Important Takeaways:
- ‘Be prepared for all outcomes’: Inside the saga of a supervolcano that’s waking up
- The most dangerous volcanic threat in Italy right now is one you’ve probably never heard of: Campi Flegrei, or the Phlegraean Fields.
- More than 500,000 of the locals live in what Italy’s civil protection agency has deemed a “red zone,” an area encompassing 18 towns that’s at highest risk in the event of an eruption. An additional 3 million residents of Naples live immediately outside the eastern edge of the caldera, according to the civil protection agency.
- Seismic activity in the area has been intensifying since December of 2022
- The entire volcanic zone is also experiencing a surge in earthquakes that has rattled nerves and sent residents seeking safety out into the streets.
- So far in 2023 Campi Flegrei has recorded more than 3,450 earthquakes, 1,118 of which occurred in August alone. This is more than triple the previous year’s total, according to INGV’s data. More than 500 earthquakes occurred in October, the strongest of which hit 4.0 magnitude, followed by a dozen aftershocks.
- “We can’t yet say for sure what will happen. The important point is to be prepared for all outcomes.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Swarm of quakes besets Italian town as super volcano rumbles
- Over the past weeks the government has been planning for a possible mass evacuation of tens of thousands of people who live around the vast volcanic area known as the Campi Flegrei, or Phlegraean Fields, from the ancient Greek word for burning.
- Sulphurous fumes escape from the surface, giving the area a surreal look and making it a magnet for tourists
- Residents have become used to the smell, the fumes and the trembling. There were more than a thousand quakes in September, most of them minor.
- But a 4.2 magnitude earthquake on Sept. 27, the strongest jolt in more than 40 years to rattle the volcanic field, sparked fears that what scientists call a “seismic crisis” may be underway for the first time since the early 1980s
- “Even those small ones (quakes) make us afraid,” she said. “We are worried because (we are supposed to) run away. But where do we go? Where? This is the situation. We’re on edge.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Earthquakes hit Italy super volcano, raising specter of evacuations
- A leading volcanologist has warned that mass evacuations might be needed in a town close to Naples, which sits on a so-called Super Volcano that has been hit by hundreds of small earthquakes in recent weeks.
- A 4.2 magnitude earthquake struck the area early on Wednesday, the strongest jolt in 40 years to rattle the volcanic field, known as the Campi Flegrei or Phlegraean Fields from the Greek word for burning.
- CampiFlegrei sits across the bay of Naples from Pompeii, where thousands were incinerated by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. However, it is a much bigger volcano than Vesuvius and if it ever exploded at full force could kill millions.
- Experts say there is no imminent threat of an eruption, but Giuseppe De Natale, the former head of the Vesuvius observatory at the National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), called for urgent checks on buildings after repeated seismic activity that is pushing up the ground by 1.5 cm (0.59 inches) a month.
- The Campi Flegrei are similar to the Yellowstone caldera in the U.S. state of Wyoming but of more concern because they are in an area populated by around 3 million people in the Naples hinterland.
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