Appenino Napoletano , Italy : This photograph of the Appenino Napoletano is part of an 18-frame stereophoto mapping strip that spans the entire  Appenine mountain chain which extend from northern Italy down the boot of the peninsula and westward into Sicily. The almost 1200-km-long belt of volcanoes and folded/faulted mountains is a result of the ongoing collision of Africa and Eurasia, accompanied by the progressive closing of the Mediterranean Sea. East-southeast of Napoli (Naples) stands the imposing cone of Vesuvius (middle-left), which erupted explosively in 79 A.D. to bury Pompeii and Herculaneum. The Bay of Naples, on the left side of the image, is separated from the Gulf of Salerno, in the middle, by the Sorrento Peninsula.   [ZOOM IN]