The strongest earthquake in 40 years hit Naples this week, raising concerns for a volcanic eruption.
Emergency officials in Italy are drafting plans after the strongest earthquake in 40 years to hit Naples has raised concerns about an increase in volcanic activity.
Campi Flegrei, a series of volcanic calderas just west of Naples—most of which are underwater—have experienced increased volcanic activity over the past few months leading up to Wednesday morning’s 4.2 magnitude earthquake, which was felt as far away as Rome, causing some building evacuations and disruptions to rail service.
The last time there was increased volcanic activity in Campi Flegrei, also known as the Phlegraean Fields (Greek for “burning fields”–the English word “conflagration” comes from the Latinized version) was in the 1980s. That increase, which came after a long period of dormancy, faded without further escalating. The most recent major eruption lasted for eight days in 1538 and created a new hill. Local volcanologists rate an eruption like the one in 1538 to be a “worst case scenario”.
Campi Flegrei has a population of 360,000, as the area is a volcanic ridge instead of a cone-shaped mountain like Mount Vesuvius, which famously erupted in 79 AD, burying the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum in lethal volcanic ash. Naples, which even then was the region’s principal community, was largely untouched by that eruption. The excavated ruins of Pompeii are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and one of the country’s top tourist attractions, attracting some 2.5 million visitors each year.
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With more than 24 craters, Campi Flegrei is actually a larger volcano than Vesuvius, and a major eruption on either land or sea could be a massive disruption. During the increased volcanic activity in the 1980s, 40,000 residents of the town of Pozzuoli were evacuated as a precaution. The town’s population has doubled in size since then.
Italy’s minister for civil protection, Nello Musumeci, will meet with local officials in Naples to ask for an accelerated draft of the evacuation plans. Musumeci also also cautioned that the series of eruptions are no cause for panic based on the current data.
The Italian government, and governments in Europe and North America have not made any changes to warning levels for Italy or the immediate region, but travelers whose plans include Naples and the surrounding areas should continue to monitor news reports ahead of their journey for further increases in volcanic activity or increased coverage of evacuation plans in local media.
U.S. travelers bound for Naples and surrounding areas should also enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP), a free service provided by the U.S. State Department for travelers to register with the nearest U.S. embassy or consular office to receive updates or information in the event of an emergency or disaster at their destination.
The increased volcanic activity—including ground swelling—that has raised the surface of the ground several feet, has spurred local officials to carry out safety checks on public buildings such a schools and hospitals. In addition to volcanic activity, officials are concerned about the possibility of further seismic activity in the region, whether aftershocks or an even bigger earthquake could affect commercial and tourist traffic.
Volcanologists say the small tremors that have been observed with increasing intensity in the area since 2019 are largely caused by magma—underground lava—being pushed into the subsurface of the volcano three to four miles beneath the earth’s surface. They also estimate that volcanic activity in the fields releases some 3,000 tons of CO2 into the air each day—the equivalent of 650 gas-burning cars being added to local roads.