Space.com by Ben Turner 6/19/2023
Europe's most dangerous 'supervolcano' could be creeping toward eruption, scientists warn
Italy's Campi Flegrei is showing some troubling early warning signs, but scientists caution that its eruption is far from certain.A long-slumbering "supervolcano" in Italy is getting closer to a potential eruption for the first time since 1538, a new study warns — and the consequences could be catastrophic.
The Campi Flegrei volcano, near Naples in southern Italy, has a crust that is becoming weaker and more prone to rupturing, "making an eruption more likely", scientists behind a new study have said.
More than 1.5 million people live above the vast underground volcano complex, and half a million people have their homes inside its 7-mile-long (11 kilometers) caldera, which was formed after an enormous eruption 39,000 years ago.
If Campi Flegrei were to reenact its largest previous eruption, it would punch molten rock and volcanic gases high into the stratosphere, unleash 100-feet-high (33.5 meters) tsunamis and spread a plume of sulfur and toxic ash that could plunge Earth into global winter for years — killing crops and causing mass extinctions. The researchers published their findings on June 9 in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
"Our new study confirms that Campi Flegrei is moving closer to rupture," study lead-author Christopher Kilburn, a professor of Earth Science at University College London, said in a statement. However, he cautioned that "this does not mean an eruption is guaranteed. The rupture may open a crack through the crust, but the magma still needs to be pushing up at the right location for an eruption to occur."
More:
https://www.space.com/europes-most-dangerous-supervolcano-could-be-creeping-toward-eruption-scientists-warn
