Search Here

Today, there has been an alert raised by researchers at the Campi Flegrei (Italian for Burning Fields) Supervolcano which is located in the Gulf of Naples that it's showing signs of a possible eruption. The said supervolcano is considered one of the most dangerous supervolcanoes in the world.

Campi Flegrei Supervolcano has been showing signs of reawakening under the city of Naples. Scientists reported that the caldera or Campi Flegrei is now potentially leading to an eruption for the first time in 500 years.

According to some scientists, the caldera is almost reaching a critical point, where low-pressure magma can trigger a release of gas and fluid and may result in a very dangerous eruption. The eruption could kill three million people living in the area.

Giovanni Chiodini, a volcanologist at the National Institute of Geophysics in Rome, said, "Hydrothermal rocks, if heated, can ultimately lose their mechanical resistance, causing an acceleration towards critical conditions." Way back in 2005, a tectonic uplift occurred in the area that caused underwater volcanoes get closer to the surface. Italian authorities already leveled up the alert from green to yellow which means Campi Flegrei requires constant monitoring.

Campi Flegrei last erupted in 1538 and burst enough material to form the cone mountain called Monte Nuovo. The caldera is said to be 39,000 years old and was also formed by a major eruption that's considered the most biggest and disastrous eruption in human history in the past 200,000 years.

Head of a drilling project to monitor the caldera, Giuseppe De Natale, said: "These areas can give rise to the only eruptions that can have global catastrophic effects comparable to major meteorite impacts." Chiodini also added that their study and research cannot predict when or if the supervolcano would erupt.

Nearby Campi Flegrei is Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that erupted in AD79 that killed thousands of Roman people and buried the city of Pompeii. A supervolcano is a volcano that has the force to produce a volcanic eruption with an ejecta mass greater than 1,000km3, which can kill residents nearby instantly since it's a thousand of times than a normal eruption.