Volcano alarm in Italy… It can erupt at any time
A sprawling volcano in Italy, home to more than half a million people, has never been more at risk of erupting, according to a new study.
Stefano Carlino, co-author of the study, said the Campi Flegrei (Phlegraean Fields) volcano is not as well known as Mount Vesuvius, but it is extremely dangerous.
Vesuvius wiped Pompeii off the map almost two thousand years ago. Campi Flegrei, near Naples, last erupted in 1538, spewing lava, ash and rock, causing Neanderthals to become extinct.
Unlike many, the volcano is in the shape of a slight depression with a diameter of 12-14 km instead of becoming a traditional mountain. 40,000 people were evacuated from the area when it was reactivated in the early 1980s, but it has been quiet ever since.
IT HAS REACHED THE BREAKING POINT
“We are not saying that there is going to be an eruption, we are saying that the conditions for the eruption are more favourable,” said Christopher Kilburn of University College London. A report published in the journal Nature’s Communications Earth & Environment found that parts of the volcano were stretched almost to the point of breaking.
Kilburn said that even though the volcano is closer to rupturing, that doesn’t necessarily mean there will be an eruption: “Even if the crust cracks, the magma has to be pushed up in the right place for the eruption to happen.”
The researchers said that it is not known for sure what will happen, but it is necessary to be prepared.
Five hundred thousand people live in what Italy’s civil protection agency has designated as the highest risk area. Authorities have drawn up an evacuation plan, in which residents will be transported by their own vehicles or public transport within three days. risk level; green, yellow, orange and red, and 800 thousand people live in the yellow zone.
“The warning level in Pozzuoli is currently yellow,” municipality spokeswoman Giordana Mobilio said, adding that local residents have received warnings for all tremors of magnitude 1.5 or higher.