[ThunderSleeps]

A volcano outside Rome, long thought extinct, is rumbling to life. But don't panic: The volcano isn't likely to blow its top for at least another 1,000 years.

Anyone else not exactly comforted by the thought "not likely" etc. etc. - from the same guys who said it was extinct? ;-)

I don't think any volcanoes are ever really extinct. They just vary the time between eruptions from a few hours or days to maybe a few centuries...

[Nailbiter]

Hope for the best prepare for the worst

[samtheman]

I don’t think any volcanoes are ever really extinct.

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I think you are right. Plate tectonics. Constant motion down there.

[Little Pig]

There are indeed extinct volcanoes, such as the one that created Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. There’s one near my wife’s parents’ city in India that’s so old all you can see is the scar on the ground where it used to be. The threshold seems to be 10,000 years. If it’s erupted in the last 10,000, it’s considered “active”. If it’s been more than 10,000 years, but it has the potential to erupt again, it’s “dormant”. If it doesn’t look like it could ever erupt again, it’s extinct. This one near Rome was probably considered “dormant”, but the usual journalistic accuracy turned that into extinct.

I guess it’s possible that whatever vent created Devil’s Tower could come back to life, but I would hazard a SWAG that it would be considered a new volcano, rather than the original one coming back. Ditto that one in India.

[Calvin Locke]

Those damn “extinct” Italian volcanos. During WWII, Mt. Vesuvius erupted damaging or destroying dozens of B-25s.

[SES1066]

I don't think any volcanoes are ever really extinct. They just vary the time between eruptions from a few hours or days to maybe a few centuries...

Well I think you are right for volcanos located at the tectonic boundaries (aka "Ring of Fire" and other areas) but other volcanos like the Hawaiian Islands other than "Big Island" are about as extinct as you can get as they move off of that mantle plume / hot spot!