Vesuvius

(Local Name: Vesuvio) Region: Campania

Province: Napoli (NA)

Situation

Rearing abruptly out of the plain some 15km/9mi southeast of Naples on the shores of the bay of Naples, Vesuvius has been since the 17th century the only volcano on the European mainland which is still intermittently active.

The height of Vesuvius varies from time to time, since every eruption of any violence alters the shape of the summit: it is roughly 1,280m/4,225ft high. The crater now has a circumference of 1,400m/1,532yd, a maximum diameter of 600m/656yd and a depth of 216m/236yd; before the last major eruption in 1944 the circumference was 3,400m/3,720yd. Northeast of the main crater, and separated from it by the deep valley known as the Atrio del Cavallo, is Monte Somma (1,132m/3,736ft), a relic of the caldera of an older volcano which had a diameter of 4km/2.5mi.

Eruptions

Vesuvius first emerged in the Quaternary in the form of an island. In antiquity it was regarded as extinct until the violent eruption on August 24th in the year A.D. 79 which destroyed Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae and a number of smaller places.

Between that date and 1139 there were 15 eruptions, after which the volcano appeared to be quiescent, and woodland and scrub spread right up to the rim of the crater. In 1631, however, it came back to life with a fearsome eruption. The last eruption was on March 10th 1944, when the funicular from Ercolano (then known as Resina) up the mountain was destroyed. Since then Vesuvius - as is normally the case for a few years after a major eruption - has remained inactive apart from a number of fumaroles.

The ash cone and the more recent lava flows are almost devoid of vegetation, but the older weathered lavas form a fertile soil for the growth of oaks and chestnuts at medium heights and of fruit and vines below 500m/1,640ft.