Fig. 4
From: Geochemical approaches to the quantification of dispersed volcanic ash in marine sediment
(Top) Dispersed (blue line) vs. discrete (red field) ash accumulation in the Caribbean Sea. Accumulation of discrete ash layers (Carey and Sigurdsson 2000; Sigurdsson et al. 2000) and dispersed ash (Peters et al. 2000). ODP Site 998, western Caribbean Sea. (Bottom) Eruption transport and deposition patterns for recent to Miocene eruptions of the Central American Arc. Large plinian eruption columns (light to dark gray) reach deep into the stratosphere and are therefore transported to the west by the prevailing winds. Large ignimbrite-generating eruptions, predominantly in the Miocene, generate co-ignimbrite ash plumes (pinkish to light gray) reaching only into the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere and are therefore distributed to the east. Tropopause is shown with a dashed line at 15 km altitude. Gray fields below the sea level demonstrate submarine ash deposits