Homer tells us in the Odyssey that Ulysses, after landing with his companions in the land of the Cyclops, docked at Aeolia, surrounded by high cliffs and bronze walls, perhaps the Castle of Lipari. Here lived Aeolus, keeper of the winds, along with his wife and children. Aeolus hosted Ulysses and ...

A vulcanian eruption is an explosive type of eruption, emitting lava fragments into the atmosphere which take on a round shape during flight, as they are too viscous or already partially solidified. [dettaglio_immagine id="41485"] The typical shape is therefore that of a rugby ball. These eruptio...

“Bread-crust" bombs are the typical eruption material of vulcanian activity. They are blocks ranging from a few centimetres to a few metres in size, whose very smooth surface has some cuts and fractures, with a spongy interior. The resemblance to bread crust is often surprising....

The volcanic crater is usually a circular depression with a diameter of a few hundred metres, located on top of a volcanic structure. It is simply the place from which lava and pyroclastic products from the explosions during volcano activity come out. When the activity ends, the crater can be fill...

In geology, an aquifer is an area of rocks capable of accumulating water, which flows into them due to the effect of gravity....

While sulphur in the solid state is immediately recognisable by its typical yellow colour, you can often see white crystals around the fumaroles. These are gypsum crystals, also produced by the sublimation of the volcanic gases as they leave the surface. In fact, gypsum is formed half by sulphur an...

The Stack in Porto di Levante, around 70 metres high, is what remains of a volcanic structure in the north-east part of the Caldera of the Fossa, between here and Vulcanello. In the second half of 1800, before the eruption of 1888-1890, the Stack was known as “the Factory” because of the inte...

In physics and chemistry, sublimation is the direct change from the gas state to the solid state, skipping the liquid state, and vice versa. Volcanic gases are made up of 95% water. The remaining 5% of the volume is dissolved sulphur, fluorine, chlorine and carbon dioxide. When the temperature dro...

It is often said that if inhaled, the volcanic gases from fumaroles are good for you. Nothing could be further from the truth. Fumarole gases contain water, chlorine, sulphur, fluorine and carbon dioxide which, if inhaled for prolonged periods, are highly toxic to humans. Therefore, we must not co...

Descriptions of volcanic eruptions, even quite accurate ones, are present in history in Roman times starting from Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger (around 2000 years ago), who observed the eruptions of Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields. The first scientific observation of an eruption, howeve...