(Express) – A massive underground volcano in southern Italy could be heading towards a catastrophic eruption would have disastrous consequences for the city of Naples, and the 1.5 million people who live there, a new study has shown. A team led by Francesca Forni from the Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology in Switzerland has been studying 23 previous eruptions at the Campi Flegrei caldera, concluding the magma reservoir underneath the area, which they described as “one of the most hazardous regions on
Earth” may be building up in advance of a massive explosion. Their research, published in the journal Science Advances involved detailed analysis of rocks, minerals and glass samples from each of the eruptions in an effort to detect changes in magmatic temperature and water content throughout the region’s eruptive history. The region was the scene of two huge eruptions – the Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) eruption of 39,000 years ago and the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff (NYT) eruption which happened 15,000 years ago – plus many smaller events. READ MORE
