Active Italian volcanos - Definition

There are four active non-submarine Italian volcanoes. They are:

• Mount Vesuvius, near Naples (last erupted in 1944) - the only active volcano on the European mainland.
• Mount Etna, on Sicily (continuous activity)
• Stromboli, one of the Aeolian Islands (continuous activity)
• Vulcano, another of the Aeolian Islands (last erupted 1888-1890)

Italy also has a number of dormant and submarine volcanoes:

• Pantelleria, off the coast of Tunisia, probably last erupted around 1000 BC. There was a submarine eruption a few kilometres north-east of the island in 1891.
• The short-lived Isola Ferdinandea erupted a few kilometres north-west of Pantelleria in 1831 and rose to a maximum height of 63 metres, but was quickly eroded back down to sea level by 1835 and the top is now 25 metres below the surface.
• Ischia, an island 20 kilometres west of Naples, last erupted in 1302.
• Larderello, in southern Tuscany, last erupted in 1282
• Lipari, an island a couple of kilometres from Vulcano, has a volcano which last erupted in 729.
• Monte Nuovo, in the Campi Flegrei caldera a few kilometres morth of Naples, erupted in 1538.
• Vulcanello is a small volcano connected by an isthmus to the island of Vulcano, which erupted out of the sea in 183 BC and showed occasional activity thereafter until the 16th century.
• Vulsini, at the northern end of the Roman magnetic province, last erupted in 104BC.

An ambiguous eye-witness account exists which may describe an eruption in 114 BC of Monte Albano near Rome, although geological evidence is for the last eruption having occurred 22000 years ago.