How piecemeal is your caldera? Going beyond modelling to investigate the structural evolution of explosive caldera volcanoes

Despite a profusion of analogue models relatively little is known about the internal structure and temporal evolution of explosive caldera volcanoes. So how can modellers test their predictions given that the internal structures of many young calderas are concealed? Mapping ancient exhumed calderas has proven advantageous, yet this requires a large investment of time and expertise to constrain the structural evolution in sufficient detail. We aim to investigate the interplay between the structural evolution and eruption style over time at a modern caldera. We have selected Los Humeros (Mexico) because it is thought to be an example of a caldera with some piecemeal development, and it also has a well-exposed pyroclastic succession and abundant borehole data.