Posted on 12/21/2016 7:32:05 AM PST by BenLurkin
A slumbering Campi Flegrei volcano under the Italian city of Naples shows signs of "reawakening" and may be nearing a critical pressure point, according to a study published Tuesday.
Italian and French scientists have for the first time identified a threshold beyond which rising magma under the Earth's surface could trigger the release of fluids and gases at a 10-fold increased rate.
This would cause the injection of high-temperature steam into surrounding rocks, said lead author Giovanni Chiodini, a researcher at Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Bologna.
"Hydrothermal rocks, if heated, can ultimately lose their mechanical resistance, causing an acceleration towards critical conditions," he told AFP by email.
It is not possible at this time to say when—or if—the volcano will erupt anew, he said.
If it did, however, "it would be very dangerous" for the half-million people living inside and near the caldera, he added, using the scientific name for the bowl-like depression created after a volcano blows its top.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
Big badda BOOM!
“Damn global warming again!”
once it goes off..yeah. Lots of warming
Vesuvius last erupted in 1944, not A.D. 79. Yet the volcano’s base is populated clear up to where the previous lava flow stopped (I saw it). Land surrounding the Bay of Naples remains prime real estate to this day.
Go figure.
A nearby volcanic eruption can flat out ruin your day. I wasn’t far from Mount St.Helens when she went off in 1980 and that plume was freaking huge, let alone the pyroclastic flows that boiled a couple rivers and killed dozens.
Moon colonization on the cheap
At least it isn’t a giga-valcano.
I thought øbama was supposed to fix this.
See Naples and die ...
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