Mount Vulture is an extinct volcano located 56 km north of the city Potenza

Potenza

-Transportation:Potenza is a rail junction on the main line from Salerno to Taranto, managed by FS Trenitalia; it has also a connection to Altamura, served by the Ferrovie Appulo Lucane regional company...

 in the Basilicata

Basilicata

Basilicata , also known as Lucania, is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south, having one short southwestern coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania in the northwest and Calabria in the southwest, and a...

 region (Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

). As a prominent landmark it gave its name to the Vulture region, the most significant viticultural zone in Basilicata growing the DOC wine Aglianico del Vulture

Aglianico del Vulture

Aglianico del Vulture is an Italian red wine based on the Aglianico grape produced in the Vulture area of Basilicata. It was awarded Denominazione di Origine Controllata status in 1971 and the Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita status in 2011...

.

With a height of 1326 m, it is unique amongst large Italian volcanoes due to its location east of the Apennine mountain range. At the summit is a caldera

Caldera

A caldera is a cauldron-like volcanic feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption, such as the one at Yellowstone National Park in the US. They are sometimes confused with volcanic craters...

, known as Valle dei Grigi, whose precise origins are disputed.

Volcanic history

The earliest eruptions of the volcano occurred around one million years ago, explosive activity producing ignimbrite

Ignimbrite

An ignimbrite is the deposit of a pyroclastic density current, or pyroclastic flow, a hot suspension of particles and gases that flows rapidly from a volcano, driven by a greater density than the surrounding atmosphere....

. The explosive eruption phase finished around 830,000 years before present, when the nature of the activity changed to a mix of pyroclastic and effusive, lava

Lava

Lava refers both to molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption and the resulting rock after solidification and cooling. This molten rock is formed in the interior of some planets, including Earth, and some of their satellites. When first erupted from a volcanic vent, lava is a liquid at...

 eruptions which built up the mountain and which have been dated to around 500,000 years ago. One of the explanations advanced for the Valle dei Grigi is that it is the result of the collapse of a sector of the mountain, as occurred during the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens

1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens

The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, a stratovolcano located in Washington state, in the United States, was a major volcanic eruption. The eruption was the only significant one to occur in the contiguous 48 U.S. states since the 1915 eruption of Lassen Peak in California...

 and the 1792 eruption of Mount Unzen

Mount Unzen

is an active volcanic group of several overlapping stratovolcanoes, near the city of Shimabara, Nagasaki Prefecture, on the island of Kyūshū, Japan’s southernmost main island....

.

The most recent phase involved further lava flows and the growth of lava dome

Lava dome

|250px|thumb|right|Image of the [[rhyolitic]] lava dome of [[Chaitén Volcano]] during its 2008–2009 eruption.In volcanology, a lava dome is a roughly circular mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano...

s in the Valle dei Grigi, including the formation of two calderas. The most recent activity is thought to have been phreatomagmatic explosions

Phreatic eruption

A phreatic eruption, also called a phreatic explosion or ultravulcanian eruption, occurs when rising magma makes contact with ground or surface water. The extreme temperature of the magma causes near-instantaneous evaporation to steam, resulting in an explosion of steam, water, ash, rock, and...

 around 40,000 years ago which produced maar

Maar

A maar is a broad, low-relief volcanic crater that is caused by a phreatomagmatic eruption, an explosion caused by groundwater coming into contact with hot lava or magma. A maar characteristically fills with water to form a relatively shallow crater lake. The name comes from the local Moselle...

s and small cold surges

Pyroclastic surge

A pyroclastic surge is a fluidized mass of turbulent gas and rock fragments which is ejected during some volcanic eruptions. It is similar to a pyroclastic flow but it has a lower density or contains a much higher proportion of gas to rock ratio, which makes it more turbulent and allows it to rise...

.

External links

• http://boris.vulcanoetna.com/VULTURE.html

Further reading

From http://boris.vulcanoetna.com/VULTURE.html.

• Crisci G, de Fino M, La Volpe L & Rapisardi L (1983) Pleistocene ignimbrites of Monte Vulture (Basilicata, Southern Italy). Neues Jahrbuch füer Geologie und Paläontologie Monatshefte 12: 731-746.
• Guest JE, Duncan AM & Chester DK (1988) Monte Vulture Volcano (Basilicata, Italy): an analysis of morphology and volcaniclastic facies. Bulletin of Volcanology 50: 244-257.
• La Volpe L, Patella D, Rapisardi L & Tramacere A (1984) The evolution of the Monte Vulture volcano (Southern Italy): inferences from volcanological, geological and deep dipole electrical soundins data. Journal of Volcanology a Geothermal Research 22: 147-162.
• La Volpe L & Principe C (1991) Comments on Guest et al. (1988) and Reply by Guest et al.. Bulletin of Volcanology 53: 222-229.