Ferdinandea is a volcano lying about 30km south of Sicily. Currently a seamount, eruptions have raised it above sea level several times before erosion has caused it to submerge again.

Its most recent appearance as an island was in July 1831. It was subject to a four-way dispute over its sovereignty, originally being claimed for the United Kingdom and given the name Graham Island. The King of Naples sent Italian ships to the nascent island to claim it for the Bourbon crown, while the French Navy also made a landing and called the island Giulia. Spain also declared its territorial ambitions.

The eruptions of 1831 saw the island increase in size to some 4km². However, it was composed of loose tephra, easily eroded by wave action, and after the end of the eruptive episode it rapidly subsided, disappearing beneath the waves in January 1832, before the issue of its sovereignty could be resolved.

After that it lay dormant for many decades, with its summit just 8m below sea level. In 1986, it was allegedly mistaken for a Libyan submarine and bombed by a U.S. Air Force plane on its way to bomb Tripoli.

In 2002, renewed seismic activity around Ferdinandea led volcanologists to speculate that a new eruptive episode could be imminent, and the seamount might once more become an island. To forestall a renewal of the sovereignty disputes, Italian divers planted a flag on the top of the volcano in advance of its expected resurfacing. However, the seismicity did not lead to volcanic eruptions and as of 2005 Ferdinandea's summit remains only about six meters below sea level.

External links

• Information from 'Volcanoes and Volcanism'
• BBC News article
• Guardian Unlimited article
• Information from Angelo Grifasi's Sicilian Almanac