Pepper Diverticulosis

Maccalube The Earth Terrapelata (St. Barbara)
About five miles from Caltanissetta lies the village of St. Barbara, built to house the families of the miners. In the vicinity of the town are the "Maccalube. The term derives from
Maccalube maqlub, flipping, and indicates the characteristic phenomenon of turning over the soil that occurs periodically due to the accumulation of compressed gases underground. The volcanoes are small craters of mud into which cavity filled with muddy water, appear real esbollizioni that can reach a temperature ranging between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius, with leakage of lightly salted water, emulsified with methane mixed with carbon dioxide and traces of other gases, including sulfur dioxide also.
A small road leads to the dirt area that looks like a circular plateau that turns slightly, given the nature of the clay soil, white in summer and gray for the rest of the year, consisting of clay deposits recorded by a dense network of small rivulets paths during the winter period, from rainwater.
The white-gray that the hill kept for most of the year, the multitude of small mud cones (volcanoes) tall, exceptionally up to a meter (up to 60 years, now almost not seen), Grey, overflowing with mud, reminiscent of a lunar landscape.
The low rainfall and the poverty of the soils have fostered around the hill, the establishment of a vegetation consisting of herbaceous plants, predominantly represented by a large number of endemic species such as Aster Sorrento and Lavatera, the Lygeum Spartum and Salsola, a species which has its locus classicus in Maccalube.
The existence of small ponds, some of which gas bubbles are formed continuously, facilitates the development of a significant wildlife entomologica, la presenza di un'abbondante popolazione di rettili e la riproduzione di anfibi.
Il fenomeno geologico delle Maccalube è dovuto alla fuoriuscita di gas, prevalentemente costituito da metano, che dalle viscere della terra, attraverso fessure dei terreno, trascina con sé, verso l'alto, acqua e sedimenti argillosi che, depositandosi in superficie, danno luogo ai caratteristici coni di fango dalla cui sommità fuoriesce il gas, e spesso visto la presenza di zolfo si avverte un acre vapore sulfureo, pungente che stringe la gola. Queste piccole eruzioni non hanno interessi applicativi; tuttavia possono servire ad indirizzare per la giusta via della conoscenza delle caratteristiche del sottosuolo, che si sa ricadere in pieno centro the great pit Miocene of central Sicily. It is possible that the gases escaping from volcanoes, come from oil and gas reserves, placed at great depth. , Such as those of Girgenti, but much less important.



We return back soon and soon blossomed into a huge loop around which rise the bald head of dry mountains that extend or are piled up visibly horizon, under a low sky where clouds heavy continuous strip. The coasts are smoking here and there, and down in huge funnel that we can see, everything is the overlap of mounds bruises, marbled with yellow efflorescence, whitish or red; Comitini as they are drilled and smoking forever.