Fumarole B5 ("Cotunnite pit"), Vesuvius fumaroles on eastern crater rim, Ottaviano, Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania, Italyi

Regional Level Types
Fumarole B5 ("Cotunnite pit")	Fumarole
Vesuvius fumaroles on eastern crater rim	Group of Fumaroles
Ottaviano	Commune
Metropolitan City of Naples	Metropolitan City
Campania	Region
Italy	Country

Fossil fumarole (1944 eruption, T ≈ 80°C) on the eastern rim of the Vesuvius great crater. At present only water vapour is the main constituent of the fumarolic gases and formation of mineral species is not observed. In 1952, 8 years after the 1944 eruption, temperature still reach ca. 600°C and in 1960 it settled around 450°C (Parascandola, 1959 and 1960). This fumarole, which produced large amounts of cotunnite, is also known as the "Buca della cotunnite" (literally, "Cotunnite pit") of Parascandola, because a pit was excavated in the 1950s in order to measure temperatures at different depths and observe the cotunnite growth rate.

It is the type locality for:
- parascandolaite, found as a volcanic sublimate on scoria of the 1944 eruption. The mineral is associated with opal, cerussite, mimetite, phoenicochroite, and fluornatrocoulsellite. It appears as transparent colourless to white cubic crystals up to 0.5 mm in length, with a vitreous luster (Demartin et al., 2014);
- sbacchiite, found not as a real sublimate, but rather as a high-temperature encrustation (HF attacked the rock extracting aluminium and calcium). It forms small aggregates of needle-shaped crystals, up to about 60 μm in length, with a very steep bipyramidal habit, elongated along [100] and truncated by the (100) pinacoid. Associated minerals are gearsksutite, usovite, creedite, and opal (Campostrini et al., 2019).

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References