.9–16.5%
Plateau age, weighted mean
J2-19-10
Mauna Loa
Submarine Ka Lae Ridge
–1753
463
28
40
Ar/39Ar
1.7 0.33
10, 15
0.8–15.7%
Plateau age, weighted mean
J2-16-04
Mauna Loa
Submarine Ka Lae Ridge
–2112
470
74
40
Ar/39Ar
2.4 0.37
10, 15
0.7–4.1%
Plateau age, weighted mean
J2-24-14
Mauna Loa
Submarine Ka Lae Ridge
–3963
543 150
40
Ar/39Ar
2.7 0.37
10, 15
0.6–6.6%
Isochron age, weighted mean
J2-24-01
Mauna Loa
Submarine Ka Lae Ridge
–4537
657 175
40
Ar/39Ar
6.9 0.32
10, 15
4.8–11.9%
Plateau age
M1203
Mauna Loa
South Kona landslide
–3700
247
56
40
Mauna Loa
Ninole Basalt
Ar/39Ar
108
35
1.7 0.26
10, 15
SW-77
0.3–4.2%
Plateau age, weighted mean
40
Mauna Loa
Ninole Basalt
Ar/39Ar
13.2 0.28
10, 15
SW-45
227
23
0.9–24.2%
Plateau age, weighted mean
40
Ar/39Ar
—
—
—
Rejected by authors, no data reported
10
31 samples not reported
Mauna Loa
40
Ar/39Ar
0–5.6%
2.9 0.23
8, 13
R153-3.0
Mauna Loa
HSDP-1
–268
132
64
Plateau age
40
Ar/39Ar
n.a.
n.a.
Isochron age
9
SR0121-1.0
Mauna Loa
HSDP-2
–245
122
86
Note: References for ages, K2O content: 1. Calvert and Lanphere (2006), 2. Quane et al. (2000), 3. Hanyu et al. (2010), 4. Lipman and Calvert (2011), 5. Guillou et al. (1997), 6. Clague and Calvert (2009), 7. Garcia et al. (2012), 8. Sharp et al.
(1996), 9. Sharp and Renne (2005), 10. Jicha et al. (2012), 11. Coombs et al. (2006), 12. Lipman et al. (2006), 13. Rhodes (1996), 14. Rhodes and Vollinger (2004), 15. M.J. Rhodes, 2013, written commun. *Glass composition.
APPENDIX TABLE A1. ALL PUBLISHED 40Ar/39Ar AND SOME RECENT K/Ar AGE DETERMINATIONS USED FOR ESTIMATING VOLCANO GROWTH RATES, ISLAND OF HAWAII AND UNDERWATER SLOPES (continued)
Lipman and Calvert
Geosphere, October 2013
Volcano growth on Hawaii
APPENDIX B. ESTIMATED VOLUMES OF VOLCANOES
The following tables (Tables B1–B6) summarize geometric assumptions and other approaches used to estimate volumes
for the individual volcanoes on the Island of Hawaii. Most revisions involve adjustments for inferred sloping onlap contacts
between edifices, while constrained by the estimated overall island volume of 213 × 103 km3 (Robinson and Eakins, 2006).
Uncertainties vary among volcanoes, but likely are about ±10% for most. Uncertainties are probably largest for the older
volcanoes of the Loa trend.
