DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10814860
title: Field data collected from pyroclastic and lahar deposits of the 472 AD (Pollena) and 1631 Vesuvius eruptions

description: Field data collected from pyroclastic and lahar deposits of the 472 AD (Pollena) and 1631 Vesuvius eruptions

Mauro A. Di Vito1, Ilaria Rucco2, Sandro de Vita1, Domenico M. Doronzo1, Marina Bisson3, Elena Zanella4

1 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Osservatorio Vesuviano, Napoli, Italy

2 Heriot-Watt University, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

3 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Pisa, Pisa, Italy

4 Università di Torino, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Torino, Italy

 

This dataset is organized in an Excel file, and it includes all the data collected and reviewed during the last 20 years from drill cores, outcrops, archaeological excavations, stratigraphic trenches, and the existing literature. It focuses on the primary (pyroclastic) and secondary (lahar) deposits of the 472 AD (Pollena) and 1631 eruptions from the Somma-Vesuvius volcano. The aim is to collect stratigraphic, stratimetric, sedimentological, lithological and chronological data to generate distribution maps and to validate the numerical simulations and models for the risk assessment. In particular, this dataset is complementary to – and in support of – the full work by Di Vito et al. (2024), in which the distribution of those deposits all around the Somma-Vesuvius complex and further is presented and discussed. Such dataset was used to inform the shallow-water model of lahars by de’ Michieli Vitturi et al. (2024), which in turns was used by Sandri et al. (2024) to elaborate probabilistic maps of lahar invasion in the Somma-Vesuvius and Apennine areas.

All the data are organized in columns: the first four aim to identify the sites, and so there is a numeric identification code (ID), the name of the site (NAME), and the metric coordinates (East-North) in the UTM WGS 84 – Zone 33 reference projection (X, Y). The last two columns are “MUNICIPALITY” and “PROVINCE” and give a spatial location to the points.

For the two eruptions, several columns have been created:

·       “472_PRIM”, “1631_PRIM” and “472_ASH” and “1631_ASH” indicate, respectively, the fallout primary deposits of the eruptions and the primary ash, particularly the ash related to the last phases of the eruptions (generally phreatomagmatic).

·       “472_SYN” and “1631_SYN” indicate the syn-eruptive lahars related to the two eruptions, recognized from the similar composition between the primary deposit and the lahar and from the evidence of a short-term exposure between the two.

·       “472_POST” AND “1631_POST” indicate the post-eruptive lahars related to the two eruptions. They are considered “post” when in the deposit there are pumices belonging to older eruptions, indicating their involvement in the progressive erosion of the slopes and valleys, and when there is evidence of long periods without deposition, such as the presence of slightly humified surfaces or traces of human artifacts (excavations, ploughing).

·       “EROSION_fallout_472” refers to the sites where it was possible to find erosional unconformities between the pyroclastic deposit of the 472 AD eruption and the lahar, as well as between the lower and upper lahar flow units. The erosional features are for example the lack of one or more primary eruptive layers (eroded by the overlying deposit), a change in the granulometry, or lateral discontinuity of the deposit. 

·       “Pdyn (kPa)”, “v (m/s)”, “C (%)” and “T” are all the parameters quantified to validate the numerical models and to assess the hazard from lahars. Pdyn is the flow dynamic pressure, which represents the capability of the flow to entrain a clast, and it depends on the velocity (v) and the flow density, which in turn results from a combination of the density of the particles and the water through the “C (%)”, that is the particle volume concentration. To calculate the flow dynamic pressure and the velocity, the parameters taken into account are the dimensions of the biggest clasts and the nature of the clasts (limestone, ceramic, brick, tephra, lava, sandstone, iron) found in the lahar deposits. The concentration is estimated considering some sites in which the flow expands in correspondence with some obstacles (for example a Roman wall). This can be assumed to be the initial height of the flow before the emplacement. Finally, “T” refers to the estimated deposition temperature of the deposit quantified by the magnetic analysis, in particular in some sites where the lahar interacted with anthropogenic structures.

·       “DEPOSIT (472)” indicates the type of lahar deposit (syn- or post-eruptive) of the 472 AD eruption in which the fragments were found.

·       “MULTIPLE LAHAR UNITS” indicates the sites in which multiple flow units are vertically identified in the lahar deposits. They are generally a result of rapid and progressive aggradation of multiple flow pulses, each one resulting from single-pulse “en masse” emplacement.