As a child, Alfredo Colato prepared hard-boiled eggs in the Phlegraean Fields, a volcano near Naples that experts say could erupt due to earthquakes in that region.
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Recent tremors, including one of magnitude 4.2 last week, the strongest in 40 years, have raised concerns among the half a million people living in the risk zone in the event of an eruption.
Alfredo Colato lives in the heart of the Phlegraean Fields region, where the houses overlook the volcanic land on one side and the pretty bay of Pozzuoli on the other.
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The 62-year-old still remembers how he and his childhood friends would wrap eggs in aluminum foil and then bury them in the “solfatara,” amid clouds of volcanic gas rising from the ground.
From the ridge, where the smell of sulfur fills their throats, they looked at Monte Nuovo (the new mountain), which emerged from the last eruption in 1538.
Photo AFP
“If the Phlegraean Fields erupt again, Pozzuoli will fall into the sea,” warns Mr. Colato. “We live in a constant state of fear. “People can’t sleep,” he told AFP.
15 km from 12
The volcano, which spans 15 x 12 km in circumference, features the typical shallow depression left behind after an eruption. It is the largest active caldera (“cauldron” in Spanish) in Europe and lies on the border of the coastal municipalities of Naples and Pozzuoli.
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In this region, the Phlegraean Fields are overlooked by nearby Vesuvius, whose majestic silhouette dominates the Bay of Naples. Famous for being wiped off the map in 79 AD, Pompeii is no longer a threat today.
The Phlegraean Fields, which lack this characteristic cone, should not be underestimated: 40,000 years ago, their eruption was the strongest ever recorded in the Mediterranean and influenced the global climate.
Nevertheless, the region has been densely populated for thousands of years due to its temperate climate, fertile soils and hot springs, which were frequented by Roman emperors in their time.
Their resort, Baiae, is now underwater and a victim of bradyseism, a phenomenon that causes the ground to rise or fall due to underground activity.
Photo AFP
More residents are taking anxiolytics, although some are more afraid of eviction than an outbreak.
“It will be chaos, we will be in the hands of God,” says Felice Galloro, 78, fatalistically.
A resurgence of volcanic activity in the early 1980s led to the evacuation of 40,000 residents, and many in Pozzuoli remain traumatized today.
“It was a ghost town,” recalls Armando Follera, 61, who was evacuated with his mother and spent three years in makeshift accommodation.
According to the Civil Protection Emergency Plan, the risk zone is divided into sections, each linked to an Italian region intended to receive evacuees in the event of a disaster.
The residents of Pozzuoli would thus be sent to Lombardy, a rich northern region whose capital is Milan.
Felice Galloro says he is “ready to die” at home, while Alfredo Colato says taking him from his homeland to the north would “kill him twice.”
Photo AFP
No short-term rash
At the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) observatory, clouds of small red dots on a digital map testify to the numerous earthquakes hitting the region, including another magnitude 4 earthquake on Monday.
According to Sandro De Vita, a 63-year-old volcanologist, the tremors will continue as long as the gases ejected from the magma exert pressure on the surface and cause the ground to crack.
Residents compare the current activity to that of the 1980s, when there could be up to 500 tremors a day, although Mr De Vita says they are less powerful.
He doesn’t expect any tremors larger than magnitude five, which are already potentially dangerous. Vibrations caused by volcanoes are usually superficial and can cause damage to buildings.
In his opinion, the catastrophe scenario, namely the expulsion of lava, ash and stones, is unlikely in the near future.
Possible changes are noticed, “which allows us to warn in the event of an impending outbreak,” assures Mr. De Vita. “People shouldn’t be afraid. Or rather, they should be afraid, but only if we tell them.”