Mamaku Ignimbrite: a caldera-forming ignimbrite erupted from a compositionally zoned magma chamber in Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand

Mamaku Ignimbrite was deposited during the formation of Rotorua Caldera, Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand, 220–230 ka. Its outflow sheet forms a fan north, northwest and southwest of Rotorua, capping the Mamaku–Kaimai Plateau. Mamaku Ignimbrite can be divided into a partly phreatomagmatic basal sequence, and a main sequence which comprises lower, middle, and upper ignimbrite. The internal stratigraphy indicates that it was emplaced progressively from a pyroclastic density current of varying energy that became less particulate away from source. Gradational contacts between lower, middle, and upper ignimbrite are consistent with it being deposited during one eruptive event from the same source. Variations in lithic clast content and coexistence of different pumice types through the ignimbrite sequence indicate that caldera collapse occurred throughout the eruption, but particularly when middle Mamaku Ignimbrite was deposited and in the final stages of deposition of upper Mamaku Ignimbrite. Maximum lithic data and the location of lithic lag breccias in upper Mamaku Ignimbrite confirm Rotorua Caldera as the source. At least 120 m of geothermally altered intra-caldera Mamaku Ignimbrite occurs inside Rotorua Caldera. Pumice clasts in the Mamaku Ignimbrite are dacite to high-silica rhyolite and can be chemically divided into three types: high–silica rhyolite (type 1), rhyolite (type 2), and dacite (type 3). All are petrogenetically related and types 1 and 2 may be derived by up to 20% crystal fractionation from the type 3 dacite. All three types probably resided in a single, gradationally zoned magma chamber. Andesitic juvenile fragments are found only in upper Mamaku Ignimbrite and inferred to represent a discrete magma that was injected into the silicic chamber and is considered to have accumulated as a sill at the base of the magma chamber. The contrast in density between the andesitic and silicic magmas did not allow eruption of the andesitic fragments during the deposition of lower and middle Mamaku Ignimbrite. The advanced stage of caldera collapse, late in the main eruptive phase, created withdrawal dynamics that allowed andesitic magma to reach the surface as fragments within upper Mamaku Ignimbrite.