Eruptions of the last 2200 years at Vulcano and Vulcanello (Aeolian Islands, Italy) dated by high-accuracy archeomagnetism

Abstract

The recent eruptive history of the Vulcano island (Southern Italy) was investigated through the high-accuracy “large sample” archeomagnetic method (Tanguy, J.C., Le Goff, M., Principe, C., Arrighi, S., Chillemi, V., Paiotti, A., La Delfa, S., Patanè, G., 2003. Archeomagnetic dating of Mediterranean volcanics of the last 2100 years: validity and limits. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 211, 111–124; Tanguy, J.C., Principe, C., Arrighi, S., 2005. Comment on “Historical measurements of the Earth's magnetic field compared with remanence directions from lava flows in Italy over the last four centuries” by R. Lanza, A. Meloni, and E. Tema. Phys. Earth Planet. Interiors 152, 116–120; Arrighi, S., 2004. The large sample archeomagnetic method applied to Neapolitan volcanoes and Aeolian Islands. PhD Thesis. University of Pisa, Italy, pp. 1–186). Age determination is based upon directional geomagnetic variation reconstructed from historically dated lavas in Southern Italy, and from archeological sites in Western Europe (Gallet, Y., Genevey, A., Le Goff, M., 2002. Three millennia of directional variation of the Earth's magnetic field in Western Europe as revealed by archeological artefacts. Phys. Earth Planet. Interiors 131, 81–89) relocated to Sicily. Results in the present paper were obtained on 12 sites including 185 samples weighing 0.5–1 kg, distributed over the Vulcanello platform lavas and pyroclastic cones, and on the lava flows from the Fossa cone. It is shown that the Vulcanello platform was built by nearly continuous activity between AD 1000 and 1250, which is more than a millennium younger than believed until now from questionable interpretation of imprecise historical accounts. Most of the lavas from the Fossa cone, whose ages were rather hypothetical or known with a large uncertainty, have erupted within the same period. However, the last “Pietre Cotte” obsidian flow is confirmed to date from 1720 ± 30, in agreement with historical data (1739).