P. Petrosino

University of Naples Federico II | UNINA · Department of Earth Sciences, Environment and Resources

In this paper, we provide chronological constraints to reconstruct the Late Middle Pleistocene to Holocene geomorphological, stratigraphical and tectonic evolution of the inner Sarno plain, along the Tyrrhenian flank of Southern Italy. These constraints derive from tephrostratigraphical analysis and ⁴⁰ Ar/ ³⁹ Ar dating of volcanic deposits, chronol...

Pollen analysis was carried out on the infilling succession of the Fossa San Vito sinkhole, at the NE foothills of the Sarno Plain (Italy). Four ¹⁴ C dates and six tephra layers constrain the pollen sequence between ca. 6000 and 500 cal yr BP. A forested environment, with a few signs of human activities, characterizes the pre-protohistoric period (...

Somma-Vesuvius is well known for its powerful Plinian explosive eruptions, however during the last eruptive cycle (1631–1944), persistent activity took place on the stratovolcano as mild and violent Strombolian, and effusive eruptions, forming more than one hundred lava flow fields. An important mechanism of lava transport within lava flow fields i...

Campi Flegrei is a caldera in a densely populated area of southern Italy. It was formed by two major collapses associated with the 40-ka Campanian Ignimbrite and the 15-ka Neapolitan Yellow Tuff (NYT) eruptions. In the last 15 ka, three temporal epochs of volcanic activities were distinguished at Campi Flegrei. The post-NYT effusive activity, howev...

Determining the time spans of processes related to the assembly of eruptible magma at active volcanoes is fundamental to understand magma chamber dynamics and assess volcanic hazard. This information can be recorded in the chemical zoning of crystals. Nevertheless, this kind of study is still poorly employed for the active volcanoes of the Neapolit...

The Campi Flegrei (CF) caldera, in southern Italy, is the source of some of the most powerful Late Pleistocene eruptions of the European sub-continent (e.g., Campanian Ignimbrite, Neapolitan Yellow Tuff eruptions). Although the CF caldera has been continuously and intensively investigated for decades, relatively little is known regarding its earlie...

The peninsular and insular Italy are punctuated by Quaternary volcanoes and their rocks constitute an important aliquot of the Italian Quaternary sedimentary successions. Also away from volcanoes itself, volcanic ash layers are a common and frequent feature of the Quaternary records, which provide us with potential relevant stratigraphic and chrono...

Assessing the history, dynamics and magnitude of pre-historic explosive volcanic eruptions relies heavily on the completeness of the stratigraphic records, the spatial distribution, and the sedimentological features of the pyroclastic deposits. Near-vent volcanic successions provide fundamental but often patchy information, both in terms of record...

The Fucino Basin, central Italy, with its long and continuous history of Quaternary sediment accumulation, is one of the richest Mediterranean Middle Pleistocene tephra records. Here, we present a new detailed investigation of tephra layers (tephras) of the 250–170 thousand years before present (ka) interval, corresponding to the entire Marine Isot...

Somma-Vesuvius is one of the most dangerous active Italian volcanoes, due to the explosive character of its activity and because it is surrounded by an intensely urbanized area. For mitigating the volcanic risks, it is important to define how the Somma-Vesuvius magmatic system worked during the past activity and what processes took place. A continu...

The complex sequential compositional zoning of clinopyroxene crystals erupted < 5 ka during the Agnano-Monte Spina (A-MS) eruption, which is considered to be the reference event for a future large-scale explosive eruption at Campi Flegrei caldera (Italy), has been characterized in detail. Concentration profiles (20–800 μm long, spacing 2.5–10μm) of...

Explosive activity preceding the ~40 ka Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) eruption in the Neapolitan volcanic area, Southern Italy, has long been speculated based on the occurrences of widespread tephra layers, with a Campanian geochemical signature, such as the C-22, X-5, and X-6, preserved in Mediterranean Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 sedimentary records...

We studied the Gioia Sannitica active normal fault (GF) along the southern Matese fault (SMF) system in the southern Apennines of Italy in detail. The current activity of the fault system and its potential to produce strong earthquakes have been underestimated so far and are now defined here. Precise mapping of the GF fault trace on a 1:20000 geolo...

