THE RED ZONE OF VESUVIUS

 Ashes were already falling, hotter and thicker as the ships drew near, followed by bits of pumice and blackened stones, charred and cracked by the flames…
— From the letters of Pliny the Younger on the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D.79

The Red Zone of Vesuvius continues my long-term photographic study of tectonic plate boundaries. Tectonic plates slide along the fluid mantle of our earth, underneath our oceans, our land, our homes.  Most geologic phenomenon occurs along the plate edges which shift, erupt, and tremble. Their behavior is for the most part unpredictable, and wholly uncontainable. And while boundaries upon the land are often contested, politicized, and fought over, tectonic plate boundaries remain immune to human efforts of control. Vesuvius is part of the Campanian volcanic arc, a line of volcanoes that formed over a subduction zone created by the convergence of the African and Eurasian plates.  It sits in the crater of the ancient Somma volcano, and last erupted in 1944.  When volcanoes erupt, magma (hot liquid rock) rises up from the core of the planet and punctures the earth’s crust.  Vesuvius has a tendency towards violent eruptions, and it is the only volcano on the European mainland to have erupted within the last hundred years.  The volcano is most famous for the eruption which completely buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum under layers of volcanic ash and pumice A.D. 79.  Pliny the Younger, in his eyewitness account wrote: “We were terrified to see everything changed, buried deep in ashes like snowdrifts.” The terror and destruction of that event continues to fascinate and horrify to this day. The Vesuvius Red Zone in Naples, Italy is a legal designation, formally calling upon residents to acknowledge the vulnerability of their location and to make preparations for a safe evacuation in case of an eruption.  Over 600,000 people reside within this danger zone, making it one of the most densely populated volcanic regions in the world.  It’s an uneven, jagged, difficult terrain, nonetheless, one filled with life and growth.  Farming in southern Italy is generally exceedingly difficult given poor soil conditions, yet the region around Naples is an outlier.  Rich in minerals and nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, the soil is fertile due to the weathering of the deposits of tephra, ash, and lava from past eruptions.  Vineyards, olive groves and tomatoes abound.  The friable soil also acts as a sponge, soaking up and storing rainwater which is then slowly released during the dry summers allowing for the vines, vegetables, flowers and herbs to thrive. The photographs in my series reflect upon the geological violence of the past, the vibrancy of the present, and the possibility of future volcanic catastrophe. The Red Zone of Vesuvius documents the volcanic and the human, the fertility of the garden and the preserved fragments of an excavated past, and the power of fire to both destroy and renew.