Discovered new underwater volcanoes in the Mediterranean

Discovered a new volcanic complex a submarine in the Mediterranean Sea, 15 kilometres from the tyrrhenian coasts of Calabria: it is composed of three mountains, the main, calls Diamond, Oenotrian, and Ovid, of which the latter is formed by five volcanoes, one of which is a little bit bigger of mount Vesuvius. Published in the journal Earth & Space Science News, the result is due to the researchers of the national Institute of geophysics and volcanology (Ingv).

Compared to the complex of 15 underwater volcanoes discovered by the Ingv together with other authorities in 2017 between the south coast of Salerno and calabria, "this is the same chain in terms of geology, but of volcanoes new, with different characteristics. It is in fact closer to the coast, has a greater extension and a number of volcanoes have rounded shapes," explains Riccardo De Ritis, first author of the article. This means that the volcanoes were at sea level and were eroded in the course of the glaciations".

it is one of the largest volcanic complexes of submarines of the Italian, which was developed in the period between 780.000 and 20,000 years ago, and today is no longer active. "The volcanic complex identified in the Tyrrhenian Sea - continues De Ritis - was divided into two portions. A western part, which is more distant from the coast, where the volcanic buildings look uneven and deformed by tectonic structures". The eastern part, closest to the coast, on the other hand, volcanic structures rounded from the top flat. "Our research concludes, the author sheds new light on the existence of important volcanic complexes on the seabed, at distances from the coast is decidedly less than what you knew previously." © Reproduction reserved