Follow
Scientists have discovered that a super volcano in Italy has indicated signs of reactivation.
STATES CHRONICLE – In Italy, a super volcano indicated signs of reactivation. The volcano known as Campi Flegrei located underneath the city of Naples proved that it might awake, approaching a crucial pressure point. A new study which presents the close analysis of the volcano was published on December 20.
Some French and Italian scientists have teamed up to identify the limit beyond which growing magma under the surface of Earth may trigger fluids and gasses’ release at a large rate. If this phenomenon is bound to happen, then it may cause the release of high-temperature steam into rocks. Giovanni Chiodini is the lead author of this study, being a researcher at Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Bologna.
He claimed that if hydrothermal rocks reach to be heated, their mechanical resistance may be disabled, triggering an acceleration of severe conditions. However, scientists cannot predict a date and a time for this possible eruption. If this super volcano erupts, then half-million people will be in danger, especially those living near and inside the caldera.
Caldera represents the depression created after the volcano blows its top. Scientists argued that Campi Flegrei has been developing an upthrust since 2005. This enabled Italian authorities to increase the level of alert in 2012, changing it from green to yellow. This was meant to indicate the need for continuous scientific monitoring.
Unfortunately, the deformation of the ground and low-level seismic activity has recently accelerated their increase. Chiodini stated that two other active volcanoes, Sierra Negra in the Galapagos and Rabaul in Papua New Guinea, have both indicated signs of ground deformation acceleration before they have erupted, their pattern being similar to the one identified at Campi Flegrei.
This super volcano was formed approximately 39,000 years ago due to an explosion which tossed hundreds of cubic kilometers of hot lava, debris, and rock into the air. Based on the data gathered by scientists, it represented the largest eruption ever registered in Europe during the last 200,000 years.
Back in 1538, there was the last time when Campi Flegrei had erupted, but on a smaller scale. Mount Vesuvius which is located nearby Campi Flegrei and which managed to bury hundreds of Roman settlements about 2,000 years ago when it erupted, is now also categorized as being active.
Image courtesy of: wikipedia
