Stromboli – the best place to actively learn and understand the behavior of an active volcano and its processes

Abstract

Basaltic volcanism, a dominant mode of volcanic activity on Earth, occurs as explosive eruptions, resulting from the exsolution of magmatic gases and is exhibited by IntroductionActive volcanoes can become major tourist destinations visited by people for a variety of reasons. Some people would like to experience scenic beauty close to nature, while others have the ambition to climb a volcano, take photos, or learn about the surrounding geodiversity. Most of the tourists would like to explore various volcanic features such as eruptions, lava flows, fumaroles, geysers, boiling mud, and hot springs.A large impact on volcanic tourism is related to volcanic eruptions. An example is the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull (2010) in Iceland, when during a one month period, tourists watched both the fiery fissures and vast ash clouds from a close proximity. From the tourist's point of view, the best forms of volcanic activity are long-lived eruptions, when people can observe the activity from immediate vicinity and in relative safety. Such examples are displayed in the Hawaiian and Strombolian eruptions.In this paper, we present one of the most popular active volcanos in the world, the Stromboli Volcano (Fig. 1), that has been almost continuously active for 1300 yrs (Rosi et al., 2000). Anyone who sailed to Stromboli would be able to see the explosions at any time, because the ejection of bombs, black scoria, lapilli and ash occur every 10-20 min, accompanied by continuous degassing (Barberi et al., 1993). Location and accessStromboli is the northernmost island of the Aeolian Arc, located in the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea in the central Mediterranean. The distance to the mainland is 54 km, while it is 240 km to Naples (Napoli) and 55 km to Sicily. The nearest of the other Aeolian Islands is Panarea Island (Fig. 2), 18 km to the Southwest. Stromboli -the best place to actively learn and understand the behavior of an active volcano and its processesStromboli -najlepsze miejsce do poznania aktywnego wulkanu i zrozumienia procesów wulkanicznych