Campi Flegrei del Mar di Sicilia (Phlegraean Fields of the Sicily Sea) is composed of a group of submarine volcanoes SW of Sicily. The volcanoes were constructed within a submarine depression about 1 km deep in the Strait of Sicily between the SW coast of Sicily and the NE tip of Tunisia, forming submarine banks that are capped by cones that rise to near sea level. Submarine eruptions were reported at the Giulia-Ferdinandeo and Pinne banks during the first Punic war (264-241 BCE), and from the 17th to 20th centuries, sometimes producing ephemeral islands. The 1831 eruption at Ferdinandea (also known as Graham in English or Giulia/Julia in French) produced an ephemeral island that was promptly claimed by the navies of France, Britain, Spain, and Italy.
An eruption column rises above Graham Island (Giulia Ferdinandeo) in the Sicilian Sea in 1831. A new island was formed that was promptly claimed by Italy, France, Britain, and Spain. All territorial claims came to naught when the island quickly eroded to beneath the sea surface after the eruption ended. Graham Island (also known as Ferdinandeo Bank) is part of the Campi Flegrei del Mar di Sicilia (Phlegraean Fields of the Sicily Sea), a group of submarine volcanoes constructed within a depression about 1000 m deep SW of Sicily.
From the collection of Maurice and Katia Krafft (published in Simkin and Siebert, 1994).
Last updated 2019-08-04 00:28:02
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