Dangerous Super Volcano Could Destroy Europe

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campiflegrei — The Campi Flegrei caldera is a supervolcano. While a new eruption here would be more likely to result in the creation of another Vesuvius-like cone, the worst-case scenario could see it obliterating much of life in Europe

As if Pompeii and Naples did not have enough to worry about, a previously unknown “Super Volcano” is in their area. This volcano, like the one in Yellowstone, has the capability of killing millions of people all across the globe.

A super volcano is a volcano capable of producing a volcanic eruption with an ejecta volume greater than 1,000 km³ (240 cu mi). This is thousands of times larger than most historic volcanic eruptions. Super volcanoes can occur when magma in the Earth rises into the crust from a hotspot but is unable to break through the crust. Pressure builds in a large and growing magma pool until the crust is unable to contain the pressure. They can also form at convergent plate boundaries (for example, Toba) and continental hotspot locations (for example, Yellowstone).

Although there are only a handful of Quaternary super volcanoes, super volcanic eruptions typically cover huge areas with lava and volcanic ash and cause a long-lasting change to weather (such as the triggering of a small ice age) sufficient to threaten species with extinction. Vulcanologists and geologists do not refer to “super volcanoes” in their scientific work, since this is a blanket term that can be applied to a number of different geothermal conditions. Since 2003, however, the term has been used by professionals when presenting to the public. The term mega caldera is sometimes used for calderas with super volcano characteristics, such as the Blake River Mega caldera Complex in the Abitibi greenstone belt of Ontario and Quebec, Canada. Eruptions that rate VEI 8 are termed “super eruptions”.

Large igneous provinces (LIP) such as Iceland, the Siberian Traps, Deccan Traps, and the Ontong Java Plateau are extensive regions of basalts on a continental scale resulting from flood basalt eruptions. When created, these regions often occupy several thousand square kilometers and have volumes on the order of millions of cubic kilometers. In most cases, the lavas are normally laid down over several million years. They do release massive amounts of gases. The Réunion hotspot produced the Deccan Traps about 65 million years ago, coincident with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. The scientific consensus is that an astrobleme impact was the cause of the extinction event, but the volcanic activity may have caused environmental stresses on extant species up to the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary. Additionally, the largest flood basalt event (the Siberian Traps) occurred around 250 Ma and was coincident with the largest mass extinction in history, the Permian–Triassic extinction event, although it is also unknown whether it was completely responsible for the extinction event.

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius near Naples, Italy, in 79 A.D. killed thousands of Pompeii residents and remains one of the most famous volcanic explosions in history.

A caldera, or cauldron, is formed by collapsed land after a volcanic eruption. It can be just as dangerous as volcanic domes, sending magma and ash shooting into the air. A caldera is located in Campi Flegrei. The regional park, which is named after the Greek word for burning, is a major tourist attraction, and the surrounding area is home to more than 3 million residents.

“That is why the Campi Flegrei absolutely must be studied and monitored,” De Natale said. “I wouldn’t say like others, but much more than the others exactly because of the danger given that millions of people live in the volcano.”

Scientists funded by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Programme have been given clearance to drill 2.2 miles underground into the center of the caldera, home to a giant chamber of molten rock. Once they’ve reached the chamber, they plan to install a monitoring system that would give advanced warning of any potentially dangerous eruptions. “These areas can give rise to the only eruptions that can have global catastrophic effects comparable to major meteorite impacts,” said Giuseppe De Natale.

One such meteorite impact is thought to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago when debris thrown into the atmosphere from the huge explosion plunged the earth into darkness.

The Campi Flegrei are similar to the Yellowstone caldera in the U.S. state of Wyoming but of more concern because they are in an area populated by around 3 million people in the Naples hinterland.”Fortunately, it is extremely rare for these areas to erupt at their full capacity, as it is extremely rare for large meteorites to hit the earth,” De Natale told Reuters.”But some of these areas, in particular the Campi Flegrei, are densely populated and therefore even small eruptions, which are the most probable, fortunately, can pose risks for the population,” said De Natale, from the Vesuvius observatory at Italy’s National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology.

Benedetto De Vivo, a geochemist at Naples University, has said the drilling could cause an explosion.The Naples city council blocked the project in 2010 but it resumed on the site of an abandoned steel mill at Bagnoli, west of Naples, late last month after the recently elected new mayor, Luigi De Magistris, gave the go-ahead.De Natale scoffed at the objections, saying that the drilling was perfectly safe and that similar probes had been sent down by mining projects looking for sources of thermal energy in the 1980s and earlier.

The project also aims to study the cause of a phenomenon known as bradyseism which is a gradual raising and lowering of the earth’s surface because of deep volcanic activity. This is episodic but in the latest phase the ground has risen by 3.5 m (yards) in 15 years, the most since medieval times.This movement forced the evacuation of 30,000 people temporarily from Pozzuoli in the 1980s and a fishing harbour in the old part of the town was completely abandoned.

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Carol Bell

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