Integrative Natural History of Mount Vesuvius & the Gulf of Naples, Part 18: The Phlegrean Fields from a Different Angle | Off Campania, Italy
Taken aboard the USS Little Rock (CG-4). Looking northwestward.
Please keep in mind that this image shows the region as it was a full fifty years ago. I strongly suggest you click on the image above to view it under magnification, to better see the landforms discussed below.
Given the angular separation of the main landforms visible in this shot, my ship must have still been quite close to the Posillipo district of Naples. Sailing a vessel that large in an active roadstead while conducting rudder-testing maneuvers requires alert lookouts and an even more alert conning officer. And I have no doubt our captain, one of the greatest men I’ve ever known, was sitting in his chair on the starboard side of the bridge and watching everything very attentively. Fortunately, we never subsequently found sailboat wreckage stuck in our anchor hawsepipes, the way some supertankers do.
Here the Phlegrean Fields region is somewhat closer at hand than it is in the Part 17 image. The change in orientations and shapes from that post to this one demonstrates just how swiftly mutable and deceptive the look of the land from seaward can be.
In the case of this photo, everything in view is part of the Phlegrean Fields and hence the Campanian mainland. Everything, that is, except for the prominent, cliff-sided high ground in the center. This is Nisida, a small but geologically fascinating island accessible via a causeway. It is the visible portion of a larger, tuff-cone volcano that rises from the seafloor. It formed from an eruption that took place about 3.9 ky ago.
The big drop-off to the right of Nisida is the Coroglio Cliff, the seaward face of the Capo Posillipo ridge. It’s composed mostly of the Trentaremi Tuff (about 22 ky old) and, lying on top of it, the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff (15 ky).
The promontory farthest to the left is Capo Miseno, another tuff cone, which dates to about 3.7 ky ago. Just to its right is the Monte di Procida. Like Miseno, it’s more fully discussed in Part 17. To its right are ridges that are other Phlegrean Fields crater rims.
My main sources for this essay:
- Sbrana, Alessandro, Paola Marianelli, and Giuseppe Pasquini. “The Phlegrean Fields Volcanological Evolution.” Journal of Maps, 17:2 (2021).
- Natale, Jacopo, Enrico Cascella, and Stefano Vitale. “Tracking the Growth and Ddeformation of Fissure Phreatomagmatic Eruptions: Insights from the ca. 3.9 ka Nisida Eruption at Campi Flegrei Caldera, Southern Italy.” Geological Society of America Bulletin (August 2025).
- Matano, Fabio, Sabato Iuliano, Renato Somma, Ermanno Marino, Umberto del Vecchio, Giuseppe Esposito, Flavia Molisso, Germana Scepi, Giuseppe Maria Grimaldi, Antonio Pignalosa, Teresa Caputo, Claudia Troise, Giuseppe De Natale, and Marco Sacchi. “Geostructure of Coroglio Tuff Cliff, Naples (Italy) Derived from Terrestrial Laser Scanner Data.” Journal of Maps 12:3, 407-421 (2015).
The other photos and descriptions of this series can be found in my Integrative Natural History of Mount Vesuvius & the Gulf of Naples album.
Integrative Natural History of Mount Vesuvius & the Gulf of Naples, Part 18: The Phlegrean Fields from a Different Angle | Off Campania, Italy
Taken aboard the USS Little Rock (CG-4). Looking northwestward.
Please keep in mind that this image shows the region as it was a full fifty years ago. I strongly suggest you click on the image above to view it under magnification, to better see the landforms discussed below.
Given the angular separation of the main landforms visible in this shot, my ship must have still been quite close to the Posillipo district of Naples. Sailing a vessel that large in an active roadstead while conducting rudder-testing maneuvers requires alert lookouts and an even more alert conning officer. And I have no doubt our captain, one of the greatest men I’ve ever known, was sitting in his chair on the starboard side of the bridge and watching everything very attentively. Fortunately, we never subsequently found sailboat wreckage stuck in our anchor hawsepipes, the way some supertankers do.
Here the Phlegrean Fields region is somewhat closer at hand than it is in the Part 17 image. The change in orientations and shapes from that post to this one demonstrates just how swiftly mutable and deceptive the look of the land from seaward can be.
In the case of this photo, everything in view is part of the Phlegrean Fields and hence the Campanian mainland. Everything, that is, except for the prominent, cliff-sided high ground in the center. This is Nisida, a small but geologically fascinating island accessible via a causeway. It is the visible portion of a larger, tuff-cone volcano that rises from the seafloor. It formed from an eruption that took place about 3.9 ky ago.
The big drop-off to the right of Nisida is the Coroglio Cliff, the seaward face of the Capo Posillipo ridge. It’s composed mostly of the Trentaremi Tuff (about 22 ky old) and, lying on top of it, the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff (15 ky).
The promontory farthest to the left is Capo Miseno, another tuff cone, which dates to about 3.7 ky ago. Just to its right is the Monte di Procida. Like Miseno, it’s more fully discussed in Part 17. To its right are ridges that are other Phlegrean Fields crater rims.
My main sources for this essay:
- Sbrana, Alessandro, Paola Marianelli, and Giuseppe Pasquini. “The Phlegrean Fields Volcanological Evolution.” Journal of Maps, 17:2 (2021).
- Natale, Jacopo, Enrico Cascella, and Stefano Vitale. “Tracking the Growth and Ddeformation of Fissure Phreatomagmatic Eruptions: Insights from the ca. 3.9 ka Nisida Eruption at Campi Flegrei Caldera, Southern Italy.” Geological Society of America Bulletin (August 2025).
- Matano, Fabio, Sabato Iuliano, Renato Somma, Ermanno Marino, Umberto del Vecchio, Giuseppe Esposito, Flavia Molisso, Germana Scepi, Giuseppe Maria Grimaldi, Antonio Pignalosa, Teresa Caputo, Claudia Troise, Giuseppe De Natale, and Marco Sacchi. “Geostructure of Coroglio Tuff Cliff, Naples (Italy) Derived from Terrestrial Laser Scanner Data.” Journal of Maps 12:3, 407-421 (2015).
The other photos and descriptions of this series can be found in my Integrative Natural History of Mount Vesuvius & the Gulf of Naples album.