Il bradyseism, the risk eruption, and the earthquake alarm in the Campi Flegrei have raised the alert level, leading the government to issue a specific decree. The decree focuses on identifying four alert levels (green, yellow, orange and red), with particular attention to a specific red zone. It includes the development of an evacuation plan and the control of buildings at risk, with related interventions.
A recent study, conducted by researchers from the University of Bologna and the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), has highlighted a slight rise in the subsoil, attributable to magma thrusts. This rise, according to the report published in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, seems to be caused by a cylindrical layer of rock, 500 meters high and with a diameter of about 5 kilometers, located two kilometers deep. This layer would be crossed by hot and high-pressure fluids emitted from a deep magma chamber, causing the rock layer to expand and the ground to rise.
Researcher Massimo Nespoli explained that this source of deformation, previously known to have contributed to the uplift of the ground between 1982 and 1984, has been reactivated. Physical modeling of this source of deformation, linked to the arrival of hot and pressurized fluids, has allowed to explain the rate of uplift and the trend of seismicity without the need to invoke the ascent of magma in the superficial layers of the caldera of the Campi Flegrei.
The presence of this deformation source has been confirmed by seismic tomography studies, and the observation of a variation in the ratio between the number of earthquakes with low magnitude and the number of earthquakes with high magnitude indicates the activity of the deformation source, responsible for both the uplift of the ground and the increase in seismicity. The authors of the study are Massimo Nespoli, Maria Elina Belardinelli and Maurizio Bonafede of the Department of Physics and Astronomy Augusto Righi of the University of Bologna, together with Anna Tramelli of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology – Vesuvius Observatory.
Article published on November 18, 2023 - 09:12
