Avellino eruption

The Avellino eruption of Mount Vesuvius refers to a Vesuvian eruption in () 1995 BC. It is estimated to have had a VEI of 6, making it larger and more catastrophic than Vesuvius's more famous and well-documented 79 AD eruption. It is the source of the Avellino pumice (Pomici di Avellino) deposits extensively found in the comune of Avellino in Campania. The "assessment of volcanological factors" in one scientific study reconstructs a minimum eruption time of 3 hours in which an initial explosion raised a column of ash and deposited about 0.32 km3 of white pumice ("the white pumice phase"), while a second, more intense explosion raised a column to depositing 1.25 km3 of grey pumice ("the grey pumice phase"). These pumices appearing in Apulian pottery can be used to establish the relative chronology of pottery phases. A 2008 study of the lithofacies (deposits from the eruption) distinguishes three phases. Pyroclastic flows (PDC's) of Phases 1 and 2 were generated by "magmatic fragmentation" and had "small dispersal areas" mainly on the slopes of Vesuvius. Phase 3 was created by "phreatomagmatic fragmentation," in which clastic fragments are driven by superheated steam from ground water mixed with the other gases released from the magma. The authors characterize Phase 3 as "the most voluminous and widespread in the whole of Somma-Vesuvius's eruptive history." Some facies a few cm thick were found from the source. The vent was west of today's center. The overall results of the Avellino eruption were catastrophic and widespread. The deposit thickness of ash and other eruptive material ranges from 15m close to the vent to 50 cm around Avellino, and creating a subaquaeous debris-flow in the bay of Naples. The date of the Avellino eruption remains to be determined with a precision greater than about 500 years within the framework of the Early/Middle Bronze Age. A range of 2000–1500 BC includes the great majority of estimates. Ample opportunity to obtain Carbon-14 dates from charcoal and soil buried under the deposits has existed and still exists.