Skip to content

Geochronology of the potential first eruptive phase of the Monte Vulture Volcano (Basilicata, Italy).

Nicolas Musial 1,2, Alison Pereira2, Sébastien Nomade1, Roberto Sulpizio3,4, Paolo Giannandrea5, Biagio Giaccio6

  • Affiliations: 1LSCE, UMR, 8212, CEA, CNRS et Université de Versailles St-Quentin, Avenue de la Terrasse, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France; 2Laboratoire GEOPS, UMR 8148, Université Paris-Saclay, bâtiment 504, 1 rue du Belvédère, 91400, Orsay, France; 3Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambientali, via Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italia; 4IDPA-CNR, via Mario Bianco 9, Milan, Italy; 5Università della Basilicata, Dipartimento per l'Innovazione Umanistica, Scientifica e Sociale, via Lanera, 20, 75100, Matera, Italy; 6Istituto di Geologia Ambientale e Geoingegneria, CNR, Via Salaria km 29,300, 00016, Monterotondo Stazione, Roma, Italy.

  • Presentation type: Poster

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

  • Poster Board Number: 144

  • Programme No: 3.4.25

  • Theme 3 > Session 4

Abstract

The Monte Vulture stratovolcano is located in the central part of the peninsula, 110km east of Naples. This volcanic complex is peculiar among Italian volcanoes found at the intersection of faults, at the eastern flank of the Apennine chain, where the Apennine thrust front overlies the Apulian carbonate platform (Boenzi et al. 1987). The geodynamic as well as eruptive history and geochemistry evolution of the complex still remain poorly understood. The eruptive products are silica undersaturated including carbonatite, which is uncommon in Italy. Up to now only a handful of studies have been published on the dating of its products and many questions remain unanswered in particular concerning the volcano's activity during the early-middle Pleistocene. In the frame of this contribution, we will present the first results of a new 40Ar/39Ar dating effort focused on the early activity of the Monte Vulture Supersyntem. Our new data reveal a more complex than expected chronostratigraphy of the oldest phase of activity named in literature the Foggianello Syntem (Villa and Buettner, 2009). Our new high precision 40Ar/39Ar on single-crystal dating demonstrate that the beginnings of the volcanic activity is marked at least by two major ignimbritic eruptions (Fara d'Olivo), respectively dated at 784.4±1.0ka and 777.2±2.4ka. After a period of about 40ka of quiescence a new period of explosive activity occurred at around 740±2.0ka, shortly followed by an effusive phase (Spinoritola) dated at 732.0±1.0ka. Finally, the youngest explosive activity here, the Campanile subsyntem, corresponds to pumice fall deposits dated between 708.9±1.8ka and 700.2±1.3ka.