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Vulcano - Photo (c)
Luciana Coletti -*Elle*
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Isole Eolie - Aeolian Islands: Vulcano
Vulcano is one of the Aeolian Islands. Famous for its mud bath,
the island literally smells like rotten eggs (sulphur).
Vulcano is a small volcanic island in the
Tyrrhenian Sea, about 25 km north of Sicily and the southernmost of
the Aeolian Islands.
It is 21 square kilometers in area, rises to 499
meters, and contains several volcanic centers, including one of four
active non-submarine
volcanoes in Italy and the formerly separate islet of Vulcanello.
History
The Greek wind god Aeolus
was said to have lived on this island, then called Hierà. The
name for the entire Aeolian Island chain descended from the mythical
residence of Aeolus.
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The
Roman name for the island Vulcano has contributed the word for
volcano in most modern
European languages. The Romans used the island mainly for raw
materials, harvesting wood and mining alum and sulfur.
This was the principal activity on the island until the end of the
19th Century.
When the Bourbon rule collapsed in 1860 (see
Francis II of the Two Sicilies) a British man named
James Stevenson bought the northern part of the island, built a
villa, reopened the local mines and planted vineyards for grapes
that would later be used to make Malvasia wine.
Stevenson lived on Vulcano until the last major eruption on the island,
in 1888.
The eruption lasted the better part of two years, by which time
Stevenson had sold all of his property to the local populace, and never
returned to the island. The villa is still intact.
Currently, around 470 people live on the island, mainly deriving
their income from tourism. It is a few minutes hydrofoil ride from Lipari
and has several hotels and cafes, the important attractions being the
beaches, hot springs and sulfur mud baths.
Geology
The volcanic activity in the region is largely the result of the
northward-moving African Plate meeting the Eurasian Plate. There are
three volcanic centers on the island:
- At the southern end of the island are old
stratovolcano cones, Monte Aria (500 m), Monte Saraceno (481 m)
and Monte Luccia (188 m), which have partially collapsed into the Il
Piano Caldera.
- The most recently active center is the Gran Cratere at the top
of the Fossa cone, the cone having grown in the Lentia Caldera in
the middle of the island, and has had at least 7 major eruptions in
the last 6000 years.
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Vulcano - Photo (c)
Luciana Coletti -*Elle*
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- At the north of the island is Vulcanello, 123 meters high, and
is connected to the rest of it by an isthmus which is flooded in bad
weather. It emerged from the sea during an eruption in 183 BC as a
separate islet. Occasional eruptions from its three cones with both
pyroclastic flow deposits and lavas occurred from then until 1550,
the last eruption creating a narrow isthmus connecting it to Vulcano.
Vulcano has been quiet since the eruption of the Fossa cone on
August 3, 1888 to 1890, which deposited about 5 meters of
pyroclastic material on the summit. The style of eruption seen
on the Fossa cone is called a Vulcanian eruption, being the explosive
emission of pyroclastic fragments of viscous magmas
caused by the high viscosity preventing gases from escaping easily.
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Vulcano
Photo (c)
Luciana Coletti -*Elle*
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Mythology
The Romans believed that Vulcano was the chimney to
the god Vulcanus's workshop. The island had grown due to his periodic
clearing of cinders and ashes from his forge. The earthquakes that
either preceded or accompanied the explosions of ash etc., were
considered to be due to Vulcanus making weapons for Mars and his armies
to wage war.
Expulsion of lava is a rare feature of vulcanian
eruptions and always occur at the end of the eruption.
Since Roman times similar features on Earth have been
known as volcans - volcanes and volcanoes. It is also used in connection
with similar features on the Moon, Mars, Venus and Mercury and other
stellar bodies. Some purists argue that the name should be vulcans,
vulcanes and vulcanoes.
The Romans gave the word to the world and with it came
ashes, cinders, lava - "flows."
How to get there
>>>
Guided tours in the Aeolian Islands >>>
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(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
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