APPENDIX TABLE B1. KILAUEA VOLUME ESTIMATES
A. Total volume of dikes along rifts (model as rectangular prism)
Length, E rift: 50 on land, 65 submarine: total 115 km
Length, SW rift: 35 on land, 10 submarine: total 45 km
Total rift length: 160 km
Dike height: max 6 km (Cayol et al., 2000), tapers to 0 at distal edge of rift
km3
A1. Maximum horizontal intrusion width, S of summit:
5 km*
(10 km total spreading, 50% intrusion: Lipman et al., 2006)
10 km
(10 km total spreading, 100% intrusion)
20 km
(20 km total spreading, 100% intrusion)
40 km
(40 cm/yr, 100% intrusion: Cayol et al., 2000)
1600
3200
6400
12,800
*Preferred model: geometrically similar to Koolau (Walker, 1987)
A2. Maximum horizontal intrusion width, S of summit, taper 50% vertically
5 km
(10 km total spreading, 50% intrusion: Lipman et al., 2006)
10 km
(10 km total spreading, 100% intrusion)
20 km
(20 km total spreading, 100% intrusion)
40 km
(40 cm/yr, all intrusion: Cayol et al., 2000)
800
1600
3200
6400
B. Summit intrusions (deep feeders, magma reservoir, and cumulate)
Assume cylinder: R=5 km, H=9 km, V=710 km3
710
Inferred total intrusion:
(~20% total volcano volume: 11,100 km3)
2310
C. Deep-intrusion volume (within underlying Mauna Loa)
Summit (50% within Mauna Loa)
Rift zones (33% in Mauna Loa: most of SW rift, minor E rift)
355
533
Inferred total deep intrusion:
888
D. Estimated total volume of Kilauea:
Edifice (from Lipman et al., 2006): 10,200 km3
Deep-intrusion volume: 888 km3
Note: Alternative estimates: Kilauea intrusion volumes during tholeiite stage (100 ky)
TOTAL:
11,100
APPENDIX TABLE B2. KOHALA VOLUME ESTIMATES
PREFERRED MODEL: Kohala entirely on ocean floor; adjacent to small Mahukona (Garcia et al., 2012)
Triaxial ellipsoid: = (h*l*w)*4π/3, or h*l*w*4.187; half segment for rift model
Southeast Rift
Northwest rift
Elevation at summit
(km)
1.8
1.8
Elevation at toe
(km)
–5
–4
Base, below summit
(km)
–11
–11
Summit height
(h) (km)
12.8
12.8
Length
(l) (km)
135
55
Center half width
(w) (km)
25
25
Volume
(km3)
45,220
18,423
TOTAL:
63,642
Central half width
(w)
25
25
Volume
(km3)
45,220
18,423
ALTERNATE MODEL: Kohala onlaps larger eastern Mahukona (Clague and Moore, 1991)
Triaxial ellipsoid: = (h*l*w)*4π/3, or h*l*w*4.187; half segment for rift model
[All km]
Southeast Rift
Northwest rift
Elevation
at summit
1.8
1.8
Elevation
at toe
–5
–4
Base,
below summit
–11
–11
Correction for onlap NW flank of larger Mahukona (Clague and Moore, 1991):
Summit height
(h)
12.8
12.8
Length
(l)
135
55
(6,000)
TOTAL:
57,642
Note: Model long SE rift and shorter NW rift as half of triaxial-ellipsoid. Infer both Pololu and Laupahoehoe slumps are Kohala tholeiite; MK lavas deposited later at
paleoshore.
Geosphere, October 2013
1379
Lipman and Calvert
APPENDIX TABLE B3. MAUNA KEA VOLUME ESTIMATES
PREFERRED MODEL: Kohala entirely on ocean floor; adjacent to small Mahukona (Garcia et al., 2012)
Triaxial ellipsoid: = (h*l*w)*4π/3, or h*l*w*4.187
Elevation at summit
Elevation at SW base Elevation at NE base Average summit height
(km)
(ML-Hual) (km)
(Kohala) (km)
(h) (km)
4.2
–9
–1
9.2
Center half length
(l) (km)
45
Center half width
(w) (km)
25
TOTAL:
Volume
(km3)
21,668
21,668
103 Km3
41.9
Alternative volume estimate:
Prior volume estimate (Robinson and Eakins, 2006):
Additional calculated volume of Kohala, with Hilo Ridge (Table A2): =64-36.4
Additional volume of Kohala, from smaller Mahukona (Garcia et al., 2012): =13.5-6
Additional volume of Kohala, from smaller Mauna Kea:
27.6
7.5
20.1
Resulting net volume of Mauna Kea: = 41.9 – 20.1
TOTAL:
21.8
Note: Model as triaxial-ellipsoid, with, SE-sloping axial plane (against flank of Kohala), approximated by averaged summit elevation. Infer both Pololu and Laupahoehoe
slumps are Kohala tholeiite; MK lavas deposited later at paleoshore.
