While sulphur in the solid state is immediately recognisable by its typical yellow colour, you can often see white crystals around the fumaroles. These are gypsum crystals, also produced by the sublimation of the volcanic gases as they leave the surface. In fact, gypsum is formed half by sulphur an...

The Stack in Porto di Levante, around 70 metres high, is what remains of a volcanic structure in the north-east part of the Caldera of the Fossa, between here and Vulcanello. In the second half of 1800, before the eruption of 1888-1890, the Stack was known as “the Factory” because of the inte...

In physics and chemistry, sublimation is the direct change from the gas state to the solid state, skipping the liquid state, and vice versa. Volcanic gases are made up of 95% water. The remaining 5% of the volume is dissolved sulphur, fluorine, chlorine and carbon dioxide. When the temperature dro...

It is often said that if inhaled, the volcanic gases from fumaroles are good for you. Nothing could be further from the truth. Fumarole gases contain water, chlorine, sulphur, fluorine and carbon dioxide which, if inhaled for prolonged periods, are highly toxic to humans. Therefore, we must not co...

Descriptions of volcanic eruptions, even quite accurate ones, are present in history in Roman times starting from Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger (around 2000 years ago), who observed the eruptions of Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields. The first scientific observation of an eruption, howeve...

For the ancient Greeks, Hephaestus was the god of volcanoes. Hephaestus was a builder and architect, goldsmith and gunsmith, blacksmith and inventor of mechanical objects. He forged the weapons of two great heroes, Heracles and Achilles. His workshop, instead of being together with the other Gods...

Fumaroles are characteristic of active volcanic areas, and are merely smoke escaping from fractures or holes in the ground. They often follow the circular shape of the crater, or may come from within it. This cloud of gas is composed almost entirely of water vapour, which carries with it some other...

In volcanology the term caldera means a large circular or elliptical basin or depression, often occupied by a lake. The caldera is normally formed after a very violent eruption in which the magma chamber of the volcano is emptied and its roof collapses due to the void created: this collapse on th...

Alum, the salt sweated from the earth and very useful for dyeing wool and cleaning gold, has been a source of wealth for the Aeolian Islands since ancient times. Alum mining had already been practised by the Romans who, in amphorae produced in Lipari where the factory was found, transported not onl...

The name of this wine comes from Monemvasia, a Greek town in the southern Peloponnese. According to other versions, the term instead derives from Malta, where the production originally began. The Romans transported the Malvasia in amphorae to the capital, where the emperors were fond of it. In the...