Marsili

Marsili is a large undersea volcano in the Tyrrhenian Sea, about 175 kilometers (109 mi) south of Naples. The seamount is about 3,000 m (9,800 feet) tall; its peak and crater are about 450 m below the sea surface. Though it has not erupted in recorded history, volcanologists believe that Marsili is a relatively fragile-walled structure, made of low-density and unstable rocks, fed by the underlying shallow magma chamber. Volcanologists with the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) announced on March 29, 2010 that Marsili could erupt at any time, and might experience a catastrophic collapse that would suddenly release vast amounts of magma in an undersea eruption and landslide that could trigger destructive tsunamis on the Italian coast and nearby Mediterranean coastlines.

Geomorphology

Mt. Marsili belongs to the Aeolian Islands Volcanic arc, being 70 kilometers long and 30 kilometer wide (covering a 2100 square km area) it is the largest active volcano of the chain, larger than Mount Etna. It was discovered during the 1920s and named after Italian geologist Luigi Ferdinando Marsili. Extensive studies have been carried on only since 2005 as the Italian National Research Council started a vulcanology research program on the site.

Marsili (surname)

Marsili is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: