Origins of Vulcanello based on the re-examination of historical sources (Vulcano, Aeolian Islands)

Abstract

The lava platform and the three pyroclastic cones of Vulcanello constitute the northernmost volcanic structure of the island of Vulcano (Aeolian Islands). The sandy isthmus connecting the platform to the main island was definitively formed in the first half of the 1500s; before then, Vulcano and Vulcanello were two close but separate islands. For a long time, the interpretation of the sources of the II-I century BC, had considered the islet as built up about 2200 years ago. This belief, which proliferated among naturalists from the 17th century, is not confirmed in the ancient texts or even in the geographical documents of the time, which do not indicate the presence of Vulcanello as a new and stable island near Vulcano. The islet would only be mentioned at the dawn of the second millennium, and named in Arabic “Gabal’ al Burkān”, meaning Mount of Vulcano; shortly thereafter the toponym changed to the Latin “Insulam Vulcanelli” and then, towards the 15th century, finally to Vulcanello. Since the creation of a volcanic island certainly occurred in the Aeolian Islands in the classical era, but traces of it were quickly lost, the most plausible hypothesis is that it was formed in the area of the current Vulcanello, to be subsequently erased by the sea. The shallow, flat seabed, likely remaining as a result of sea abrasion, might have represented the morphological element on which the circular lava platform we know today was formed sometime between 950 and 1000 AD.

The last 1100 years of activity of La Fossa caldera, Vulcano Island (Italy): new insights into stratigraphy, chronology, and landscape evolution

“…The first of these islands is an uninhabited island called Vulcano that burns constantly day and night .” This is consistent with what was observed in the Palizzi and in Vulcanello 1 and 2 successions, associated to ash emissions (PAL A and PAL C, Vulcanello 1 and 2), more intense explosions with emplacement of pumice (PAL B and PAL D), and of lava flows, and also in agreement with age obtained by Malaguti et al ( 2022 ) for the onset of the PEU sequence. A further confirm of an important eruptive activity between the end of the tenth century and the twelfth century, when Vulcanello and Vulcano were still two separate islands, is presented in Manni and Rosi ( 2021 ), who suggest that the isthmus connecting the two islands formed later, in the sixteenth century AD.…”

“…A small tuff rock (Il Faraglione) was possibly situated in the east sector of the bay. North of Il Faraglione, we hypothesize an area of shallow water, which extended northwards up to the area of the current Vulcanello for the presence of shallow seabed formed during the effusive activity of Roman times and continuously dismantled by marine erosion (Manni and Rosi 2021 ; Fig. 14 a).…”

“…In this same period, the most voluminous effusion of Vulcanello took place (Fusillo et al 2015 ), which emplaced the lava shelf and the small composite cone (Vulcanello I and II cones), which together formed a small island on the northern margin of the La Fossa Caldera. Vulcanello likely emerged in an area where a shallow, flat seabed was formed as a result of deposition and subsequent erosion by sea abrasion of eruptive material associated with the eruptions described during the Classical period (second-first century BC; Manni and Rosi 2021 ). This area is inferred from: (i) the absence of clear lava-sea interaction structures, and (ii) the horizontally oriented basal surfaces of the different lava flows that constitute the lava field.…”

“…Early eruptions of Vulcanello likely occurred in 126 or 183 BC, as reported by the Strabo and Plinius historical chronicles quoted by Mercalli and Silvestri ( 1891 ) and De Fiore ( 1922 ). However, recent studies by Arrighi et al ( 2006 ), Fusillo et al ( 2015 ), Malaguti et al ( 2022 ), and Manni and Rosi ( 2021 ) revealed that the islet definitively emerged from the ocean during Middle Ages likely on the shallow seabed left by the previous eruptions occurred in Roman time. The early Medieval activity (AD 899–1044; Malaguti et al 2022 ) was responsible for the build-up of the main part of the peninsula, with the growth of two cones associated with two lava fields (the Vulcanello lava platform and a submarine pillow lava field).…”

Modelling Erosion and Floods in Volcanic Environment: The Case Study of the Island of Vulcano (Aeolian Archipelago, Italy)

“…After observing the erosive processes following the 1888-90 eruption, De Fiore [27] reported that about 50 m of the slope were eroded between 1916 and 1921 [17]. The isthmus between Vulcanello and the Vulcano Porto plain (Figure 1) began to develop after the post-12th century emplacement of the Vulcanello lava platform [28,29]; it emerged from the sea due to both coastal processes and volcaniclastic sediment inputs from the La Fossa cone through the Vulcano Porto plain and the Palizzi Valley [30].…”