Is Italy’s Super Volcano Campi Flegrei Awakening?
By James Donahue
March 16, 2017
There are a handful of so-called known “super volcanos” that have the potential of killing large portions of the world’s population if they ever come awake. Yellowstone in the United States is one of them. Another is Campi Flegrei at Naples, Italy. Both are murmuring this year. Both have volcanologists nervously watching them for further signs of trouble.
We recently described events going on at Yellowstone. For a review go to: Yellowstone; Super Volcano in the Heartland.
The Campi Flegrei volcano is even more discerning because it is located right under a heavily populated area surrounding the Gulf of Pozzuoli, about nine kilometers west of Naples and just 125 miles south of Rome. The caldera, an eight-mile-wide body of water known as the Phlegrean Fields, has been recognized as a regional park since 2003. That is because it consists of 24 craters and volcanic openings much like those found at Yellowstone National Park.
The very name of the place, Campi Flegrei, means “burning fields” in Italian. Like Yellowstone, the site is spewing geysers of hot water, steam and sulfuric acid. Also like Yellowstone, the Italian volcano has remained asleep for centuries. The locals regard the site as more of a novelty than a threat.
The last recorded eruption of Campi Flegrei occurred in the year 1538. That eruption, which wasn’t the worst Campi Flegrei is capable of mustering, was described by a survivor as watching “this mount of earth opened like a mouth, with great roaring, vomiting much fire and pumice and stones.” The force of the magma caused a large tract of land now lying between the foot of the mountain and the sea to rise up and take the form of a newly produced mountain.
That mountain is Monte Nuovo.
The caldera is believed to have once exploded with an eruption so large the ash, smoke and dust virtually blocked the sun and destroyed a large volume of life on Earth at some prehistoric time. A 2010 study published in the journal Current Anthropology, noted that the blast “spewed almost a trillion gallons of molten rock and released just as much sulfur into the atmosphere.” The report said the eruption caused a “volcanic winter” that may have been the event that wiped out the Neanderthals.
So why are volcanologists currently concerned about Campi Flegrei?
The lead author of the study, Giovanni Chioini, volcanologist at the National Institute of Geophysics in Rome, wrote that the caldera is showing evidence of runaway gas and fluids caused by rising magma. This is usually evidence of a pending eruption.
This and a measurement of the slow movements of the earth surrounding the caldera show evidence of molten rock slowly filling the mountain’s magma chamber. Italian authorities have consequently raised the alert level from green, which means silent, to yellow, which calls for scientific attention.
This isn’t an event that is happening overnight and residents of the area are not being warned to plan to flee anytime soon. The yellow alert was issued in 2012 and nothing more serious has been happening at the mountain since. The researchers do warn, however, that this pattern compares to activity seen around other volcanoes before they erupt.
Just to give closer attention, a drilling operation is now headed by Guiseppe De Natale, which will be monitoring the caldera.
By James Donahue
March 16, 2017
There are a handful of so-called known “super volcanos” that have the potential of killing large portions of the world’s population if they ever come awake. Yellowstone in the United States is one of them. Another is Campi Flegrei at Naples, Italy. Both are murmuring this year. Both have volcanologists nervously watching them for further signs of trouble.
We recently described events going on at Yellowstone. For a review go to: Yellowstone; Super Volcano in the Heartland.
The Campi Flegrei volcano is even more discerning because it is located right under a heavily populated area surrounding the Gulf of Pozzuoli, about nine kilometers west of Naples and just 125 miles south of Rome. The caldera, an eight-mile-wide body of water known as the Phlegrean Fields, has been recognized as a regional park since 2003. That is because it consists of 24 craters and volcanic openings much like those found at Yellowstone National Park.
The very name of the place, Campi Flegrei, means “burning fields” in Italian. Like Yellowstone, the site is spewing geysers of hot water, steam and sulfuric acid. Also like Yellowstone, the Italian volcano has remained asleep for centuries. The locals regard the site as more of a novelty than a threat.
The last recorded eruption of Campi Flegrei occurred in the year 1538. That eruption, which wasn’t the worst Campi Flegrei is capable of mustering, was described by a survivor as watching “this mount of earth opened like a mouth, with great roaring, vomiting much fire and pumice and stones.” The force of the magma caused a large tract of land now lying between the foot of the mountain and the sea to rise up and take the form of a newly produced mountain.
That mountain is Monte Nuovo.
The caldera is believed to have once exploded with an eruption so large the ash, smoke and dust virtually blocked the sun and destroyed a large volume of life on Earth at some prehistoric time. A 2010 study published in the journal Current Anthropology, noted that the blast “spewed almost a trillion gallons of molten rock and released just as much sulfur into the atmosphere.” The report said the eruption caused a “volcanic winter” that may have been the event that wiped out the Neanderthals.
So why are volcanologists currently concerned about Campi Flegrei?
The lead author of the study, Giovanni Chioini, volcanologist at the National Institute of Geophysics in Rome, wrote that the caldera is showing evidence of runaway gas and fluids caused by rising magma. This is usually evidence of a pending eruption.
This and a measurement of the slow movements of the earth surrounding the caldera show evidence of molten rock slowly filling the mountain’s magma chamber. Italian authorities have consequently raised the alert level from green, which means silent, to yellow, which calls for scientific attention.
This isn’t an event that is happening overnight and residents of the area are not being warned to plan to flee anytime soon. The yellow alert was issued in 2012 and nothing more serious has been happening at the mountain since. The researchers do warn, however, that this pattern compares to activity seen around other volcanoes before they erupt.
Just to give closer attention, a drilling operation is now headed by Guiseppe De Natale, which will be monitoring the caldera.