Avellino Eruption

For other uses, see Avellino (disambiguation).
Avellino Eruption

Thousands of footprints in the surge ash deposit of the Avellino Eruption testify to an en masse exodus from the devastated zone
Volcano Mount Vesuvius
Date 2nd millennium B.C.
Type Plinian
Location Naples, Italy
40°49′N 14°26′E / 40.817°N 14.433°E / 40.817; 14.433Coordinates: 40°49′N 14°26′E / 40.817°N 14.433°E / 40.817; 14.433
VEI 6
Impact Disturbed and preserved Bronze Age settlements in the area

Hut at the site of the village

The Avellino Eruption of Mount Vesuvius refers to a Plinian-type eruption that occurred in the 2nd millennium BC and is estimated to have had a VEI of 6. It is the source of the Avellino Pumice (Italian: Pomici di Avellino) deposits named from the comune of Avellino in Campania where they have been found extensively.

Characteristics of the eruption

"Assessment of volcanological factors" in one scientific study reconstruct a minimum eruption time of 3 hours in which an initial explosion raised a column of 23 km (75,000 ft) and deposited about 0.32 km3 of white pumice ("the white pumice phase"), while a second, more intense explosion raised a column of 31 km (102,000 ft) depositing 1.25 km3 of grey pumice ("the grey pumice phase"). These pumices appearing in Apulian pottery can be used to establish relative chronology of pottery phases.[1]

A 2008 study of the lithofacies (deposits from the eruption) distinguishes three phases. Pyroclastic flows (PDC's) of Phases 1 and 2 were generated by "magmatic fragmentation" and had "small dispersal areas" mainly on the slopes of Vesuvius. Phase 3 was created by "phreatomagmatic fragmentation," in which clastic fragments are driven by superheated steam from ground water mixed with the other gases released from the magma. The authors characterize Phase 3 as "the most voluminous and widespread in the whole of Somma-Vesuvius' eruptive history." Some facies a few cm thick were found 25 km (16 mi) from the source.[2] The vent was 2 km (1.2 mi) west of today's center.

The overall results of the Avellino Eruption were catastrophic and widespread. The deposit thickness of ash and other eruptive material ranges from 15m close to the vent to 50 cm around Avellino, as well as creating a subaquaeous debris-flow in the bay of Naples.[3]

Date of the eruption

The date of the Avellino Eruption remains to be determined with a precision greater than about 500 years within the framework of the Early/Middle Bronze Age. A range of 2000 BC — 1500 BC includes the great majority of estimates. Ample opportunity to obtain Carbon-14 dates from charcoal and soil buried under the deposits has existed and still exists. Sporadic radiocarbon dating continues, with each scientist claiming to have obtained "the latest." Consistency with previous and subsequent work remains elusive. Since a real and very precise calendar date of the eruption must have existed, variation in estimations can only be the result of limitations to the carbon-dating method, which, given a plenitude of reliably emplaced samples, can only produce a date within a window of roughly 500 years in a maximum elapsed time of roughly 4000 years or 1/8 (12.5%).

According to Giardino the problem of establishing a reliable date results from the differences of calibrating on the one hand organic samples (such as charcoal: 1880-1680BC) and on the other had soil facies (1684-1535 BC). He prefers the earlier as the more reliable date. The Avellino Eruption separates archaeologically the Early Bronze Age in Campania from the Middle Bronze Age[4]

A study published in 1990 by Vogel and others suggested that the Avellino Eruption was responsible in part for the climatic disturbances of the 1620s BC. The latter were verified by "tree-ring series" and "ice-core layers." The authors had just obtained carbon dates of 3360±40 BP, or 1617-1703 calibrated BC. They were suggesting a coincidence of a number of eruptions, such as the Santorini explosion, that destroyed the Minoan civilization.[5] The hypothesis remains unverifiable a generation later, due to the overall imprecision of the dates.

The Nola bronze-age village

The eruption destroyed several Bronze Age settlements. The remarkably well-preserved remains of one were discovered in May 2001 at Croce del Papa near Nola by Italian archaeologists, with huts, pots, livestock and even the footprints of animals and people, as well as skeletons. The residents had hastily abandoned the village, leaving it to be buried under pumice and ash in much the same way that Pompeii was later preserved.[6][7]

References

  1. ↑ Cioni, Raffaello; Levi, Sara; Sulpizio, Roberto (2000). "Apulian Bronze Age pottery as a long-distance indicator of the Avellino Pumice eruption (Vesuvius, Italy) — Abstract". Geological Society, London, Special Publications (London: Geological Society). v. 171 (1): 159–177. Bibcode:2000GSLSP.171..159C. doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.2000.171.01.13.
  2. ↑ Sulpizio, R.; Bonasia, R.; Dellino, P.; Mele, D.; Di Vito, M. A.; La Volpe, L. (23 February 2010). "The Pomici di Avellino eruption of Somma–Vesuvius (3.9 ka BP). Part II: sedimentology and physical volcanology of pyroclastic density current deposits — Abstract". Bulletin of Volcanology (Springer) 72 (5): 559. Bibcode:2010BVol...72..559S. doi:10.1007/s00445-009-0340-4.
  3. ↑ Giuseppe Mastrolorenzo, Pierpaolo Petrone, Lucia Pappalardo and Michael F. Sheridan (January 2006). "The Avellino 3780-yr-B.P. catastrophe as a worst-case scenario for a future eruption at Vesuvius". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 103 (12): 4366–4370. Bibcode:2006PNAS..103.4366M. doi:10.1073/pnas.0508697103. PMID 16537390.
  4. ↑ Giardino 2005, pp. 628–629
  5. ↑ Vogel, J. S.; Cornell, W.; Nelson, D.E.; Southon, J.R. (1990). "Letters to Nature: Vesuvius/Avellino, one possible source of seventeenth century BC climatic disturbances — Abstract". Nature (Nature Publishing Group) 344 (6266): 534–537. Bibcode:1990Natur.344..534V. doi:10.1038/344534a0.
  6. ↑ "An ancient Bronze Age village and a bucket (3500 bp) destroyed by the pumice eruption in Avellino (Nola-Campania)". Retrieved 2006-12-08.
  7. ↑ "Vesuvius' Next Eruption May Put Metro Naples at Risk - Lesson from Katrina is need to focus on "maximum probable hazard"". State University of New York. Archived from the original on 24 December 2006. Retrieved 2006-12-08.

Bibliography

See also

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