Volcano Mount Vesuvius :: essays research papers

Mount Vesuvius is a volcano located in Confederate Italy, near the bay of Naples and the city of Naples. It is the only active volcano on the European mainland. Vesuvius rises to a height of 1277 m (4190 ft). Vesuvio (Vesuvius) is probably the most notable volcano on earth, and is one of the most dangerous.Mount Vesuvius is a strato-volcano consisting of a volcanic cone (Gran Cono) that was built within a summit caldera (Mount Somma). The Somma-Vesuvius interlacing has formed over the last 25,000 years by means of a sequence of eruptions of variable explosiveness, ranging from the quiet lava outpourings that characterized much of the latest activity (for deterrent example from 1881 to 1899 and from 1926 to 1930) to the explosive Plinian eruptions, including the one that destroyed Pompeii and killed thousands of people in 79 A.D. At least seven Plinian eruptions have been identified inthe eruptive narration of Somma-Vesuvius (1). Each was preceded by a long period of stillness, which in the fictitious character of the 79 A.D. eruption lasted closely 700 years. These eruptions were fed by viscous water-rich phonotitic to tephritic phonolitic magmas that go forth to have differentiated in shallow crustal conditions. They be believed to have late filled a reservoir where differentiation was driven by compositional convection. A minimum depth of or so 3 km was inferred for the carrousel of the magmatic reservoir frommineral equilibria of metamorphic carbonate ejecta (2). Fluid inclusions (CO.sub.2 and H.sub.2O-CO.sub.2) in clinopyroxenes from assemble and nodules indicate a trapping pressure of 1.0 to 2.5 kbar at about 1200 degreesC, suggesting that these minerals shape at depths of 4 to 10 km (3). The differentiated magma fraction was about 30% of the total magma in the reservoir, and a volume of about 2 to 3 km.sup.3 wasinferred for the reservoir (4). The magma ascent to the surface occurred through a conduit of perchance 70 to 100 m in diameter (5) . A caloric model predicts that such a reservoir should contain a nub of partially molten magma (6) that can be detected by high-resolution seismic tomography. The earliest outcropping volcanic deposits date back to about 25,000 years ago. The lavas observed at a -1125 m bore-hole are about 0,3-0,5 million years old. It is known for the first eruption of which an witness account is preserved, in 79 AD. Geologically, Vesuvio is unique for its unusual versatility. Its activity ranging from Hawaiian-style going away of liquid lava, fountaining and lava lakes, over Strombolian and Vulcanian activity to violently explosive, plinian events that produce pyroclastic flows and surges.