He, N and C isotopes and fluxes in Aira caldera: Comparative study of hydrothermal activity in Sakurajima volcano and Wakamiko crater, Kyushu, Japan

• We study volatile fluxes from hot springs for Sakurajima and seawaters for Wakamiko submarine crater.
• Helium isotopes for both Sakurajima and Wakamiko show a common magmatic source.
• Carbon isotopes in Sakurajima indicate two sources of CO2: magmatic and crustal sources.
• Nitrogen isotopes in Sakurajima indicate that the magmatic derived N is dominated by subducted sedimentary-derived N.
• He and CO2 fluxes indicate that the rate of degassing at Wakamiko is less than at Sakurajima.

We investigate the degassing activity of an active submarine crater, Wakamiko, and an active sub-aerial volcano, Sakurajima, both located in Aira caldera, southern Kyushu, Japan. We provide 3He/4He, δ13C–CO2 and δ15N data for 15 hot springs, wells and bubbling gas from Sakurajima volcano, along with 3He/4He from seawater at four different sites for both Kagoshima bay and Wakamiko crater. We find a common magmatic 3He/4He ratio for Sakurajima and Wakamiko, 7.2 ± 0.8 Ra, which is consistent with 1) a mixing between air-saturated water (ASW) and MORB-type He, and 2) a common magmatic source located in the center of Aira caldera. Corrected 3He/4He, δ13C–CO2 and CH4/3He data for Sakurajima are correlated with the distance from the volcanic vent (Showa crater), which we attribute to crustal contamination and biogenic reaction. The low δ13C–CO2 values (− 10.1 ± 0.2‰ to − 13.7 ± 0.3‰) observed at Sakurajima may result from the addition of carbon from organic matter from basement rocks in magmatic source. After correction for air-derived nitrogen, we find δ15Nc values range between − 1.7‰ and + 4.3‰ which indicates that magmatic N is dominated by a sedimentary-derived component (up to 65.8%). We calculate Wakamiko fluxes of 4He (975 ± 228 mol/y), 3He (0.011 ± 0.003 mol/y), CO2 (184 ± 43 t/d), and heat (195 ± 22 MW). Our helium and heat fluxes are the first in situ fluxes ever reported for Wakamiko crater. All these Wakamiko fluxes are at least one order of magnitude lower than those observed for Sakurajima (CO2: 1800 t/d; 3He: 0.71 mol/y; heat: 2100 MW): degassing at Sakurajima volcano is much stronger than that at Wakamiko crater. The variation of Sakurajima CO2 flux with time, source (Minamidake or Showa crater) and eruptive activity, appears not to significantly affect the CO2 flux at Wakamiko crater, which is much more stable (132–307 t/d) during the last 30 years. This indicates that there is no link between Sakurajima and Wakamiko degassing activity, despite having the same magmatic source.