- Thread starter
- #21
No changes; everything is waiting on the volcano (which is what makes these crises so nerve-wracking and expensive).
Volcanologist Eric Klemetti summed up things at Campi Flegrei in his blog today.
Here is something he wrote about Vesuvius several years ago and that's important to share, too, because some Neapolitans, quite logically, are looking at Campi Flegrei on one side of town, Vesuvius on the other, and counting earthquakes at both (Italian).
That's not how either volcano works. As I learned from doing the Decade Volcano chapter (one of the final drafts here), Vesuvius might have cycles. It might start a cycle with a bang, i.e., the Pompeii eruption in 79 AD after around eight centuries of sleep, or it might end a cycle that way. The boffins are still debating it.
But it does its own thing, just as Campi Flegrei and the other Naples-area caldera (that hides under the sea around the island of Ischia) do their own respective things.
If you go far enough down, of course they're all connected because all volcanoes' ultimate magma source is the planet's mantle.
But each volcano on Earth is the result of mantle magma finding a separate way up to the surface. It is a slow process and oodles of geochemistry happen along the way, changing that magma's chemistry and therefore the volcano's behavior.
One such pathway has led to a restless giant caldera: Campi Flegrei.
Another has led to a normal-sized composite cone volcano that throws a tantrum now and then.
Apples and oranges, so to speak.
Neapolitans and many others are stuck in the middle, but the clown to the right is Eurasia and the slowly approaching joker to the left is Africa.
(Aaaand now I can't get that song out of my head.)
Basically, earthquakes are going to happen -- Italy is in a continental collision, and the INGV experts factor that in as they monitor Campi Flegrei and Vesuvius.
[Layperson speculation] I realize that there is only too-well-founded mistrust of authorities here.
But sometimes you've just gotta trust (just don't wait on them when making decisions about personal safety). And INGV is part of the international volcanology network, too, with a whole world of boffins looking over their shoulder right now. If INGV is not worried enough about a few quakes under or near Vesuvio to raise its alert level (they haven't), then Naples doesn't need to take on that worry right now, either. [/Layperson speculation]
Volcanologist Eric Klemetti summed up things at Campi Flegrei in his blog today.
Here is something he wrote about Vesuvius several years ago and that's important to share, too, because some Neapolitans, quite logically, are looking at Campi Flegrei on one side of town, Vesuvius on the other, and counting earthquakes at both (Italian).
That's not how either volcano works. As I learned from doing the Decade Volcano chapter (one of the final drafts here), Vesuvius might have cycles. It might start a cycle with a bang, i.e., the Pompeii eruption in 79 AD after around eight centuries of sleep, or it might end a cycle that way. The boffins are still debating it.
But it does its own thing, just as Campi Flegrei and the other Naples-area caldera (that hides under the sea around the island of Ischia) do their own respective things.
If you go far enough down, of course they're all connected because all volcanoes' ultimate magma source is the planet's mantle.
But each volcano on Earth is the result of mantle magma finding a separate way up to the surface. It is a slow process and oodles of geochemistry happen along the way, changing that magma's chemistry and therefore the volcano's behavior.
One such pathway has led to a restless giant caldera: Campi Flegrei.
Another has led to a normal-sized composite cone volcano that throws a tantrum now and then.
Apples and oranges, so to speak.
Neapolitans and many others are stuck in the middle, but the clown to the right is Eurasia and the slowly approaching joker to the left is Africa.
(Aaaand now I can't get that song out of my head.)
Basically, earthquakes are going to happen -- Italy is in a continental collision, and the INGV experts factor that in as they monitor Campi Flegrei and Vesuvius.
[Layperson speculation] I realize that there is only too-well-founded mistrust of authorities here.
But sometimes you've just gotta trust (just don't wait on them when making decisions about personal safety). And INGV is part of the international volcanology network, too, with a whole world of boffins looking over their shoulder right now. If INGV is not worried enough about a few quakes under or near Vesuvio to raise its alert level (they haven't), then Naples doesn't need to take on that worry right now, either. [/Layperson speculation]
Last edited: