Fear returns to Campi Flegrei, the area located in the Gulf of Pozzuoli west of Naples, characterized by considerable volcanic and seismic activity. An earthquake shock occurred today Sunday 11 June at 8.44. The magnitude recorded by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology was 3.6. Immediately after the shock, the Italy Situation Room of the Civil Protection Department got in touch with the local structures of the National Civil Protection Service. The quake was felt by the population but damage was reported. The mayor of Pozzuoli, Gigi Manzoni, sent a message to citizens on social media for the seismic events that have been going on for months: “Coexistence with these phenomena is not easy and this morning’s shock disturbs all of us. At the moment there are no reports of damages”. “I have already made direct contact with the top management of the Observatory and of the Civil Protection and in the next few hours I will hold another summit following this morning’s quake”, he announced.
Campi Flegrei is a peculiar territory because it is a caldera, an ancient super-volcano. A recent study by researchers at University College London (Ucl) and the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (Ingv), which appeared in Nature’s ‘Communications Earth and Environment’, states that the succession of uplift episodes in recent decades caused a progressive weakening in the crust of the Campi Flegrei caldera, making it more likely to rupture in the coming years. “At the moment, the set of data resulting from the Institute’s constant monitoring does not provide any evidence that suggests an increased risk of an eruption in the area – explained to AGI Francesca Bianco, director of the Ingv Volcano Department – The results of the study in question must be evaluated in the light of all the information that we derive from our monitoring and although it is possible, if the trend described in the work were to continue, that there will be a more significant rupture of the crust, this does not mean that there will necessarily be a Indeed, as mentioned, the data as a whole suggests a non-magmatic origin of the weakening of the crust”.
