A new method to identify the source vent location of tephra fall deposits: development, testing, and application to key Quaternary eruptions of Western North America

A new method to identify the source vent location of tephra fall deposits based on thickness or maximum clast size measurements is presented in this work. It couples a first-order gradient descent method with either one of two commonly used semi-empirical models of tephra thickness distribution. The method is applied to three tephra thickness and one maximum clast size datasets of the North Mono and Fogo A tephra deposits. Randomly selected and...