Magmatic History of Somma–Vesuvius on the Basis of New Geochemical and Isotopic Data from a Deep Borehole (Camaldoli della Torre)

Volcanology of the Southwestern sector of Vesuvius volcano, Italy

“…The chemical composition (SM-1; TAS Chemical Classification; Le Maitre, 2002) of each unit was determined on representative samples and the results are in agreement with the geochemical literature data, where present, for lavas (Belkin et al, 1993) and tephra (Arrighi et al, 2001;Cioni et al, 1995;Di Renzo et al, 2007;Rosi et al, 1993;Sulpizio et al, 2005). The main petrographic characteristics, mineral assemblages of phenocrysts and microlites, vesicularity, and rock color of all lithostratigraphic units, were reported on SM-1 (Main Petrographic Features).…”

“…Other eruptive episodes occurred in the time span between the Avellino and Pompei eruptions (Arnò et al, 1987). This is the case for the Camaldoli della Torre scoria cone (Di Renzo et al, 2007). In deep cuts of the Cappella Bianchini area, tephra related to the mild explosive eruptions named AP by Andronico and Cioni (2002) are also present.…”

“…During the last 4000 years of activity, Vesuvius experienced several main explosive events: the smallscale Plinian eruption of AD 1631 (Rosi, Principe, & Vecci, 1993), the sub-Plinian AD 472 eruption (Arnò et al, 1987;Rolandi, Munno, & Postiglione, 2004;Rosi & Santacroce, 1983;Sulpizio, Mele, Dellino, & La Volpe, 2005, and the two large Plinian eruptions that occurred at AD 79 (Pompei eruption; Sigurdsson, Carey, Cornell, & Pescatore, 1985) and 1995 ± 10 cal BC (Avellino eruption; Rolandi, Mastrolorenzo, Barrella, & Borrelli, 1993;Sevink et al, 2011;Sulpizio, Cioni, et al, 2010). Mild explosive activity (from Strombolian and violent Strombolian to sub-Plinian) took place during intra-Plinian periods (Andronico & Cioni, 2002;Arrighi, Principe, & Rosi, 2001;Cioni, D'Oriano, Bertagnini, & Andronico, 2013;Di Renzo et al, 2007;D'Oriano, Cioni, Bertagnini, Andronico, & Cole, 2011), and a number of lava flows originated from the central crater ('Gran Cratere') or from fissures opened on the main Vesuvius cone ('Gran Cono') .…”

A reappraisal of shear wave splitting parameters from Italian active volcanic areas through a semiautomatic algorithm

“…We reject the hypothesis that S-P conversion was responsible for the observed splitting because at vertical incidence, this type of conversion shows the greatest amplitude on the vertical component (Liu and Crampin 1990), whereas the whole analyzed data exhibit maximum amplitude in correspondence with the splitting on the horizontal components. We exclude the influence of aligned mineral grains on our measurements since the investigated volcanic areas are not underlain by tilted sedimentary or metamorphic rocks including these aligned minerals, at least at the depth sampled by our raypaths (Di Renzo et al 2007;Bousquet and Lanzafame 2004). Waveforms that look like shear wave splitting (but are not) might be caused by complex source mechanisms (Zollo and Bernard 1989), but due to the low magnitude and small source dimension (presumed simple fault plane) of the events (M MAX = 3.6), we reject this hypothesis.…”

The Vesuvius and the other volcanoes of Central Italy

“…The first plinian event, the "Pomici di Base" eruption, ejected trachytic to latitic magmas (Bertagnini et al, 1998;Landi et al, 1999) and was followed, after about 3 ka, by the Greenish pumice sub-plinian eruption, characterised by a very similar magma composition . A few latitic lava flows and cinder cones from lateral vents are interlayered with the products of these eruptions (Santacroce, 1987;Di Renzo et al, 2007). In the following 16 ka three other plinian events occurred, each preceded by variably long repose periods: Mercato pumice eruption …”