Magma and volcanic gases are increasingly active at Campi Flegrei where hundreds of thousands would be at risk from an eruption Just outside Naples, located within the danger zone of one of the world’s most dangerous volcanoes, a cluster of Italian towns is on yellow alert. Last summer, the frequency of the small, persistent earthquakes that have become a familiar presence for residents since the 1980s began to intensify. By September, scientists at the nearby volcano observatory were recording more than 1,000 tremors a month and, on 27 September, the coastal town of Pozzuoli was rattled by a 4.2 magnitude earthquake – the region’s strongest in 40 years. For the past decade, the ground beneath Pozzuoli has been rising at rates of up to 10 centimetres a year. Three kilometres beneath the surface, an accumulation of volcanic gases is stretching the Earth’s crust upwards, causing it to deform and crack … Continue reading Italian tremors: Europe’s largest active volcanic caldera