The series of earthquakes at the supervolcano in Italy continues. Local residents observe mysterious waves in Pozzuoli Bay. And the signs of escalation are increasing.
Pozzuoli - For two weeks now, the supervolcano of the Phlegraean Fields in southern Italy has been showing the strongest activity in decades. According to experts, it is the strongest series of earthquakes in almost 500 years. On Tuesday (April 16), teachers sent students from the classrooms to the playgrounds when a new earthquake of magnitude 2.3 struck.
For fear of new earthquakes and the risk of collapse, Sunday masses were also held outdoors at the weekend. The Assunta a Mare church at the old port of Pozzuoli has already been completely closed due to the risk of collapse. The authorities have been checking the structural condition of all buildings in the affected communities for two weeks.
Video shows mysterious bubbling in the bay of the supervolcano in Italy
The approximately 500,000 residents of the supervolcano's red zone are becoming increasingly nervous. A man who works in a boatyard right on the beach in the town of Baia in the west of the Bay of Pozzuoli posted on Facebook: “There were sudden waves in the water.” A woman also observed these waves five kilometers away in Pozzuoli. In fact, there had also been earthquakes in the Bay of Pozzuoli. A user posts a video below in which you can see a kind of mysterious bubbling in the water.
“There are the remains of the submerged city and that causes turbulence, it depends on wind, current, etc.,” says one user. In fact, the bay contains the ruins of the Roman city of Baiae, which sank below sea level due to the rise and fall of the supervolcano caused by a magma chamber in the depths. Divers can visit them in the “Parco Sommerso Di Baia”.
Sunken City lies on a fissure in the earth's crust
“Is the lost city reappearing?” asks one user. Volcanologist Aldo Piombino answers matter-of-factly: “I believe this abnormal wave is due to the activity of the hot springs along the fault in the bay.” There is something like a crack in the earth's crust underwater.
Experts even believe that tsunamis are inevitable if they occur at sea. There are also hot springs on the bay's beaches. One user says that when she was a child she almost burned her feet in the sand because the hot air was escaping there.
The new weekly report from the National Geological Institute INGV for the Phlegraean fields also raises concerns. On April 9th and 10th, the region, which had been rising for years, jumped one centimeter upward. This is the height by which the bay last rose in a whole month.
Supervolcano earthquakes are causing concern: land is rapidly bulging upwards - thermal springs are getting hotter
After this jump, the lifting speed returned to normal, according to the INGV. However, Pozzuoli has been raised a total of 1.25 meters since November 2005, which is 30.5 centimeters more than it was in the last Phlegraean Fields crisis and therefore a new record.
In addition, the temperatures of the hot springs in the Solfatara crater are increasing. On April 13th, 96 degrees were measured one meter above the source instead of the previous 94 degrees. The new data is causing concern in the Facebook group “Those in the Red Zone”: “The bulletin is not encouraging,” said one user. “All we need is a miracle,” said another. One man posts: "If I used to be a bit optimistic, now I'm the opposite." Another tries to reassure: "The temperature is generally never constant and always fluctuates."
The summary of the INGV weekly report concludes: “Based on the current picture of volcanic activity, there are no indications that indicate a significant short-term development.” The German volcano blogger Marc Szeglat from
vulkane.net
comments: “That may be last week It may have been like that, but now I see it differently!”