LONDON, April 25 (Xinhua) -- The origin of a pre-historic eruption that blanketed the Mediterranean region in ash 29,000 years ago has been found to be from a volcano in southern Italy, according to a study released on Thursday by the University of Oxford.
A widespread ash layer was believed to blanket the central Mediterranean 29,000 years ago, which clearly indicated a large volcanic eruption.
In this study, a team led by Dr. Paul Albert, a Research Fellow in the School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, has now identified an eruption deposit within the city of Naples which was produced by the volcano Campi Flegrei that located immediately to the west of Naples, a city in southern Italy.
The team used a computer-based ash dispersal model to reconstruct the size of the eruption.
This research positions the timing of this eruption of Campi Flegrei between 15,000 and 40,000 years ago.
By linking the thickness of the ash deposits found in Naples, to those preserved in cores from across the central Mediterranean, the model was able to demonstrate and provide important information on the size of this large magnitude eruption, said Albert.
