“THOSE BOMBASTIC ITALIAN VOLCANOES” EXPLAINED AT JANUARY 31, 2016 PROGRAM
After being snowed in during the Blizzard of 2016, everyone was glad to get out and we ended up with a big turnout for our first program of the year, on Sunday, January 31, 2016. About 114 people showed up for what turned out to be a very interesting and entertaining talk by geologist Dr. Barry Centini, who gave us a lot of good information with a few jokes thrown in for good measure.
AMHS Past President Dick DiBuono had heard Dr. Centini speak before, and so he knew Dr. Centini was a great speaker—informed, interesting, and, as you can tell by the title of his talk (“Those Bombastic Italian Volcanoes”) has a great sense of humor—our kind of guy!! The topic was how the geography of Italy had a big role in shaping its history.
The topic was very relevant as we can see by the news reports in early December of a dramatic eruption of Mt. Etna, the highest and most active volcano in Europe. This eruption, ranking among the most violent by Etna in decades, saw “fountains” reach heights of over 1 kilometer although some jets were as high as 3 kilometers above the summit of the volcano.
Ash fell near Messina and even as far as Reggio Calabria on the mainland. And as you may know, it’s not a rare occurrence for the Catania airport—Italy’s third-busiest airport—to be shut down due to an eruption by Mt. Etna. Dr. Centini started by telling us that he is one-quarter Italian since his grandfather was from Aquasanta Terme in Le Marche, and his grandfather came here through Ellis Island in the early 1900s, and at the age of 16 with no English, to work on the Baltimore railroad. Fast forward 100 years or so and Dr. Centini, having earned a Ph.D. in geology, was giving us a talk on how the geography of Italy helped shape its history. Dr. Centini taught geology at Emory University, worked with the U.S. Army and was a senior research engineer for SRI International.
As you can tell by the title of his talk, he likes to add a little humor to a serious subject. Without getting too technical, Dr. Centini gave us enough information in his powerpoint presentation to help us understand the points he was making. He told us about the geology of the earth going back 180 million years, and about how the tectonic plates shifted over the millennia. He explained that Italy has more volcanic eruptions and earthquakes than any other country on earth, and he showed us a map to illustrate his point. He said that in Italy, one problem is that a lot of the buildings are centuries old and not built to withstand earthquakes, and another problem is that Italy just doesn’t have the money to repair earthquake damage. In fact, Dr. Centini told us that the volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are certain to come, it’s just a question of when, not if. And in fact there will certainly be some huge earthquakes, although not in our lifetimes.
Scientists are sure of that, he said, adding that he worries about the effects on the world economy. As far as past volcanic activity, Dr. Centini showed pictures of Ercolano and the result of Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption centuries ago. More recently, he said, in 1944 Vesuvius erupted and delayed the Allied landing. Nowadays, he said, Naples has an evacuation plan in case Vesuvius erupts whereby 600,000 people would be evacuated in 7 days (some audience members from the Naples area commented the plan really consists of “prayer”). We also learned about the volcanoes in the Aeolian Islands, which are all volcanic, and he noted that Stromboli is one of the most active volcanoes in the world.
And of course he talked about Mt. Etna near Catania, Sicily, where eruptions sometimes shut down the Catania airport, and how amazing that an adventurous skier can actually ski on the snow-covered Mt. Etna. Dr. Centini noted that volcanoes and earthquakes go hand in hand. He told us about the big earthquake in Messina, Sicily, in 1908, which killed 90,000 people and which was estimated to be 7.1 on the Richter scale (which didn’t exist then). He also said an earthquake in Molise in 1805 killed 5,000 people and was estimated to be 6.6 on the Richter scale. In addition, we learned more about the disastrous earthquake in L’Aquila in April 2009.
Dr. Centini showed us pictures of the L’Aquila earthquake and he explained that L’Aquila was built on ancient lakebeds, which made it especially susceptible to earthquake damage. He criticized the prosecution of Italian scientists over their failure to give warnings about the earthquakes, saying that as of now, there is no perfect way to predict earthquakes. He explained that there are earthquakes that reach 9 on the Richter scale, but they happen under the seas or oceans. Earthquakes are much in the news recently too, and of course now we have the most recent big earthquake in Tainan, Taiwan in February 2016. Before the program, we had a delicious lunch catered by Fontina Grille.
Many thanks to Lynn Sorbara for arranging the lunch, and to the many volunteers who helped set up, serve, and clean up including Edvige D’Andrea, Amy & Mateo DiFiore, Anna Maria DiPilla, Mark Lino, Albert Paolantonio, and Sam Yothers. We had a brief business meeting before the lunch began, during which AMHS President Maria D’Andrea took the oath of office for a new term as our President, and the other officers and board members were also installed. Then AMHS Scholarship Committee Chairman Dick DiBuono called on our scholarship winner, Maria LaVerghetta, to say a few words.
Maria told us about her exciting time at the University of Perugia and how she reconnected with her relatives in Vasto, Abruzzo, during her stay in Italy. Maria is now in the graduate program at the University of Maryland and is now qualified to teach Italian. Congratulations, Maria. All of us are very proud of you!! At the end of the program, a raffle was held and $273 was collected for the AMHS Scholarship Fund. Our heartfelt thanks to the donors for the raffle items and to those who bought tickets.