The Volcano of Roccamonfina is an extinct volcano in

Roccamonfina Roccamonfina is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Caserta in the Italian region Campania, located about northwest of Naples and about northwest of Caserta. In the communal territory is the extinct volcano of Roccamonfina. The fossi ...

Campania (man), it, Campana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demog ...

, southern Italy. It was active from some 650,000 to 50,000 years ago. It comprises an isolated large cone of some perimeter between the

Monti Aurunci The Monti Aurunci (or Aurunci Mountains) is a mountain range of southern Lazio, in central Italy. It is part of the Antiappennini, a group running from the Apennines chain to the Tyrrhenian Sea, where it forms the promontory of Gaeta. It is boun ...

, the plain and valley of the Garigliano, the

Monte Massico Monte Massico (Latin: ''Mons Massicus'') is a mountain situated in the Italian Province of Caserta (Campania) between the rivers Volturno and Garigliano. Description Monte Massico is an Italian mountain ridge. In antiquity, it was described ...

and the

Monti Trebulani The Monti Trebulani or Colli Caprensi is a mountain range in the province of Caserta, Campania, southern Italy. They take their name from the ancient city of Trebula Balliensis, a Roman colony founded in the 3rd-2nd century BC, whose remains a ...

. The central caldera has a diameter of nearly and the small commune (town) of

is located ''inside'' it. Volcanic activity is now replaced by minor seismic movements and by the presence of

mineral water Mineral water is water from a mineral spring that contains various minerals, such as salts and sulfur compounds. Mineral water may usually be still or sparkling (carbonated/effervescent) according to the presence or absence of added gases. T ...

s. The mount is part of the Roccamonfina-Garigliano Mouth Regional Park, created in 1999. The Ciampate del Diavolo are a series of hominid footprints in solidified ash from an eruption of the volcano 345,000 years ago.

Geology

The volcano originated as a

stratovolcano A stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, is a conical volcano built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava and tephra. Unlike shield volcanoes, stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile with a summit crater and p ...

in the

Garigliano The Garigliano () is a river in central Italy. It forms at the confluence of the rivers Gari (also known as the Rapido) and Liri. Garigliano is actually a deformation of "Gari-Lirano" (which in Italian means something like "Gari from the Liri") ...

rift valley A rift valley is a linear shaped lowland between several highlands or mountain ranges created by the action of a geologic rift. Rifts are formed as a result of the pulling apart of the lithosphere due to extensional tectonics. The linear de ...

, with a group of eruptive mouths spread in a area; later an effusive activity concentrated in the central area, forming a volcanic cone some 1,800 m-high, mostly formed of

tephra Tephra is fragmental material produced by a volcanic eruption regardless of composition, fragment size, or emplacement mechanism. Volcanologists also refer to airborne fragments as pyroclasts. Once clasts have fallen to the ground, they re ...

and accompanied by minor cones such as the Monte Ofelio at south-west. Some 400,000 years ago, the collapse of the volcano's eastern sector formed a

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber ...

which, for some time, was occupied by a

volcanic lake A volcanogenic lake is a lake formed as a result of volcanic activity. They are generally a body of water inside an inactive volcanic crater (crater lakes) but can also be large volumes of molten lava within an active volcanic crater (lava lakes) ...

. A second period of volcanic activity began some 385,000 years ago with an

explosive eruption In volcanology, an explosive eruption is a volcanic eruption of the most violent type. A notable example is the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Such eruptions result when sufficient gas has dissolved under pressure within a viscous magma s ...

, including eruptions from the former caldera. This phase continued until some 285,000 years ago. The formation of the volcano also modified the course of the

and

Volturno The Volturno (ancient Latin name Volturnus, from ''volvere'', to roll) is a river in south-central Italy. Geography It rises in the Abruzzese central Apennines of Samnium near Castel San Vincenzo ( province of Isernia, Molise) and flows sou ...

rivers. The Volturno moved southwest in what is its current course; the Garigliano no longer reached the sea, and formed a lake (Lake Lirino) until (around 200,000 years ago) it eroded rocks near

Suio Suio is a ''frazione'' (rural borough) of Castelforte, a municipality in southern Latium, central Italy. Overview It is located on the northernmost slopes of the Monti Aurunci, near the Garigliano river, and is composed of two villages: Suio P ...

and assumed the current course.

References

* {{coord, 41.29356341, N, 13.969195, E, display=title, region:IT_type:mountain_source:GNS-enwiki Extinct volcanoes Volcanoes of Italy Landforms of Campania Calderas of Italy VEI-6 volcanoes Pleistocene stratovolcanoes Pleistocene calderas