alban Hills

{{Infobox mountain

| name = Alban Hills

| other_name = Colli Albani

| photo = Monte Cavo Visto da castel gandolfo.jpg

| photo_caption = Monte Cavo (the Alban Mount) and Alban Lake

| highest = Maschio delle Faete

| elevation_m = 956

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| location = East of Rome, Italy

| map = Italy

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| coordinates = {{coord|41|43|48|N|12|42|00|E|type:mountain_region:IT_scale:100000|format=dms|display=inline,title}}

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| type = Stratovolcano

| age =

| last_eruption = 5,000 BC

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The Alban Hills ({{langx|it|Colli Albani}}) are the caldera remains of a quiescent volcanic complex in Italy, located {{convert|20|km|mi|abbr=on}} southeast of Rome and about {{convert|24|km|mi|abbr=on}} north of Anzio. The {{cvt|950|m|ft}} high Monte Cavo forms a highly visible peak in the centre of the caldera, but the highest point is Maschio delle Faete approximately {{cvt|2|km|mi}} to the east of Cavo and {{cvt|6|m|ft}} taller. There are subsidiary calderas along the rim of the Alban Hills that contain the lakes Albano and Nemi. The hills are composed of peperino (lapis albanus), a variety of tuff that is useful for construction and provides a mineral-rich substrate for nearby vineyards.

History

The hills, especially around the shores of the lakes, have been popular since prehistoric times. From the 9th to 7th century BC, there were numerous villages (such as the legendary Alba Longa and Tusculum). The area was inhabited by the Latini during the 5th to 3rd centuries BC.

The ancient Romans called Monte Cavo Albanus Mons. On the summit was the sanctuary of Jupiter Latiaris, in which the consuls celebrated the Feriae Latinae, and several generals celebrated victories here during times when they were not accorded regular triumphs in Rome. The foundations and some of the architectural fragments of the temple were still in existence until 1777, when they were used to build the Passionist monastery by Cardinal York,{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Albanus Mons|volume=1|page=487}} but the Via Triumphalis leading up to it can still be seen.

In Roman times, the area was often used by the rich as a way to escape the heat and crowds of Rome, as it is today as shown by the many villas and country houses present.

Towns and cities

The towns and villages in the Alban Hills are known as the Castelli Romani.

Volcanic activity

File:Colli esamarana.JPG

File:Vulcano laziale.png

Examination of deposits have dated the four most recent eruptions to two temporal peaks, around 36,000 and 39,000 years ago.{{Cite journal|author1=Cecconi, Manuela |author2=Scarapazzi, Maurizio |author3=Viggiani, Giulia M. B. |year=2010|title=On the geology and the geotechnical properties of pyroclastic flow deposits of the Colli Albani|journal=Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment|volume=69|issue=2|pages=185–206|doi=10.1007/s10064-009-0250-x|s2cid=128956849 }} The area exhibits small localised earthquake swarms, bradyseism, and release of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide into the atmosphere. The uplift and earthquake swarms have been interpreted as caused by a slowly growing spherical magma chamber 5-6 kilometres below the surface;{{Cite web|author =Behncke, Boris|year=2003|title=Italy's Volcanoes: The Cradle of Volcanology |url=http://boris.vulcanoetna.com/ALBANI.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060213220143/http://boris.vulcanoetna.com/ALBANI.html|archive-date=13 February 2006|url-status=dead}} some think that it may erupt again; if so, there is risk to Rome, which is only 25 to 30 km away.{{Cite journal|author1=Feuillet, N. |author2=Nostro, C. |author3=Chiarabba, C. |author4=Cocco, M. |year=2004|title=Coupling between earthquake swarms and volcanic unrest at the Alban Hills Volcano (central Italy) modeled through elastic stress transfer|journal=Journal of Geophysical Research|volume=119|issue=B2|pages=B02308.1––B02308.16|doi=10.1029/2003JB002419 |bibcode=2004JGRB..109.2308F|doi-access=free}}{{Cite book|author1=Carapezza, M. L. |author2=Barberi, F. |author3=Tarchini, L. |author4=Ranaldi, M. |author5=Ricci, T. |year=2010|chapter=Volcanic hazards of the Colli Albani|editor=Funiciello, R. |editor2=Giordano, G. |title=The Colli Albani Volcano|series=Special Publications of IAVCEI #3|location=London|publisher=Geological Society|pages=279–297|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230561140}}

