page_title: Campanian Ignimbrite eruption
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Campanian Ignimbrite eruption / Background
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Solfatare mit Schwefelausblühungen und Gasaustritt, Solfatara (Pozzuoli), Phlegräische Felder, Kampanien, Italien.English: Fumarole, Solfatara (Pozzuoli), Campi Flegrei, Campania, Italy.
context_page_description: The Campanian Ignimbrite eruption was a major volcanic eruption in the Mediterranean during the late Quaternary, classified at 7 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index. The event has been attributed to the Archiflegreo volcano, the 13-kilometre-wide caldera of the Phlegraean Fields, located 20 km west of Mount Vesuvius under the western outskirts of the city of Naples and the Gulf of Pozzuoli, Italy. Estimates of the date, magnitude and the amount of ejected material have varied considerably during several centuries of investigation. This applies to most significant volcanic events that originated in the Campanian Plain, as it is one of the most complex volcanic structures in the world. However, continued research, advancing methods and accumulation of volcanological, geochronological, and geochemical data has amounted to ever more precise dating.
  The most recent dating determines the eruption event at 39,280±110 years BP and results of 3D Ash Dispersion Modelling published in 2012 concluded a dense-rock equivalent of 300 km³ and emissions dispersed over an area of around 3,700,000 km².
context_section_description: The Phlegraean Fields (Italian: Campi Flegrei "burning fields") caldera is a nested structure with a diameter of around 13 km (8.1 mi). It is composed of the older Campanian Ignimbrite caldera, the younger Neapolitan Yellow Tuff caldera and widely scattered sub-aerial and submarine vents from which the most recent eruptions have originated. The Fields sit upon a Pliocene - Quaternary Extensional domain with faults, that run North-East to South-West and North-West to South-East from the margin of the Apennine thrust belt. The sequence of deformation has been subdivided into three periods.
caption: Solfatara Pozzuoli
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