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Mt. Vesuvius is a stratovolcano (periodic, explosive eruptions and a steep profile) It is a steep conical volcano. Its structure has been built up of solidified lava, pumice, and ash, one layer at a time: a legacy of all the eruptions of the volcano over time. Because of its layered structure, it is also known as a composite volcano, a subtype. Lastly, because it began as a new cone that partially filled, then filled and overflowed an existing caldera), in this particular case, that of Mt. Somma,* it is commonly, though erroneously called, a somma volcano, but the somma volcano is really the structure that underlies the new structure, a sub-subtype.


*This is the namesake of all such volcanoes. Now all volcanoes that spawn new cones, partially filling their calderas, are called, somma volcanoes. When the new cones outgrow the old calderas they are given names of their own. Then, the underlying structure remains the somma volcano.

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12y ago

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