APPENDIX TABLE B4. LOIHI VOLUME ESTIMATE
Ellipsoid segment: = (h*l*w)*4*π/3, or h*l*w*4.187; quarter segment for rift model
South Rift
North rift
Elevation at summit
(km)
–1
–1
Elevation at toe
(km)
–4.5
–2
Base, below summit
(km)
–3
–3
Summit height
(h) (km)
2
2
Length
(l) (km)
22
14
Center half width
(w) (km)
10
10
Volume
(km3)
461
293
TOTAL:
46
73
873
Burial/compaction*
South rift (10%)
North rift (25%)
Deep dike intrusions (within underlying flank of Mauna Loa):
Estimated additional ~15%, as for Kilauea
131
TOTAL:
1004
Note: Model long S rift and shorter N rift as quarter-ellipsoid segments. (Ocean-floor subsidence considered minor, because of volcano youth and distal location.)
*Loihi built on Punaluu slump (relatively dense substrate: dive S507); assume burial decreases down slope. Longitudinal profile of Loihi: shield shape, with avg. 10° dip on
south rift crest; ~5° on north rift. Estimated growth to sea level: 250 ky, Moore and Clague (1992); 50 ky, DePaolo and Stolpber (1996); 200 ky (Clague and Sherrod (in press).
APPENDX TABLE B5. MAUNA LOA VOLUME ESTIMATES
GEOMETRIC MODEL: Oblate spheroid: = (h*l*w)*4π/3, or h*l*w*4.187
Elevation at summit
Depth to ocean floor
(km)
(km)
4
–12
Average summit height
(h) (km)
16
Center half length
(l) (km)
50
Center half width
(w) (km)
50
Volume
(km3)
83,740
TOTAL:
83,740
103 Km3
74.0
20.5
11.8
ALTERNATIVE VOLUME ESTIMATE:
Prior volume estimate (Robinson and Eakins, 2006):
Additional volume, from smaller Kilauea Lipman et al., 2006; Table A1): = 31.6-11.1
Reduced volume, from larger Hualalai (Robinson and Eakins, 2006; Table A6): = 26.0-14.2
Resulting net volume of Mauna Loa:
TOTAL:
82.7
Note: Highly simplified model as obllate spheroid, with growth from deeply subsided ocean floor. Infer Mauna Loa interfingers with concurrently growing Hualalai and
Mauna Kea.
APPENDIX TABLE B6. HUALALAI VOLUME ESTIMATES
GEOMETRIC MODEL: Triaxial ellipsoid: = (h*l*w)*4π/3, or h*l*w*4.187
Elevation at summit
Depth to ocean floor
(km)
(km)
2
–9
Average summit height
(h) (km)
11
ALTERNATIVE VOLUME ESTIMATE:
Prior volume estimate (Robinson and Eakins, 2006):
Estimated increase, hidden by onlap of Mauna Loa flows (Table B5): = +11.8
Center half length
(l) (km)
45
Center half width
(w) (km)
25
Volume
(km3)
25,907
TOTAL:
25,907
103 Km3
14.2
11.8
Resulting net volume of Hualalai:
TOTAL:
26.0
Note: Highly simplified model as triaxial-ellipsoid, with growth from deeply subsided ocean floor. Infer Hualalai interfingers with concurrently growing Mauna Kea and Mauna
Loa, complicated by (1) onlap by young Mauna Loa flows,(2) uncertain distal extent of south rift, and (3) uncertain distal extent of Kiholo rift. As result, volume highly uncertain.
1380
Geosphere, October 2013
Volcano growth on Hawaii
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