Open Access

Keizo Mikami

• The Tanzawa mountainland consists of a pyroclastic complex chiefly of basic composition which is intruded by a large mass of quartz-diorite at the center. This complex, well-known as the Misaka series, is the products of largescale geosynclinal volcanisms which took place during the period from the latest Oligocene to the middle Miocene in age. As compared with other geologic units, the present complex is characterized by its unusually thick accumulation of pyroclastic rocks, and by the intense hydrothermal alteration of the rocks, furnishing us an excellent section of the so-called green tuff series in the southeastern region of the Fossa Magna. Also the development of the products of interesting metamorphism of the quartz-diorite to the surrounding pyroclastic rocks is a feature uncommon in the other green tuff series of the above region. The crustal movement occurring during the volcanisms, however, make the structure of this complex highly complicate. In addition, the topographically unfavourable condition of this mountainland causes great hindrance to the geological investigation of this complex. Accordingly, the true natures of the complex remain unknown both stratigraphically and petrographically. Since 1948, the writer has been studying on the complex distributed in the eastern region of the Tanzawa massif from the volcano-stratigraphical point of view, some of the results of which have been published as miscellaneous reports. The main scope of this paper is to describe the stratigraphy, petrography, and the tectonic history of this complex. In this paper are also discussed the characteristics of the volcanic activities and the alterations represented by the same complex.