The eruptions of Campi Flegrei (Southern Italy), one of the most studied and dangerous active volcanic areas of the world, are fed by mildly potassic alkaline magmas, from shoshonite to trachyte and phonotrachyte. Petrological investigations carried out in past decades on Campi Flegrei rocks provide crucial information for understanding differentia...

The Campi Flegrei caldera is a complex and resurgent structure, and its active portion has been the site of an intense volcanism with eruptions concentrated in temporal clusters, called epochs. The caldera is home to about 350,000 people. In the past decades, many scientific studies were aimed at both defining fundamental parameters of a future eru...

A tephrochronological investigation was carried out at site ND14Q (1013 m of water depth), located in the southern Adriatic Sea, offshore the Gargano promontory. It was drilled in the frame of The NextData Project (www.nextdataproject.it), focused on paleoclimate research. To obtain a composite and well preserved deep marine record, three cores wer...

The 56 ka Monte Epomeo Green Tuff (MEGT) resulted from the largest volume explosive eruption from Ischia island (south Italy). Its tephra is one of the main stratigraphic markers of the central Mediterranean area. Despite its importance, a detailed characterisation of the petrography and mineral chemistry of MEGT is lacking. To fill this gap, we pr...

We studied in detail the Gioia Sannitica active normal fault (GF) along the Southern Matese Fault system in the southern Apennines of Italy. The current activity of the fault system and its potential to produce strong earthquakes have been underestimated so far, and are now defined. Precise mapping of the GF fault trace on a 1 : 20,000 geological m...

Accurately reconstructing the scale and timing of dynamic processes, such as Middle-Late Pleistocene explosive volcanism and rapid climatice change, requires rigorous and independent chronological constraints. In this framework, the study of distal volcanic ash layers, or tephra, transported and deposited over wide regions during explosive volcanic...

In our original paper (Buono et al., 2020), we investigated the dynamics of degassing (e.g., bubble nucleation and growth, degassing styles and regimes) of H2O-, CO2- and H2O-CO2-rich evolved alkaline melts over a wide range of variables (final pressures, decompression rates, volatile compositions and contents, temperatures) through a comprehensive...

Two boreholes, both about 16 m-deep, have been drilled in the Garigliano Plain, a coastal-alluvial plain located at the boundary between southern Latium and northern Campania, Italy. The drill holes have been planned and carried out in the southern part of the plain, near to the bordering ridge of Mount Massico. The multidisciplinary analyses perfo...

The complex urban geology of the historic center of Naples is characterized by the emplacement of products from two adjoining volcanic areas that were reworked by alluvial and coastal processes. To expand the geologic knowledge of this densely populated area, multidisciplinary research was carried out on the recently drilled San Marcellino borehole...

A procedure to operationalize the environmental component of urban resilience in areas increasingly exposed to hazardous events, often intensified by climate changes, is here proposed. The procedure was implemented in a Geographic Information System framework named “Resilience and Disaster Risk Management” that manages spatial and non-spatial data...

In the last few decades, advanced monitoring networks have been extended to the main active volcanoes, providing warnings for variations in volcano dynamics. However, one of the main tasks of modern volcanology is the correct interpretation of surface-monitored signals in terms of magma transfer through the Earth's crust. In this frame, it is cruci...

The prehistoric (< 7 ka) Zaro eruption at Ischia island (Southern Italy) produced a lava complex overlaying a pyroclastic deposit. Although being of low energy, the Zaro eruption might have caused casualties among the neolithic population that inhabited that area of Ischia, and damages to their settlements. A similar eruption at Ischia with its pre...

Magma-carbonate interactions and the subsequent CO2 release can occur before and during an eruption, critically affecting magma storage and ascent processes. However, the mechanisms and timescales of those interactions are unclear, particularly during the fast magma withdrawal that feeds high-intensity eruptions. In order to better understand magma...

A marine sediment core from the western Mediterranean provides a new high-resolution 4500 year record of palaeomagnetic secular variation and relative palaeointensity. In 2013, the 7.1 m C5 core was recovered from the Tyrrhenian Sea as part of the NextData climate data project. The coring site, 15 km offshore from the Volturno river mouth, is well...

The reconstruction of the pre-eruptive storage conditions as well as syn-eruptive magma ascent dynamics of past eruptions is of fundamental importance to decipher the relationship between surface-monitored signals and the sub-volcanic processes in order to learn more about the eruptive behaviour of active volcanoes. The Pomici di Base Plinian erupt...

