Eruption age of Kannabe volcano using multi-dating: Implications for age determination of young basaltic lava flow

Abstract We estimated the eruption age of Kannabe volcano, located in southwestern Japan. Although the eruption age had been estimated using tephrochronology and K-Ar dating, the precision of its age determination left some room for improvement. The latest eruption age of Kannabe volcano is well constrained by wide spread tephras to ca. 7.2–30 ka. We applied paleomagnetic dating to a basaltic lava and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to a soil layer, which are associated with the Kannabe volcano. The soil layer above the Kannabe scoria was newly dated to be 21 ± 6 ka, as inferred from OSL dating. We also made paleomagnetic investigation to estimate the eruption age of the Kannabe basaltic lava. Paleomagnetic data of 23 rock samples from six locations in the Kannabe basaltic lava showed good mutual agreement. The average of remanent magnetizations yields declination of 0.3° and inclination of 65.9° with 95% confidence limit of 2.7°. This paleomagnetic direction with a relatively steep inclination is thought to be correlated with the paleomagnetic secular variation data of sediments in Lake Biwa at ca. 21.5 ka. Based on that information from multi-dating, we inferred that the Kannabe volcano erupted at ca. 22 ka. This result presents profound scientific implications for the precise age determination of young basaltic lava flow, for which few dating methods exist.