Book of the Week: Campi Flegrei: Men and Volcanoes

 This week's book of the week was a surprise from my friend Jackie, who is Italian, writes amazing thriller/romances involving the Carabineri (Italian Police) and is even more fascinated with Pompeii, Herculaneum and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. that covered those cities. She reads everything, and gifted me a book called "Campi Flegrei: Stories of Men and Volcanoes." If you're curious about volcanoes, and love visiting Italy, this is a good read!  Thanks for the fascinating book, Jackie! 

The book was filled with photos, images, and diagrams, which really helped, because I'm not a vulcanologist or seismologist (it also addressed earthquakes of course, since they are connected with volcanic eruptions). I learned a lot from the book like the different types of eruptions, the components of eruptions, intrusions (hardened magma that blocks the way of liquid magma inside a volcano), and bradyseism - the cyclical, gradual uplift or subsidence (sinking) of Earth's crust as it relates to volcanoes. 

I was amazed by the number of Calderas around Italy, too. For those who don't know, a caldera is a massive, cauldron-like volcanic depression. It forms when a volcano violently empties its magma chamber, causing the ground above to lose structural support and collapse inward. Spanning up to dozens of kilometers across, these vast bowls are fundamentally different from standard volcanic craters.  

(Image: Campi Flegrei area circled in red. Credit: https://volcanofoundation.org/campi-flegrei-una-bomba-de-tiempo/) 

IS MOUNT VESUVIUS PART OF THAT AREA? No, Mount Vesuvius is not in Campi Flegrei. They are distinct volcanic systems within the same Campanian Volcanic Arc near Naples, Italy -

WHAT IS CAMPI FLEGRI? -Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean Fields) is a massive 8-by-12-kilometer volcanic caldera located west of Naples, Italy. The area has been experiencing significant, ongoing seismic unrest, including continuous earthquake swarms and ground deformation.