Neapolitan Volcanoes: A Trip Around Vesuvius, Campi Flegrei and Ischia

322 Pages·2018·17.3 MB·English

by  Stefano Carlino

GeoGuide
Stefano Carlino
Neapolitan
Volcanoes
A Trip Around Vesuvius,
Campi Flegrei and Ischia
GeoGuide
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Stefano Carlino
Neapolitan Volcanoes
A Trip Around Vesuvius, Campi
Flegrei and Ischia
123
StefanoCarlino
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e
Vulcanologia
Sezione diNapoli, Osservatorio Vesuviano
Naples
Italy
ISSN 2364-6497 ISSN 2364-6500 (electronic)
GeoGuide
ISBN978-3-319-92876-0 ISBN978-3-319-92877-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92877-7
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The Somma-Vesuvius volcanic complex (courtesy G. Vilardo, Geomatic Laboratory of
OV-INGV)
TheCampiFlegreicaldera(courtesyG.Vilardo,GeomaticLaboratoryofOV-INGV)
TheIslandofIschia(courtesyG.Vilardo,GeomaticLaboratoryofOV-INGV)
Foreword
NeapolitanVolcanoesismorethanaguidetotheworld’smostexcitingvolcanoes:
it is a story of how volcanology has grown from an entertainment for Europe’s
curiousnobilitytooneofthemostfascinatingandchallengingbranchesofmodern
Earth Sciences. It is a story, too, of how people have lived and flourished among
the most resplendent and dangerous forces of Nature.
Vesuvius,CampiFlegreiandIschia:thenamesaloneevoketalesofthegrowth
of European culture from Ancient Greece and Rome to the Grand Tour of the
aristocracy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Even more, the conse-
quencesoferuptionscanbetracedbackatleast40millennia,whentheeruptionof
theCampanianIgnimbrite,fromwithinornearCampiFlegrei,heraldedthedemise
of Neanderthals in Europe.
From a volcanological perspective, outbursts from Vesuvius in particular have
providedthetemplateforunderstandingcommonstylesoferuptionobservedaround
theworld.Mostfamousisthefirstwrittenaccountofthestyleofexplosiveeruption
thatoverwhelmedPompeiiandHerculaneumin79A.D.,nowdescribedasPlinianin
honourofbothPlinytheYounger,whowrotethedescription,andhisunclePlinythe
Elderwho,asadmiraloftheRomanfleet,setsailfromMisenointheCampiFlegrei
and died offering succour to those fleeing from the eruption. At the other extreme,
sixteencenturieslatertheriversofmoltenrockthatoozedfromthevolcanoacquired
the name of lava, from the Italian verb lavare, to suggest that the slopes of the
volcanohad beenwashed clean.
WatchingthevolcanoesaroundNaplesalsorevealstheimportanceoflearning
from experience. Between 1764 and 1800, William Hamilton—self-taught volca-
nologist and British plenipotentiary to the court in Naples—regularly hosted vis-
itors to Vesuvius and Campi Flegrei. Writing to the Royal Society of London in
1779,hecommentedthathehadbeentothesummitofVesuvius58timesandhad
visited thelowerslopes ofthevolcano at leastfourtimes moreoften. Evenso he
says“IamnotashamedtoownthatIcomprehendverylittleofthewondersIhave
ix
x Foreword
seen on this great laboratory of Nature”, adding that “yet there have been natu-
ralists, of such a wonderful penetrating genius, as to have thought themselves
sufficiently qualified to account for every phenomenon of Vesuvius, after having,
literally speaking, given the volcano a coup d’oeil”. The record shows that
Hamilton’sunderstandingfarexceededthatofhisguestswithpenetrating genius.
Neapolitan Volcanoesfollow Hamilton’sprinciple andunderline howwe arestill
learning 250 years later.
The volcanoes today support a population of about one million people, not
counting Naples,whose urban sprawloverlaps the CampiFlegrei to the westand
reachesthefoothillsofVesuviustotheeast. Vesuviushasbeenquietsince 1944,
Campi Flegrei since 1538 and Ischia since 1302. No one has a memory of how
theirlocalvolcanoesbehave.Thisbookshowsthedebtmodernvolcanologyowes
tounderstandingNeapolitanVolcanoesandhowsuchunderstandingisessentialto
preparing for when the very same volcanoes will come back to life.
London, UK Christopher Kilburn
UCL Hazard Centre, University College London