Wednesday, April 9, 2025

7pm EDT

Vivien Clark
Via Zoom – Please contact Gail Larose at glarose0@gmail.com for Zoom link details.

Italy’s supervolcano: the Campi Flegrei (Fiery Fields) also called the Phlegraean Fields

Formed about 40,000 years ago, this still-active caldera volcano is part of the volcanic arc stretching from Etna in Sicily to Vesuvius and the Campi Flegrei. Vivien Clark will describe the geological history of the Campi Flegrei and comment on its influence on Western thought, with specific reference to Vergil, and to medicine, especially in the Middle Ages when the hot springs were used for medicinal purposes. She will conclude with an account of the volcano as a tourist destination, in particular from the 17th to 19th centuries but then mainly forgotten.

Born in Bath, England, Vivien Clark attended the University of Exeter to study botany, zoology and chemistry subsequently teaching biology, general science, geography and physical geography in two high schools before moving to St John’s, Newfoundland with her husband who was appointed to the Classics Department of Memorial University. She held various positions in the Departments of Biology, Biochemistry and Chemistry at Memorial and qualified as an ESL teacher before going to Paris for two years where she held telephone conversations with executives who wished to maintain their knowledge of spoken English. On her return to Newfoundland, she was a peripatetic ESL teacher for grades K to 12 after the influx of refugees from Eastern Europe and others who had come to work in the oil industry in Newfoundland. When her husband retired, she moved with her family to Ottawa where she still lives.