Campi Flegrei, since February the ground has risen by 15 centimeters per month

LThe seismic swarm that has been affecting the Campi Flegrei since this morning continued into the afternoon with a new shock recorded at 16pm with a magnitude of 38 at a depth of 1.3 km.

The main shock, the one at 12, “together with that of March 13th, it is the highest we have recorded since we have had a monitoring network”, explained to Rainews24 Francesca Bianco, director of the Volcanoes Department of theINGV.

Dr. Bianco noted that the area has been experiencing a steady uplift of the ground, on the order of 15 millimeters per month since the end of February. This phenomenon indicates a buildup of “stress” in the Earth’s crust, which is then released through earthquakes.

No Sign of Magmatic Rise: “Problem is Not an Imminent Eruption”

Despite the intensification of seismic activity and ground deformations, the INGV reassures on the lack of an imminent risk of eruption. “At the moment there is no high-density and high-resolution element that makes us think of a magma rise in the first kilometers of the crust”, Francesca Bianco further clarified.

“This would be the real element that would obviously be put on the table in case we had to worry about an imminent eruption. At the moment this is not the problem, there are no signs of any kind that there is an imminent eruption because we have no magma movements in the first 4 kilometers of the crust”.

The increase in all anomalous parameters, i.e. deformations and increased seismicity, is a phenomenon that INGV began to observe around 2022.

“Earthquakes in Line with Evolving Parameters”:

Mauro Di Vito, director of the Vesuvius Observatory (the Neapolitan headquarters of the INGV), also commented on the event to Adnkronos, confirming that the shock was “in line with the increasing dynamics of all parameters that has been occurring for several years”.

Di Vito specified that "there is no discontinuity, there is nothing new in this sense, nothing changed compared to the evolving parameters that have been discussed in recent months. The deformation of the soil and therefore the crustal deformation in general has continued with the same trend since April".

A positive aspect, according to Di Vito, is the growing awareness of the population. "I have noticed that along with the inevitable fear of the shock, there has been more awareness among the population of the Campi Flegrei area. The recurrence of earthquakes is leading people in a certain sense to live with these processes, it is a positive thing, we are in a territory where these events will continue to occur".

The situation at Campi Flegrei It remains constantly monitored by the INGV, which continues to provide updates on the dynamics of bradyseism and seismic activity in the area.