Empedocles is a large underwater

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

located 40 km off the southern coast of

Sicily Sicily ( it, Sicilia , ) is the list of islands in the Mediterranean, largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. The Strait of Messina divides it from the region of Calabria in Southern Italy. I ...

named after the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

Empedocles Empedocles (; grc-gre, Ἐμπεδοκλῆς; , 444–443 BC) was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a native citizen of Akragas, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is best known for originating the cosmogonic theory of the fou ...

who believed that everything on Earth was made up of the

four elements Classical elements typically refer to earth, water, air, fire, and (later) aether which were proposed to explain the nature and complexity of all matter in terms of simpler substances. Ancient cultures in Greece, Tibet, and India had simila ...

. According to Italy's

National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology ( it, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, INGV) is a research institute for geophysics and volcanology in Italy. INGV is funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and ...

, the volcanic structure is around 400 meters high, with a base 30 km long and 25 km wide. Located in the Campi Flegrei del Mar di Sicilia (Phlegraean Fields of the

Strait of Sicily The Strait of Sicily (also known as Sicilian Strait, Sicilian Channel, Channel of Sicily, Sicilian Narrows and Pantelleria Channel; it, Canale di Sicilia or the Stretto di Sicilia; scn, Canali di Sicilia or Strittu di Sicilia, ar, مضيق ص ...

), Empedocles is composed of what was once believed to be separate volcanic centers, including

Graham Island Graham Island () is the largest island in the Haida Gwaii archipelago (previously known as the Queen Charlotte Islands), lying off the mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is separated by the narrow Skidegate Channel from the other p ...

(Ferdinandea).Volcano larger than Washington D.C. discovered

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Scientists discover huge underwater volcano
The Independent Online The volcano shows no sign of erupting in the near future. While the volcano's top is now 7 meters below

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised ...

, it was once visible above the water. In 1831 Empedocles broke the surface as Graham Island (Ferdinandea) and almost caused a major international incident when several countries tried to claim ownership of it. It disappeared into the water again five months later.Massive underwater volcano found

CBBC Newsround ''Newsround'' (stylised as ''newsround'', and originally called ''John Craven's Newsround'' before his departure in 1989) is a BBC children's news programme, which has run continuously since 4 April 1972. It was one of the world's first tele ...

(published and accessed on June 23, 2006).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Empedocles (Volcano) Volcanoes of Italy Submarine volcanoes Landforms of Sicily Seamounts of the Mediterranean