Plutarch reports that in 406{{nbsp}}BC, Lake Albano surged over the surrounding hills, despite there being no rain nor tributaries flowing into the lake to account for the rise in water level.{{Citation|last1=Plutarch|title=Life of Camillus|publisher=Internet Classics Archive (MIT)|url=http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/camillus.html|access-date=4 February 2014|author1-link=Plutarch}} The ensuing flood destroyed fields and vineyards before eventually pouring into the sea. It is thought to have been a limnic eruption caused by volcanic gases, trapped in sediment at the bottom of the lake and gradually building up until suddenly releasing, causing the water to overflow.{{Citation|last1=Woodward|first1=Jamie |title=The Physical Geography of the Mediterranean|date=7 May 2009|publisher=Oxford University Press (Oxford)|isbn=9780191608414|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B09cbd0L0pwC&pg=PT651|access-date=23 October 2015}}

There is documentary evidence which may describe an eruption in 114 BC, but the absence of Holocene geological deposits has largely discredited it as a volcanic event and instead the account is considered to be a description of a forest fire.

The volcano emits large amounts of carbon dioxide{{Cite journal|author1=Pizzino, L. |author2=Galli, G. |author3=Mancini, C. |author4=Quattrocchi, F. |author5=Scarlato, P. |year=2002|title=Natural Gas Hazard (CO₂, ²²²Rn) within a Quiescent Volcanic Region and Its Relations with Seismotectonics: The Case of the Ciampino-Marino Area (Alban Hills Volcano, Italy)|journal=Natural Hazards|volume=27|issue=3|pages=257–287|doi=10.1023/a:1020398128649|s2cid=128647166 |url=http://www.ieaghg.org/docs/ciampino.pdf}} which can potentially reach lethal concentrations if it accumulates in depressions in the ground in the absence of wind. The asphyxiation of 29 cows in September 1999 prompted a detailed survey, which found that concentration of the gas at 1.5 m above the ground in a residential area on the northwestern flank sometimes exceeded the occupational health threshold of 0.5%.{{Cite web|title=Occupational Health Guideline for Carbon Dioxide|year=1975|publisher=National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, United States Center for Disease Control|url=https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/81-123/pdfs/0103.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090607175645/http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/81-123/pdfs/0103.pdf|archive-date=7 June 2009|url-status=live}} Eight sheep were killed in a similar incident in October 2001.{{Cite book|author1=Benson, Sally |author2=Cook, Peter|chapter=Chapter 5: Underground geological storage|editor=Arbanades, Juan Carlos|year=2005|title=IPCC Special Report on Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage|location=Cambridge, England|publisher=Cambridge University Press for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change|pages=195–276, page 249|isbn=978-0-521-86643-9|url=http://www.ipcc.ch/activity/srccs/SRCCS_Chapter5.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060602115410/http://www.ipcc.ch/activity/srccs/SRCCS_Chapter5.pdf|archive-date=2 June 2006|url-status=dead|display-authors=etal}} citing {{Cite journal|author1=Carapezza, M. L. |author2=Badalamenti, B. |author3=Cavarra, L. |author4=Scalzo, A. |year=2003|title=Gas hazard assessment in a densely inhabited area of Colli Albani Volcano (Cava dei Selci, Roma)|journal=Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research|volume=123|issue=1/2|pages=81–94|doi=10.1016/S0377-0273(03)00029-5|bibcode=2003JVGR..123...81C}}

People

File:Louis Gurlitt - Albaner Berge.jpg, Alban Hills (1850)]]

Writers and artists who have produced work about this area include:

Thomas Ashby, archaeologist, wrote The Roman Campagna in Classic Time
William Brockedon painter and illustrator of guide-books
George Gordon Byron in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
Charles Coleman painter
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Italian Journey
Louis Gurlitt, German painter
Jacob Philipp Hackert, German painter
Gavin Hamilton, artist and antiquarian, painter and archaeologist, in Genzano and Lanuvio (18th century)
James Duffield Harding in Tourist in Italy
John Henry Henshall watercolor painter
Richard Colt Hoare in A classical tour through Italy and Sicily
Ellis Cornelia Knight, writer and painter in Description of Latium or La Campagna di Roma
Edward Lear painter and lithographer
William Leighton Leitch watercolor painter in Lanuvio
Charles H. Poingdestre painter
John Singer Sargent, painter in Villa Torlonia - Frascati
Stendhal, writer, in Albano Laziale, Chroniques italiennes (1836–1839): L'Abbesse de Castro
J. M. W. Turner, RA, British painter
Georgina E. Troutbeck, Rambles in Rome - London - ed. Mills & Boon - 1914
Richard Voss, German dramatist and novelist
Clara Louisa Wells in The Alban Hills ed. 1878

Panorama

References

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite journal|author=Freda, Carmela |year=2006 |title=Eruptive history and petrologic evolution of the Albano multiple maar (Alban Hills, Central Italy)

| url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226490502

| access-date = 2019-05-17 | display-authors=etal |bibcode=2006BVol...68..567F |s2cid=128473558 }}

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