page_title: Campanian Ignimbrite eruption
section_title: Global impact
hierarchical_section_title: Campanian Ignimbrite eruption / Global impact
caption_attribution_description: graphic of deposit dispersal during the Campanian Ignimbrite Eruption 40.000 years ago based on [1]
context_page_description: The Campanian Ignimbrite eruption was a major volcanic eruption in the Mediterranean during the late Quaternary, classified at 7 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index. The event has been attributed to the Archiflegreo volcano, the 13-kilometre-wide caldera of the Phlegraean Fields, located 20 km west of Mount Vesuvius under the western outskirts of the city of Naples and the Gulf of Pozzuoli, Italy. Estimates of the date, magnitude and the amount of ejected material have varied considerably during several centuries of investigation. This applies to most significant volcanic events that originated in the Campanian Plain, as it is one of the most complex volcanic structures in the world. However, continued research, advancing methods and accumulation of volcanological, geochronological, and geochemical data has amounted to ever more precise dating.
  The most recent dating determines the eruption event at 39,280±110 years BP and results of 3D Ash Dispersion Modelling published in 2012 concluded a dense-rock equivalent of 300 km³ and emissions dispersed over an area of around 3,700,000 km².
context_section_description: The event's recent dating at 39,280±110 years ago draws considerable scholarly attention as it marks a time interval characterized by biocultural modifications in western Eurasia and widespread discontinuities in archaeological sequences, such as the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition. At several archaeological sites of South-eastern Europe, the ash separates the cultural layers containing Middle Palaeolithic and/or Earliest Upper Palaeolithic assemblages from the layers in which Upper Palaeolithic industries occur. At some sites the CI tephra deposit coincides with a long interruption of paleo-human occupation.
caption: graphic of deposit dispersal during the eruption
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