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| 16 Nov 23 00:00:10 |
From: lessgovt@gmail.com Italy’s Rumbling Supervolcano Has Half a Million Residents on Edge By Eric Sylvers, Nov. 2, 2023, WSJ Vesuvius, southeast of Naples, which destroyed Pompeii in the first century A.D., is the region’s most famous volcano. But modern volcanologists are far more worried about the cluster of low-lying craters around Pozzuoli known as Campi Flegrei. The 80- square-mile depression is home to more than a dozen conical volcanoes, several crater lakes—and half a million residents. Another 800,000 people live just outside the depression. In Campi Flegrei, like in Yellowstone and the world’s other supervolcanoes, the probability of a catastrophic eruption is low but not nil, said Alessandro Iannace, a geology professor at the University of Naples Federico II who wrote a popular geology book. “The difference is that in Yellowstone, if you think the eruption is coming, you can send the tourists home and close the park for four years,” said Iannace. “You can’t do that with Campi Flegrei. There are just too many people there.” Residents here get frequent reminders that they live on top of a slumbering giant. Hydrogen sulfide, with its distinctive smell similar to rotten eggs, often drifts into town from one of the craters, displacing the salty sea breeze. “If you want to live in Pozzuoli, you have to learn to cohabit with the volcano,” said Roberto Marotta, who manages a clothing shop in Pozzuoli. “You’re always thinking about it, even when you sleep. If my wife moves in bed I jump up thinking it s a quake.” The frequent earthquakes are part of a phenomenon called bradyseism, the gradual rising or falling of a part of the earth’s surface caused by activity inside a volcano. The area around Pozzuoli’s port has risen about 11.5 feet since the late 1960s, including more than 3 feet since 2014, according to Italy’s National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology. On a recent Sunday, authorities in Pozzuoli handed out pamphlets titled “I’m Not Risking It,” containing information on how to evacuate if an eruption appears imminent, and how to act in the aftermath of an eruption. Tips include thoroughly washing food that has come in contact with volcanic ash and not driving on ash-covered roads. The authorities’ evacuation plans include identifying routes out of Campi Flegrei. Locals say the roads, which are often clogged with traffic on normal days, are too small to handle the crush of a full-scale evacuation. “Everybody here knows the evacuation plan is inadequate,” said Claudio Correale, who heads a local cultural association that keeps an archive of photos and news clippings of past periods of volcanic activity. “But it’s probably not even necessary, because everybody will have left by the time the volcano erupts.” An eruption in Campi Flegrei isn’t imminent, but earthquakes have weakened the volcano, making a rupture in the crust more likely, according to a recent study by researchers at Italy’s national institute and University College London. Pozzuoli endured intense earthquake activity in the early 1970s and again a decade later when authorities issued an obligatory evacuation order for part of the town. When local realtor Antonio Guitto was a boy, he remembers, he slept in the family car some nights with his parents and two siblings after nocturnal quakes. The recent spate of quakes has put Pozzuoli’s housing market into a deep freeze, with nervous buyers canceling deals at the last minute, said Guitto. “The quakes spooked everybody,” he said. “The nighttime quakes are the worst because you can’t get back to sleep.” Pozzuoli’s population of 77,000 has grown steadily in recent decades. Even the forced evacuation in the 1980s didn’t stop people moving to the area. Campi Flegrei’s last big eruption was in 1538, when the fiery outburst swallowed an entire village and left behind a new volcanic cone that rises 440 feet above sea level. That volcano, called Monte Nuovo, meaning “new mountain,” is now a nature reserve. A trail winds through dense trees to the edge of the crater, where visitors can peer inside or enjoy a view of the bay of Pozzuoli. A school, restaurants, cafes and shops line the streets at Monte Nuovo’s base. At the nearby Solfatara crater, a smell similar to rotten eggs blends with the scent of fig trees. The crater contains the decaying remains of a soccer field, a swimming pool and other facilities. It used to be a popular campground, but the authorities closed it in 2017 after a boy and his parents fell into a sinkhole and died from inhaling toxic gases. Houses and apartment buildings line the road leading up to the Solfatara crater. Soccer fields have been carved into the slope 50 yards away from where vents constantly emit steam and volcanic vapors. At Pozzuoli’s shore, years of frequent earthquakes have raised the seabed so that only the smallest boats can now enter the historic port. “Kids used to dive into the water here,” said Averna, the fisherman, gesturing at a patch of dirt and weeds. “You can’t help wondering where we’re headed.” https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/italys-rumbling-supervolcano-ha -half-a-million-residents-on-edge-6a1472af --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2) |
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