MAGNETIC STRATIGRAPHY OF VESUVIUS PRODUCTS II - MEDIEVAL LAVAS

Within the framework of an extensive palaeomagnetic survey of Vesuvius products 67 sun-orientated samples from 5 lava hows, presumably empla ced in medieval times, have been collected in Torre del Greco: 3 flows from the lava flow sequence at the Villa Inglese quarry, stratigraphi cally below pyroclastics of AD 1631, and the remaining 2 from nearby o utcrops at Scogli di Prota and Torre Bassano, respectively. The linear ity analysis, carried out using very stringent criteria on at least 6 specimens per site subjected to either PAFD or PTD, has allowed us to define clearly the characteristic magnetisation patterns. Their within site mean directions define a SVC path covering a time interval of a few hundred years around AD 1000, as suggested by a comparison with pa rt of the transferred Etna SVC. The time interval of AD 968-AD 1037 pr eviously suggested for the lava flows investigated may be too narrow a nd whilst the Torre Bassano lava flow can be correlated with one of th e Villa Inglese quarry lava flows investigated, the Scogli di Prota la va flow is the youngest of all. (C) 1998 INQUA/Elsevier Science Ltd. A ll rights reserved.