A methodology for evaluation of damage that the buildings exposed to pyroclastic currents from a possible small-size eruption at Campi Flegrei could suffer is proposed. It was implemented in a structured GIS framework named BuilD (Building Damage) that integrates spatial and no-spatial data and allows to quantify and map the differences in building...

In the last years, metropolitan areas are more and more exposed to natural risks often intensified by the effects of climatic changes. Clear and complete information about hazards impending on the territory is indispensable for local authorities to define efficient territorial management strategies focused on the risk reduction. A flexible hazard t...

Active calderas are the major volcanic features of the Earth's. They are associated with large magma reservoirs and are characterized by elevated geothermal gradients. Unrest episodes, often documented through historical times, are not always followed by an eruption; however, every eruption is preceded by unrest. Explosive caldera-forming eruptions...

Five cores from the southern Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas were studied for their tephra and cryptotephra content in the 4.4–2.0 ka time interval. The chronological framework for each core was obtained by accelerator mass spectrometry 14C dating, the occurrence of distinct marker tephra and stratigraphic correlation with adjacent records. Tephrochrono...

A multidisciplinary study, based on integration of eco-bio stratigraphy and tephrostratigraphy, was applied to the sedimentary record of core CET2, recovered in a bathyal area of the Eastern Tyrrhenian Sea, along the Campania Continental Margin. An event stratigraphy of the Late Pleistocene–Holocene succession was obtained, also through the integra...

The Vesuvio National Park, established in June 1995, is the green area closest to Napoli megacity, which suffers the absence of urban green spaces and could hence offer to citizens the opportunity to enjoy healthy places in a peculiar environment as the landscape of an active volcano. We here propose two trails with several stops, named the Ancient...

Rugged peaks, large intermontane basins and frequent seismicity all characterize the active extensional tectonic setting of the southern Apennines. The Matese ridge typifies the active tectonic setting of the southern Apennines with steep carbonate mountain fronts and large depositional centres. Moderate to high magnitude earthquakes have affected...

A review of the climatic variability over the last two millennia based on oxygen stable isotopic (δ18OG. ruber) signals from different areas of the Mediterranean Basin (Minorca Basin, central and south Tyrrhenian Sea, Taranto Gulf, south Adriatic Sea and Israel) has been proposed. The correlation of data testifies an almost synchronicity of the ide...

Central–southern Italy is one of the most suitable areas in the world for tephrostratigraphic studies, owing to the numerous volcanic sources with explosive activity during the Pleistocene. This work presents a systematic investigation of the chemical (trace elements) and isotopic (Sr and Nd) compositions of the main tephra markers within lacustrin...

A new high-resolution pollen record, spanning the last five millennia, is presented from the Gulf of Gaeta (Tyrrhenian Sea, central Italy), with the aim of verifying if any vegetation change occurred in the central Mediterranean region in relation to specific well-known global and/or regional climate events, including the 4.2 ka event, the Medieval...

The feeding systems of numerous explosive volcanoes (e.g. Somma-Vesuvius, Colli Albani, Merapi, Popocatepetl) are developed within carbonate bedrocks. Geochemical and petrological evidence of magma–limestone interaction has been documented in their volcanic deposits. During this reaction large amounts of crustal CO2 can be released with possible si...

Trigger mechanisms and syn-eruptive processes of Plinian eruptions are poorly understood especially in the case of mafic powerful events. In the last decades, the combined geochemical and textural studies on volcanic rocks have proven to be fundamental tools for exploring the dynamics of magma ascent in volcanic conduits and for improving our abili...

Deltaic and shallow marine sediments represent unique natural archives to study the evolution of surface coastal ocean water properties as compared to environmental changes in adjacent continents. Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and higher plant biomarker records were generated from the Rhone and Var River deltaic sediments (NW Mediterranean Sea),...

3D textural (via X-ray microtomography) and geochemical (major-volatile elements and Sr-Nd isotopic ratios) investigations, together with thermodynamic simulations, can allow to reconstruct the evolution of magmatic variables governing magma chamber and volcanic conduit processes. Therefore these variables, together with external environmental fact...

The present study focuses on the morphotectonic evolution of the axial portion of the southern Apennine chain between the lower Calore River valley and the northern Camposauro mountain front (Campania Region). A multidisciplinary approach was used, including geomorphological, field‐geology, stratigraphical, morphotectonic, structural, ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar and...

