To divide
For months, the Phlegrean Fields supervolcano caused people west of Naples to panic with constant tremors. Now Vesuvius suddenly appears.
Naples – What happens under the Bay of Naples? Since Wednesday (October 4), there have been almost no noticeable tremors beneath the Italian supervolcano, which has the potential to explode a new 16-kilometre-diameter crater around the Neapolitan suburb of Pozzuoli and seal a devastated region with 3.5 million of inhabitants.
Previously, several moderate tremors of up to magnitude 4.2 kept people on alert for months. There is fear and also the real danger that a serious earthquake or even a powerful volcanic eruption could occur. But suddenly the supervolcano west of Naples went quiet.
Supervolcano in Italy: Vesuvius has already caused a huge catastrophe
The last eruption of Vesuvius in 1944. © Facebook/Giovanni Manfredonia
But its prominent neighbor, Vesuvius, makes people sit up and take notice: the volcano is located on the eastern outskirts of Naples, also in the middle of the settlement area for hundreds of thousands of people. In 79 AD, a devastating eruption of the volcano destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae, and other settlements. The number of deaths is estimated at up to 5,000 – an enormous number of people for the time.
As soon as the Phlegrean Fields became quieter, Vesuvius began to shake. For a week now, tremors have been occurring in the crater of the 1,281-meter-high volcano, on average, eight times a day. Previously, it fluctuated twice a day. And the tremors are already noticeable, on Sunday (October 8) there was a magnitude 1.5 earthquake and a magnitude 1 earthquake within two minutes of midnight.
The Phlegrean Fields near Naples show greater activity. © IMAGO/Antonio Balasco
Residents note this: “The last earthquake in the Phlegrean Fields was on Wednesday, October 4th. And yesterday Vesuvius shook”, commented a member of the Facebook group: “Those from the Red Zone of the Phlegrean Fields”.
Earthquake at supervolcano and then Vesuvius: is magma choosing a new path to the surface?
Other users also find this interesting, there is actually a scientific theory that the Phlegrean Fields and Vesuvius, which is 20 kilometers away as the crow flies, are fed by the same underground magma chamber. Could it be that the pressure in the magma chamber moved away from the Phlegrean fields, thus increasing the risk of an eruption at Vesuvius? “Of course I have no experience on the subject, these are posts from Sunday geologists”, writes the user.
Vesuvius towers over the eastern outskirts of Naples. © Wolfgang Moroder/Facebook
Francesca Bianco, former director of the Vesuvius Observatory in Naples and now head of the volcanoes department at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology INGV, has a different explanation: the tremors on Vesuvius are “small surface fractures of the crater that formed after the last the eruption in 1944 cooled, thickened and tended to sink.”
Volcanic eruption in Italy: Vesuvius last erupted in 1944
Bianco explained this to the Ansa news agency at the beginning of the year, when repeated small tremors occurred on Europe’s most famous volcano. “The phenomenon obviously creates a shallow rupture of the Earth’s crust with mild earthquakes.” They are small ruptures that do not come from the depths, and there are not even traces of magma released because of the small smoking fumaroles that are present there. currently had no abnormal composition.
Vesuvius last erupted in March 1944, 12,000 people were evacuated, but 26 people died. At the US military airfield at Pompeii Airfield in Terzigno, hot ashfall destroyed around 80 B25 bombers – more than the number of US bombers stationed in the Mediterranean that German and Italian troops have ever shot down. in a single attack during World War II. Munich was also attacked by Italy.
One of the destroyed B-25 bombers, in the background the smoking Vesuvius. © United States Army Air Forces/Wikipedia
Previously, Vesuvius erupted 20 times since 1631, after a break of about 300 years, eight of them violently. This means that, on average, there was an outbreak every 15 years. Before the destruction of Pompeii in 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius was dormant for 800 years. The Romans considered it extinct – a disastrous assessment. Vesuvius is and remains a dangerous volcano.