Mount Vesuvius; an assessment of the present day situation.

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Emily Beedham

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Mount Vesuvius; an assessment of the present day situation

A volcano is generally defined as, “a vent or chimney that connects a reservoir of molten matter, known as magma, in the depths of the crust of the Earth, with the surface (Sheets and Grayson 1979:11).”  The material ejected through the vent frequently amasses around the opening and builds up a cone. This expelled material usually consists of rock remains, liquid lava and great quantities of gases; these gases are the driving force behind any volcanic action (Bullard 1962:8).

Mount Vesuvius is a volcano, “located on the shore of the Bay of Naples, in central Italy (Sheets and Grayson 1979:29),” and is, part of a series of volcanoes that form, “a trend that parallels with the west coast of Italy, extending north from Naples through Rome to Sierra (Richter 1986:1).” Eruptive activity at Mount Vesuvius alternates between cycles of action and repose, both lasting several centuries; these cycles are usually initiated with a Plinian eruption. An example is the infamous eruption of A.D. 79 that not only destroyed the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, but also half the cone of Vesuvius – the present day Vesuvius consists of, “an old strato-volcano (Mount Somma) which terminated its activity with a summit caldera collapse, and the recent cone (Mount Vesuvius) that has grown inside the Somma caldera and whose last eruption dates back to 1944 (Tazieff and Sabroux 1983: 149).”

        The present day Vesuvius is surrounded by many towns and villages, and is home to nearly 4 million people; if the volcano had not arisen here, the land would not have been able to support, “more than a tenth of the present population (Lobley c.1889: 48).” The dense population surrounding Vesuvius, and other volcanic regions, is owed to the extremely fertile soil that is provided by volcanic rock.

The productiveness of the soils of volcanic districts is due to the decomposition of volcanic materials, which, containing silica, alumina, magnesia, lime, potash and iron, combine with carbon and nitrogen from the atmosphere, to supply the fundamental elements necessary for productive plant growth. The fertility and formation of soil varies a great deal between volcanic areas; Vesuvius is particularly well adapted towards vine growth (Lobley c.1889: 73-74). Soils are either sandy loam or loamy sand, and show very good internal drainage, as well as containing high levels of extractable calcium, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium, hence a sufficient source of plant nutrients (Sheets and Grayson 1979:620). This exceptionally enriched land  “yields at least three crops a year, as it did in antiquity. Grapes are still the most important crop; then come olives, fruits, vegetables and flowers (Sheets and Grayson 1979:618).”

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Not only does the volcano provide an affluent agricultural base for the area, but also a favourable site structure with, “two roughly semi-circular depressions opening to the sea (Lobley c.1889: 49). The popularity of the immediate vicinity of Vesuvius is emphasised in the neighbouring city of Naples, the most densely populated city in Europe, with over a million inhabitants crowded into an area of little more than four square miles (Lobley c.1889: 48).

A further reason for the popularity of the bay is that Vesuvius has been in respose since 1944 and many people have deduced from this that ...

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