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High-frequency eruptive activity prior to the large eruption of the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff, Campi Flegrei, Italy.

Roberto Isaia1, Biagio Giaccio2, Gino Gonzalez1, Alison Pereira3, Sebastien Nomade3, Victoria Smith4, Antonio Costa5, Francesco Dell'Erba1, Giada Fernandez2, Gavin Kane4, Lorenzo Monaco2, Jacopo Natale6, Roberto Sulpizio6

  • Affiliations: 1 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Osservatorio Vesuviano, Naples, Italy; 2 Istituto di Geologia Ambientale e Geoingegneria, CNR, Rome, Italy; 3 Laboratoire de Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, IPSL and Universit´e de Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France; 4  Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford; 5 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Bologna, Bologna, Italy; 6 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambientali, Universit`a degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

  • Presentation type: Poster

  • Presentation time: Friday 16:30 - 18:00, Room Poster Hall

  • Poster Board Number: 224

  • Programme No: 3.10.22

  • Theme 3 > Session 10

Abstract

The Neapolitan Yellow Tuff eruption (NYT; 14.0 ka) is considered the last major eruption of the Campi Flegrei caldera (CFc; Italy), which formed a large caldera. After the NYT, volcanism resumed in three epochs with more than 60 eruptions, whereas volcanism before the NYT and after the Campanian Ignimbrite catastrophe is still poorly defined. At about 30 ka there was an eruption similar in volume to the NYT (Masseria del Monte) and later on a succession of pyroclastic deposits were deposited before the NYT.  These deposits have been found in the peripheral area of the CFc and in some cores of distal records. However, it's still not clear how these eruptions occur in the proximal area and thus how to understand their eruptive dynamics. Here, we analysed new proximal outcrops and two new cores located >100 km from CFc, where it was possible to identify a number of eruptions prior to NYT. We found that at least five high-magnitude eruptions ( ̴1km3) in a time span of <1 ka preceded the formation of the main NYT eruption. Many of these eruptions show a similar chemical composition to the NYT, suggesting a similar source or feeding system for the NYT. The ages also indicate a very short time span for this sequence of eruptions. This new finding may indicate that a series of eruptions can lead to the formation of a caldera, which is not necessarily associated with a single large catastrophic event.