Campi Flegrei

Large caldera collapses represent catastrophic natural events, second only to large meteoritic impacts. In addition, some calderas are densely populated, making the risk extreme, even for moderate eruptions. Understanding caldera mechanisms, unrest and the danger of eruption is therefore a crucial challenge for Earth sciences. Several key features of caldera behaviour have yet to be fully understood. Through a combination of case studies and theoretical modelling, the following topics are addressed in this volume: the conditions required to produce and to release large volumes of magma erupted during caldera formation; how magmatic feeding systems evolve before and after a caldera has formed; the processes that limit the behaviour of precursors to eruptions; how pre-eruptive precursors can be distinguished from those that drive unrest without an eruption; and given that post-collapse eruptions may occur across a wide area, the optimum procedures for designing hazard maps and mitigation strategies.

Vesuvius, Campi Flegrei, and Campanian Volcanism communicates the state-of-the-art scientific knowledge on past and active volcanism in an area characterized by elevated risk due to high-density population. Eruptions, lahars and poisonous gas clouds have killed many thousands of people over recorded history, but volcanoes have given people some of the most fertile soil known in agriculture. The research presented in this book is useful for policymakers and researchers from these and other countries who are looking for risk assessment and volcanic evolution models they can apply to similar situations around the world. Naples and its surrounding area, in particular, the area situated between Vesuvius and the Campi Flegrei volcanic area has a population in excess of 4 million people. The volcanic areas that have similarly large populations in proximity to dormant, but hazardous volcanoes, i.e., Indonesia and Central America can also benefit from this work. Covers the fundamental science of volcanoes, including new developments in the last decade relating to the use of crystals and melt inclusions to model the nature and evolution of volatiles Includes the latest research on volcanism in Southern Italy that is presented as a case study for active and inactive volcanoes across the globe Presents research that is applicable around the world, for people, scientists and policymakers living on, or near, active volcanoes

Accompanying CD-ROM, entitled Supplementary materials to Stratigraphy and geology of volcanic areas, includes three geologic maps in Adobe Acrobat PDF files.

The densely populated Campi Flegrei resurgent caldera is one of the widest known, best studied and highly dangerous volcanoes of the world. This monograph synthesises the current knowledge of this volcano, through different review chapters. Each chapter of this book is dedicated to a specific volcanological aspect, authored by well-recognised experts. The volume attempts to cross the barriers between the volcanological, geological, geochemical and geophysical perspectives, and offers a comprehensive and up-to-date reference to earth-science scholars, as well as land planners and civil defence officers.

This book includes innovative gas-geothermometers and geobarometers, which are urgently needed to estimate the increasingly higher temperatures and pressures present at depth below the Solfatara volcano, owing to its on-going unrest. Therefore, in this book, new gas geoindicators, applicable up to ca. 1000°C and 3 kbar, have been implemented and applied to Solfatara fluids. The innovations of this book include: methane, having a sluggish behavior, was treated separately from fast-reacting carbon monoxide; deviations from the ideal gas behavior were considered; the effects of reaction kinetics were taken into account. This was possible because a dataset including many geochemical parameters and extending from 1983 to 2020 with a good sampling frequency is available for Solfatara, making it a case history probably unique worldwide. Nevertheless, the gas geoindicators described in this book can be applied to other similar systems. Thus, this book is of interest to many scientists studying gas geochemistry, geothermometry, and geobarometry for volcanic surveillance and the mitigation of the volcanic risk.

In the Campanian territory called Campi Flegrei in Italy, volcanic activity determines the area of greatest risk in Europe, both due to the violence of the eruptions that took place and to the high number of people who live there. The lack of eruptions for about 3000 years has allowed its jagged coasts to become safe anchorages and has favored the development of the rich Greek colonies of Cuma and Dicearchia, in the VII century BC, followed by the construction of the port of Puteoli, in the I century BC, the most important commercial and military port of the Roman Empire. However, the volcanic nature of the territory continued to manifest itself with the subsidence of the ground which led to the submersion of the port structures and accelerated the economic decline of the area. The inversion of the movement of the ground, which began in the 1400s and ended with the eruption of Monte Nuovo in 1538, dealt the final blow to the economy and interrupted the frequentation of many thermal springs. Since then, the soil has begun to move downwards, creating new problems for human activities, tackled since the end of the 1800s with industrialization. From 1950, a slow uplift has resumed, with two phases of greater intensity, in 1970-72 and 1982-84, which reminded the community, established around the Gulf for 2500 years, of living in a fragile and dangerous environment. Cohabitation with a territory rich in natural resources, as well as dangers, continues thanks to the resilience of citizens and the improved understanding of volcanic phenomena.

This book serves as a guide to discovering the most interesting volcano sites in Italy. Accompanied by some extraordinary contemporary images of active Neapolitan volcanoes, it explains the main volcanic processes that have been shaping the landscape of the Campania region and influencing human settlements in this area since Greek and Roman times and that have prompted leading international scientists to visit and study this natural volcanology laboratory. While volcanology is the central topic, the book also addresses other aspects related to the area’s volcanism and is divided into three sections: 1) Neapolitan volcanic activity and processes (with a general introduction to volcanology and its development around Naples together with descriptions of the landscape and the main sites worth visiting); 2) Volcanoes and their interactions with local human settlements since the Bronze Age, recent population growth and the transformation of the territory; 3) The risks posed by Neapolitan Volcanoes, their recent activity and the problem of forecasting any future eruption.