The term “Normans” refers to a population of northern Europe, which lived around 1000 years ago. They landed in Messina, Sicily in 1061, when Sicily was ruled by the Arabs. They built several castles and fortresses throughout Sicily, and their rule ended in 1198 with the death of the last memb...

Saint Bartholomew was one of the twelve apostles of Christ also known in the Gospel of John as Nathaniel, a native of Cana, who died around the middle of the 1st century, probably in Syria. It is assumed that the name Bartholomew derives from the Aramaic “bar” meaning son, and “talmai” meani...

A lava dome is a structure composed of extremely viscous lava (which flows slowly and with difficulty) with a typical dome shape. They are formed because of the high viscosity of the lava, which comes out of the ground at relatively low temperatures (600-800 °C), and therefore much of the lava is ...

Barbarossa, “red beard” in Italian, was considered the king of Mediterranean pirates in the 16th century. His real name was Hayreddin (Khayr ad-Din) and he was hired by the Turks when Suleiman the Magnificent, around 1540, tasked him with arming a powerful fleet of 150 ships to rescue the King...

The thermal springs of the island of Lipari are remembered by writers of Greek and Roman times (Aristotle, Diodorus, Strabo, Athenaeum and Pliny) and were so famous that one of the minor thermal baths of Rome bore the name of Aeolia. All the historical sources refer to the thermal spring of San C...

Homer tells us in the Odyssey that Ulysses, after landing with his companions in the land of the Cyclops, docked at Aeolia, surrounded by high cliffs and bronze walls, perhaps the Castle of Lipari. Here lived Aeolus, keeper of the winds, along with his wife and children. Aeolus hosted Ulysses and ...

A vulcanian eruption is an explosive type of eruption, emitting lava fragments into the atmosphere which take on a round shape during flight, as they are too viscous or already partially solidified. [dettaglio_immagine id="41485"] The typical shape is therefore that of a rugby ball. These eruptio...

“Bread-crust" bombs are the typical eruption material of vulcanian activity. They are blocks ranging from a few centimetres to a few metres in size, whose very smooth surface has some cuts and fractures, with a spongy interior. The resemblance to bread crust is often surprising....

The volcanic crater is usually a circular depression with a diameter of a few hundred metres, located on top of a volcanic structure. It is simply the place from which lava and pyroclastic products from the explosions during volcano activity come out. When the activity ends, the crater can be fill...

In geology, an aquifer is an area of rocks capable of accumulating water, which flows into them due to the effect of gravity....