The book by Giovan Battista Alfano (16-11.00) and Antonio Parascandola ( 328-1878) Vesuvius and its eruptions, edited by Corrado Buondonno, with commentary by Giuseppe Luongo, for the types of Doppiovoce Editore. Born in 1928 and passed away this year, Corrado Buondonno was Professor of Agricultural Chemistry and Geopedology at the University of Naples "Federico II", the same where Antonio Parascandola, one of the authors of the text on Vesuvius, also taught.
It is a voluminous co-written work from which emerges the cultural climate in which volcanological research was developed in Naples. Thanks to the presence of the Vesuvian Observatory, Volcanology then followed two paths: one favoring the 'sciences of processes' and the other the 'sciences of laws', i.e. one giving greater weight to observations, the other to theoretical models. Alfano and Parascandola will develop their research according to a paradigm introduced by Giuseppe Mercalli (1850-1914), a pupil of Antonio Stoppani (1824-1891).
The text was published in its original version to prevent the Authors' thoughts from being modified, causing the work to lose its interesting historical value as evidence of the cultural climate in which Earth Sciences developed in the last century up to the 60s, when the new paradigm of plate tectonics took hold. Following this choice, the reader was updated on the new theories and interpretations with explanatory notes.
The date of the presentation of the volume, 16 December, has a symbolic value as the eruption of 1631 occurs, with which the eruptive cycle began and then concluded with the 1944 event.
Speakers will be: the Director of the Vesuvius Observatory-INGV Joseph DeNatale; il Director of the Department of Agriculture - University of Naples Federico II, Paul Masi; the Director of the Department of Earth, Environment and Resources Sciences - University of Naples Frederick II,Piergiulio Cappelletti; il President of the Vesuvius National Park, Hugh Leone; the Head of the Volcanic Risk sector of the Civil Protection Department Mauro Rossi; and other university teachers.
The event is part of the information and dissemination program on the problems of Volcanic Risk in the Neapolitan area promoted by the Vesuvius Observatory Section of INGV.