Message #28923

[Terra Sohns]

Atalante:

Absonite,
I agree that the volcanic activity in the vicinity of Naples is thought provoking.
There is a fault line which extends out into the sea from the vicinity of the Phlegraen Fields. Two islands lie along that fault line. (note to Chronos regarding Gigantomachy: I think Greek myths say some of the Giants were buried under those 2 small islands.)

Here is a link about the island of Ischia. As you can see in the link, a scientist named Rittmann wrote a paper in 1930 which tied a few eruptions on Ischia to dates around 37K BC, and also declared that these eruptions were among the largest in the Mediterranean region.

quote from: http://www.essc.psu.edu/~bjhaupt/specials/iamg98/ischia.html
Volcanic Outline

The timing of the initial volcanism on the island is not known; the oldest dated exposures that belong to the island complex are related to small trachytic and phonolitic domes in the south eastern part of the island with ages of 150 and 74 ka. Since 55 ka, on the basis of stratiraphical, complsitional etc., techniques three periods of activity have been identified (Civetta et. al., 1991) each of which were characterised by the arrival of new, less differentiated magma.

Period I (from 55 to 33 ka): This period is marked by the eruptions of the, now uplifted, Monte trachytic green Tuff (Epomeo Green Tuff) which partially filled the central depression. Rittmann (1930) suggested that these were amongst the most powerful eruptions in the Mediterranean area. Sr and Zr data suggest that the magma chamber was zoned through a process of fractional crystallisation.

Period II (from 28 to 18 ka): This period is marked by the re-eruption of the Grotta di Terra trachybasaltic magma along the south-eastern coast. The significant variation in both chemical and isotopic composition of the erupted magmas leads to a model which implies that there was an arrival of new basic magma into the system, followed by a progressive differentiation and mixing with the resident trachytic magma.

Period III (from 10 ka to 1302 A.D.): This period is marked by effusive and hydromagmatic eruptions within the depression east of Mt.Epomeo. Most of the magma which erupted during this period was trachytic and subordinately latitic in nature with a negative correlation between chemical and isotopic compositions.
endquote

I expect that the 1930 paper by Rittmann may have influenced the people who organized Urantia.