The Vulture rises imposingly, isolated as it is between the plains.
The ancient mountain, dear to the Latin poet Horace, is a volcano. From the time of its formation, some 750,000 years ago, it has been the undisputed leader in geographical, botanical, zoological and anthropological events in the surrounding natural environment.
Since its last eruption, 125,000 years ago, the living landscape has been slowly but steadily developing, through glaciations and a fascinating natural and human history. One exceptional witness is a butterfly, a Miocene relict, a living fossil: the European Bramea, which still exists after millions of years in its ancient habitat in a small wood in Vulture.
The entire massif is included in the National Inventory of Geosites. Its collapsed caldera, completely reforested, with the two Monticchio lakes below, makes up the Zona Speciale di Conservazione (ZSC) Monte Vulture (Monte Vulture Special Area of Conservation).
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Vulture's eruptive history began more than 700,000 years ago. It is the only Italian volcano that is located on the eastern side of the Apennine chain.
The volcanic structure has a very complex morphology.It was created through several alternating phases of construction and destruction, so its shape is not immediately recognisable as the classic volcanic cone shape. Cratering, collapse, and tectonic phases are the forces that have affected its appearance. The eruptions during its history have also been very variable: explosive, Strombolian, but also effusive and hydromagmatic.
The eruptive activity did not only take place repeatedly from a single vent (as in the case of the morphostructural form known as Vulture-San Michele), but also from multiple eruptive centres, which were often monogenetic, such as the one that gave rise to the lava flow on which the ancient town of Melfi stands, including its castle, or those that led to the formation of the lakes as we know them today.
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Lago Piccolo and Lago Grande di Monticchio are fed by both groundwater and rainwater. The waters of the 'Piccolo' flow into the 'Grande' through an artificial canal, while the waters of the latter reservoir, via the Torrente Laghi, flow into the Ofanto, the border between Campania and Basilicata.
The shores of the Piccolo have no beach, almost as if the forest were falling into them, while the Grande is surrounded by large areas that are often flooded, causing swamping, but also an extraordinary biodiversity.
A recent bathymetric measurement (2015) established a maximum depth of approximately 44 metres for Lago Piccolo and approximately 40 metres for Lago Grande.
The Monticchio lakes have been included in the Euromaars Project (EU), aimed at reconstructing the climatic history of the Quaternary period by analysing the sediments of several European lake basins, as well as the European Lake Drilling Project (ELDP) and the Past Global Changes (PAGES) of the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP). For many years, the GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) in Potsdam (Germany) has been conducting multidisciplinary investigations into the sediments of Lago Grande.
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Le sorgenti vulturine si possono distinguere in due gruppi: quelle con acque poco mineralizzate e povere di CO2 e quelle con acque mineralizzate e ricche di CO2.
Esse emergono su tutto il monte, da poco sotto la sommità fino alla base dell’apparato vulcanico. Hanno età molto differenti e, sebbene vi siano falde basali sovrapposte, queste sono tutte intercomunicanti a grande scala. Le piccole sorgenti d’alta quota sono invece alimentate da falde sospese.
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Il paesaggio del Vulture è particolarmente diversificato.
Le sue aree naturali dimostrano un’eccezionale biodiversità oggetto di studi da parte di numerosi botanici che, nel corso tempo, si sono avvicendati tra questi boschi. Essi hanno lasciato interessanti testimonianze delle loro peregrinazioni, redigendo inventari sulla flora che ricopre questo Monte. Oggi tali studi sono di estremo significato: permettono di comprendere l’evoluzione del sito e con essa di portare alla luce i profondi cambianti che l’hanno interessato.
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Nel Vulture si segnala la presenza di numerosi taxa di notevole interesse conservazionistico e biogeografico.
Il pungitopo (Ruscus aculeatus) è inserito nella Direttiva “Habitat” 92/43/CEE. Altre specie sono protette a livello regionale dal D.P.G.R. n. 55 del 18 marzo 2005, il decreto che identifica le specie della flora regionale prioritariamente da salvaguardare e il diverso grado di protezione loro riservato, in funzione dell’attuale stato di conservazione e della loro vulnerabilità.
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