This award will support Professor Richard Fisher of the University of California at Santa Barbara in a research collaboration with Professors G. Orsi, G. Capaldi, and L. Civetta of the University of Naples. One of southern Europe's great cities, Naples, is located on a young (approximately 33,500 years), large volume (greater than 80 cubic kilometers) ignimbrite sheet resulting from a volcanic eruption. This Campanian Ignimbrite (CI), occurs up to 100 km. from its probable source, having moved as an energetic pyroclastic flow across high mountain ridges. The source of the CI is believed to be in the Phlegrean Fields, located in the Neapolitan suburbs. The researchers intend (1) to establish chronology and chemical trends of the initial Campanian eruption that produced the first-deposited tephra and the ignimbrite sheet; (2) to determine the type of initiating eruption (pryoclastic and/or hydroclastic) and subsequent eruptive activity; and (3) to interpret flow mechanisms by studying the origin of the thin ground layer that occurs beneath the CI. Detailed field and laboratory studies of this ignimbrite are necessary for the purpose of unraveling its history and what that portends for future activity. If the CI originated from beneath the sea, it will be the first such ignimbrite to be documented, and it would be possible for the first time to characterize physical and chemical attributes of subaqueous ignimbrite and provide petrologic criteria for their recognition.
