The Italian government is planning a possible evacuation of more than 300,000 people as a nearby supervolcano shows signs of eruption – a month after American researchers discovered a rumbling volcano in the US.
Campo Flegrei, west of Naples, has seen more than 2,500 earthquakes in the past three months, with the strongest reaching a magnitude of 4.0, consistent with a similar scenario that led to its eruption in 1583.
Scientists have predicted that if this sleeping giant explodes, it could create a plum big enough to plunge Earth into a global winter for years.
The warning comes months after California researchers detected more than 2,000 earthquakes in the state’s Long Valley Caldera that they said were “precursors to an eruption.”
Thousands of earthquakes have been observed at Italy’s Campi Flegrei volcano and California’s Long Valley Caldera – both of which once erupted with more than 240 cubic miles of material
The term “supervolcano” implies a volcanic center with a magnitude 8 eruption (VEI), meaning at least 240 cubic miles of material erupted in one location.
Explosive events of this magnitude eject so much magma that a circular collapse structure called a caldera forms over the evacuated magma storage region.
If Campi Flegrei were to explode, experts believe it would release molten lava and volcanic gases into the stratosphere, Live Science reports.
Tsunamis over 30 meters high would create and spread a cloud of toxic ash that could plunge the Earth into a global winter for years.
Italy’s supervolcano is making headlines as authorities consider evacuating people living there due to magnitude 4.2 earthquakes and sightings of sulfurous fumes emanating from the surface.
And it’s not just the more than 360,000 people who live at the mouth of the volcano who are at risk – around 2.3 million live on or near the volcano.
Scientists have claimed that the Campi Flegrei crater was formed by an explosion 39,000 years ago, the largest in Europe in the last 200,000 years.
The Campi Flegrei last erupted in 1538, although on a much smaller scale.
The devastating volcano Vesuvius in 79 hurled a cloud of superheated material and gases 21 miles into the sky, hurling molten rock, pulverized pumice and hot ash at a rate of 1.5 million tons per second.
But Campi Flegrei is much bigger than Vesuvius.
Italy’s supervolcano is making headlines as authorities consider evacuating people living there due to magnitude 4.2 earthquakes and sightings of sulfurous fumes emanating from the surface
Around 360,000 people live in Campi Flegrei (pictured), but there are at least 1.5 million in the area surrounding the volcano
Around ten earthquakes were recorded around Campi Flegrei on Tuesday, but one on October 23 (pictured) caused cracks in the streets in Pozzuoli
Around ten earthquakes were recorded around Campi Flegrei on Wednesday, but none exceeded magnitude 1.1.
The last major quake occurred on October 2nd with a magnitude of 4.0.
“Some large regional earthquakes (greater than magnitude 6) are associated with a subsequent eruption or unrest at a nearby volcano,” according to the United States Geological Survey.
“However, volcanoes can only be caused to erupt by nearby tectonic earthquakes if they are already ready to erupt.”
The large quake, which caused no serious structural damage, and about 500 smaller ones so far in October, have embarrassed residents like Annamaria Scardi, a mother of two teenagers.
“Even these small earthquakes (earthquakes) scare us,” she told Portal.
“We’re worried about running away.” But where are we going? Where? That is the situation. We’re on the edge.’
The government discussed the situation last month and would order an evacuation if disaster officials warned that buildings were at risk of collapse.
Carlo Doglioni, president of the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), told TGCom24: “Given that seismic activity has only increased in recent months, we do not see any end at the moment.”
In the best case, activity would cease, as it did after long unrest in the early 1980s, and in the worst case, an eruption like the one in 1538 would occur.
On September 29, 1538, Campi Flegrei awoke in a rage and produced a week-long, 328-foot-tall cinder cone.
Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have detected over 2,000 earthquakes in the Long Valley Caldera in the past 1.5 years
On October 6, another explosion occurred, killing 24 people.
The other supervolcano that has attracted attention in recent months is traveling across the Atlantic.
The Long Valley Caldera was the site of a super explosion 767,000 years ago that released 140 miles of volcanic material into the atmosphere and devastated the land.
Over a year and a half, researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) used the cable to measure more than 2,000 seismic events beneath the valley, most of which are too small to be detected by humans.
However, a 2018 study found that there is a whopping 240 cubic miles of semi-molten magma beneath the 20-mile-long, 11-mile-wide crater.
The stunning discovery of magma, made by a team with the University of California and the University of Rhode Island, means it would result in a massive natural disaster if another eruption were to occur – which experts say is unlikely any time soon is.
Researchers at Caltech believe the quakes are caused by fluids and gases being released as the area cools and calms down.
Ettore Biondi, who was involved in the study, told NBC News that an outbreak cannot be ruled out.
“That doesn’t mean there can’t be smaller eruptions, but from a supervolcano eruption perspective, I think we’re on the safe side right now,” Biondi said.