New high temporal resolution data on calcareous nannofossil and planktonic foraminifera assemblages, alkenone-derived sea surface temperature and stable oxygen and carbon isotopes are acquired on the Montalbano Ideale section (southern Italy) and at the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) sites 975 and 976 through Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 20-18. Result...

An investigation through Sr-He-O isotopes and major oxides was carried out on Mg-rich olivine and clinopyroxene phenocrysts from a selection of volcanic rocks of the Neapolitan Volcanoes (Southern Italy), which include Somma-Vesuvius, Phlegraean Fields, and the islands of Ischia and Procida. The data produced in the present work extend the Sr-He-O...

Paleoclimatic data are essential for fingerprinting the climate of the earth before the advent of modern recording instruments. They enable us to recognize past climatic events and predict future trends. Within this framework, a conceptual and logical model was drawn to physically implement a paleoclimatic database named WDB-Paleo that includes the...

A detailed petrochemical investigation of the peridotites from the Mt. Pollino area (Basilicata, Southern Italy) allowed to provide the first comprehensive reconstruction of the evolution and geodynamic setting of ophiolitic mantle from the Southern Apennines. These mantle peridotites firstly acquired strongly-refractory modal and chemical composit...

Clinopyroxene and olivine are ubiquitous phases in Somma-Vesuvius (SV) volcanics and for the first time they were systematically studied in several products younger than 40 ka. In this manuscript chemical compositions (major, trace and rare earth elements) of a large set of olivine and clinopyroxene crystals from selected rock samples are presented...

In the last few decades, attribution of tephras collected from continental and marine sequences to widespread pyroclastic deposits of known age has been successfully achieved through a geochemical characterization based on major and trace element abundances. Only in few cases, radiogenic isotopes analysis has been applied to tephra layers for ident...

In this work we present a study of helium isotope ratio R/Ra (where R=3He/4Hesample, and Ra is the same ratio in the atmosphere) measured in Mg-rich olivine and clinopyroxene phenocrysts from a selection of mafic volcanic rocks of the Neapolitan Volcanoes (Vesuvius, Campi Flegrei, Ischia and Procida islands - Southern Italy). Helium isotope data of...

A new high resolution pollen, planktonic foraminiferal and oxygen isotopes record from a shallow water marine sedimentary core from the central Tyrrhenian Sea (Gulf of Gaeta) provides information on vegetation and climate changes occurred in the central Mediterranean region during the last 5000 cal. years BP (Margaritelli et al., 2016). Nine tim...

The Campanian Plain in southern Italy has been volcanically active for at least the last 300 ka. The Campanian Ig-nimbrite (CI) erupted at 39.3 ka, has a volume of ≥310 km 3 and a great areal extent. However, significant, but scattered deposits of older ignimbrites underlie the CI and document a long history of volcanism. We examined the mineralogy...

The basal portion (2.92 – 5.08 m from core top) of the CET1 core located in a bathyal area of the eastern Tyrrhenian Sea is the subject of a multidisciplinary investigation, encompassing tephrostratigraphy, quantitative analyses of planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossil assemblages, and δ18O measurements, supported by a 40Ar/39Ar age de...

The most recent data obtained at the Montalbano Jonico succession (MJS), in the interval including the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 19, document the occurrence of numerous chronostratigraphic constraints and paleoenvironmental events contributing to the knowledge of a crucial time through the Lower-Middle Pleistocene transition, characterised by majo...

The petrologic evolution of mantle peridotites during ocean formation is characterized by several episodes of refertilisation due to melt migration after large degree of partial melting. This feature is recognizable also in the Mt. Pollino (Calabria-Basilicata boundary, Southern Italy) ophiolite which represents well preserved oceanic lithosphere f...

The analysis of tsunami catalogues and of data published on the NOAA web site pointed out that in the Mediterranean basin, from 2000 B.C. to present, about 480 tsunamis occurred, of which at least a third involved the Italian peninsula. Within this framework, a GIS-aided procedure that takes advantage of spatial analysis to apply the Papathoma Tsun...

The best knowledge of hazardous events and the precise mapping of the zones that they could involve are essential to plan the actions aimed at reducing the territorial vulnerability and promoting the development of a resilient community. In this framework, the main goal of the present research is to propose a quantitative spatial modeling approach...