Ferdinandea

This article describes a former island. For the Catholic German Student Union Ferdinandea-Prague to Heidelberg see KDStV Ferdinandea (Prague) Heidelberg .

Coordinates: 37 ° 10 '  N , 12 ° 43'  E

Ferdinandea​

Italy

Ferdinandea (Nerita), also called Isola Ferdinandea , was an island in the Mediterranean Sea that was first sighted on July 10, 1831, was created by a volcanic eruption, but soon disappeared again . It is the crater of the submarine Förstner volcano and is around 60 km from the southwest coast of Sicily , between the island of Pantelleria and the Sicilian city of Sciacca , on the edge of a primeval river that flowed into the western Mediterranean basin. Ferdinandea was in a place marked earlier by volcanic phenomena. The island was given seven names because different countries claimed it: Ferdinandea, Sciacca, Nertita, Corrao, Hotham, Giulia and Graham. According to recent studies, today's underwater volcano on this former island is part of an undersea volcanic massif on which the underwater volcano Empedocles is located a little further east .

history

On July 8th, Francesco Trefiletti was the first to observe the beginning volcanic eruption at close range. Later smoke, ash and slag were emitted, and a small island with a wall-like crater rim formed before the eyes of the German geologist and volcanologist Friedrich Hoffmann (1797–1836) and Constant Prévost . Hoffmann approached the island on July 24th. The island reached a circumference of 5,000 meters and a maximum height of 63 meters at the end of activities in August.

By the end of the eruption, research expeditions from various European countries had arrived on the island. Hoffmann named it after King Ferdinand II. The volcanic island was also formally taken possession of on August 3, 1831 by the British captain Senhouse, who named the island Graham Island . This threatened to become the bone of contention between England and Naples . On August 19, 1831, the English Vice Admiral and Governor of the British colony of Malta , Sir Henry Hotham , crossed the volcanic island with several warships and sent a British research team led by George Walter Smythe to the northeast side of the island. France also got involved in the disputes and named the island Giulia because it was created on a July day. Numerous tourists also went to the geological attraction on board chartered fishing boats. However, since the island was made up of loose material with no connecting lava , the waves soon began their work of destruction after the eruptions had subsided in August 1831.

As early as December of that year, the island disappeared again below sea level as a result of the surf , and the existing undersea cone flattened out, but remained as a shoal. Around 1888 it was about five meters deep, later about six to eight meters deep.

The island continued to play no role until it was mistakenly mistaken for a Libyan submarine by a patrolling US bomber in 1986 and depth charges were thrown at it.

In 2002, increased seismic activities were registered around Ferdinandea, which led to the suspicion of a possible renewed eruption of the volcano. In order to prevent possible renewed disputes, Italian divers installed a large sign on the tip of the sea volcano, which is intended to underpin the Italian claim. However, there were no further eruptions until early 2005.

Pictures from August 6, 1831

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Trivia

In the novel Master Antifers Wonderful Adventures by the French writer Jules Verne , treasure was buried there during the short time the island rose above sea level.

literature

• George Walter Smythe: Views and Description of the late Volcanic Island off the coast of Sicily. London 1832
• Friedrich Hoffmann: Geognostic observations . Berlin 1839
• Johann Christian Poggendorff : About the volcanic island formed in the Mediterranean Sea, called Corrao, Nerita, Isola Ferdinandea, Graham Island, Hotham Island and Julia, together with some news about other crater-shaped islands of similar origin. In: Annalen der Physik und Chemie , Volume 100 (= Pogg. Ann. 24), pp. 65ff. Leipzig 1843. Digitized

Web links

Commons : Ferdinandea  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Xaver Frühbeis: "Steaming cairn" in the sea , information from Deutschlandfunk on Ferdinandea
• Volcano of the sea depth

Individual evidence

1. ↑ About the new volcano in the Mediterranean Sea . In: Allgemeine Preussische Staats-Zeitung . No. 268 , September 27, 1831.
2. ↑ H .: About the new volcano in the Mediterranean Sea (conclusion) . In: Allgemeine Preussische Staats-Zeitung . No. 269 , September 28, 1831.
3. ↑ August WF Schultz: About the new volcano on the southwest coast of Sicily . In: Allgemeine Preussische Staats-Zeitung . No. 234 , August 24, 1831.
4. ↑ Ulli Kulke: The island is ripe. In: Welt online . December 2, 2002, accessed on March 16, 2017 : “Early this morning on April 15, 1986, they attacked. US fighter jets on the way to Libya. "