Posted on 02/27/2016 12:39:22 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Great info! Of course, there *may* be a downside to getting rid of the louse via this method...
Some kind of connection between soil fertility and the volcano was understood in Roman times. This pre-eruption wall painting shows Dionysus and Vesuvius. The caption I used for the ALT tag on this image came from the British Museum page, these images come from Wikipedia:
http://volcanology.geol.ucsb.edu/soil.htm
“Why do people live on dangerous volcanoes? The main reason is the rich volcanic soil. People are willing to take high-risk gambles for the most basic things of life — especially food. ...
One example of the effect of volcanoes on agricultural lands is in Italy. Except for the volcanic region around Naples, farming in southern Italy is exceedingly difficult because limestone forms the basement rock and the soil is generally quite poor. But the region around Naples, which includes Mount Vesuvius, is very rich mainly because of two large eruptions 35,000 and 12000 years ago that left the region blanketed with very thick deposits of tephra which has since weathered to rich soils. Part of this area includes Mount Vesuvius. The region has been intensively cultivated since before the birth of Christ. The land is planted with vines, vegetables, or flowers. Every square foot of this rich soil is used. For example, even a small vineyard will have, in addition to grapes and spring beans on the trellises, fava beans, cauliflower and onions between the trellis rows, and the vineyard margin rimmed with orange and lemon trees, herbs, and flowers. It also is a huge tomato growing region.”
If you garden, there are places online you can obtain bags of volcanic ash for gardening.
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