Phlegrean fields supervolcano. When will Campi Flegrei erupt? Should we be afraid of a new eruption?

The earth is preparing for a giant explosion. In the Phlegrean Fields of Italy, near Naples, an ancient gigantic volcano comes to life. Seismologists are concerned not only about the increase in soil temperature in the area, but also about noticeable deformation of the surface

In the distant past, the activity of supervolcanoes influenced climate change and completely transformed our planet. Scientists today do not even undertake to predict the consequences of a possible awakening of the volcano.

Recently, the Phlegrean fields rise above sea level by three centimeters per month. Micro-earthquakes and the accumulation of gases in the soil indicate that the volcano is preparing to erupt. Explains an associate professor of the Faculty of Geology of St. Petersburg State University Vladimir Kiryanov:

“If the uplift occurs stable, then, most likely, the magma chamber is filling, and because of this, the soil above it swells. In general, the Phlegrean fields are a supervolcano. Yellowstone in the USA, Toba in Indonesia are also supervolcanoes that erupt more than 1000 cubic kilometers of magma. These are catastrophic eruptions. In the area of ​​the Phlegrean Fields, a very strong eruption occurred approximately 30-40 thousand years ago. Its volcanic ash is still found in the Mediterranean, in Bulgaria, Ukraine, even in Russia. Now another injection of the magma chamber is taking place , and at some point an eruption may occur."

Volcanic eruptions of such force can lead to a so-called volcanic winter. During the explosion, sulfur gases and ash will reach the atmosphere and cover the globe. The sun's rays will not be able to break through the dense cover to the ground, and the gases, turning into sulfuric acid, will fall onto the surface of the planet in the form of toxic precipitation. Scientists claim that the Earth has already experienced a similar catastrophe 74 thousand years ago, with the explosion of the Toba volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. This resulted in climate change and numerous casualties. Now everything will be much worse - just remember the collapse that resulted from a rather weak disturbance of a volcano in Iceland in 2010.

However, supervolcano eruptions occur so rarely that scientists cannot say how long it should take from the first signs of activity to the explosion. For example, in the Phlegrean Fields in the 70s of the last century, the ground rose one and a half meters in three years, which is why cracks appeared on many houses. But then the surface movement weakened significantly. Still, filling the magma chamber is not the most accurate indicator, says the head of the laboratory of geophysics and volcanology at the Institute of Earth Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Sobisevich:

“This is a fairly long-term harbinger. It can take decades, or maybe hundreds of years. This is an irrelevant problem. Many mountains grow by 5 centimeters per year. This is a natural process on Earth.”

According to the expert, a much more interesting and important natural phenomenon is now observed in Russia in Kamchatka in the area of ​​​​the Tolbachik volcano - there is an outpouring of lava every day and the surface rises.

According to scientists, the entire volcanic system of the Earth is now under extreme stress. The underground channels are filled with hot magma, which rushes out. Whether this results in the eruption of a supervolcano or a chain of small volcanoes simultaneously becoming active - all this will have significant consequences for the inhabitants of the Earth.

), located near the Italian city of Naples, is showing signs of "awakening" and may even be approaching a critical pressure point, scientists say.

Campi Flegrei (or "burning fields" in Italian) is a vast volcanic area located west of Naples.

Researchers from Italy and France have for the first time identified the point at which magma rising from beneath the Earth's surface can cause the release of liquids and gases. This could lead to the introduction of high-temperature steam directly into the surrounding rocks, says specialist Giovanni Chiodini from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Bologna.

“Hydrothermal rocks, when heated, can eventually lose their mechanical stability, causing critical conditions to accelerate,” explains the scientist.

According to him, it is impossible to say exactly when the supervolcano will erupt. But such an event poses an incredible danger to all 500 thousand people who live near the caldera - a vast cirque-shaped basin of volcanic origin.

According to Chiodini, it is necessary to better study the behavior of this dangerous "neighbor" because of the risk it poses to the large population of the territory.

Since 2005, the supervolcano Campi Flegrei has been experiencing what experts call a rise. Italian authorities raised the alert level from green to yellow in 2012. For scientists, this means that continuous and active scientific monitoring of the volcano is necessary. They have already established that the rate of soil deformation and the level of seismic activity have recently increased.

Two other active volcanoes - Rabaul in Papua New Guinea and Sierra Negra on Galapagos Island - "showed acceleration at sites of ground deformation prior to eruption with the same structure observed at Campi Flegrei," Chiodini notes.

The Campi Flegrei caldera was formed 39,000 years ago by an explosion that sent hundreds of cubic kilometers of lava, rock and other debris into the air during the largest volcanic eruption in Europe in 200,000 years.

A study on the “awakening” of the volcano was published in the scientific publication Nature Communication.

By the way, nearby is also the Vesuvius volcano, which last “awakened” in 79 AD, as a result of which several Roman settlements, including the famous Pompeii, were wiped off the face of the earth. This volcano is also classified as active.

Let us add that not so long ago, researchers predicted another potential disaster -

The Italian supervolcano Phlegrean Fields is one of the most dangerous in the world, not least because more than a million people live around it.

A new study, published in Scientific Reports, has identified the source of the magma that fuels the dormant and ominous cauldron. Unfortunately, this volcano is more dangerous than previously thought.

Search for the supervolcano's hot zone

Typically, scientists use the seismic waves that magma emits as it travels through the crust to determine where it is currently located. But because the supervolcano has remained generally quiet since the mid-1980s, finding its source of magma is much more difficult.

An international team led by specialists from the University of Aberdeen attempted to solve this riddle. Using specialized mathematical analysis of seismic data collected since the mid-1980s, the team identified a hot zone at a depth of 4 km beneath Pozzuoli, near Naples.

According to the study, the hot zone is either a small amount of magma or the molten top of a massive magma chamber whose liquid fire is widespread deep below the earth's surface. Either way, scientists have found compelling evidence of an active heat source that supplies magma to one of the world's most dangerous volcanoes. But the story doesn't end there.

Rising ground level above the caldera

One of the key mysteries of the Phlegrean Fields is their periodic and frightening growth. Between 1982 and 1984, the ground in the crater rose 1.8 meters. Whatever the cause - magma, gas moving through the earth's crust, or the movement of superheated water - the crater soon sank.

New research helps explain why this growth did not end with a volcanic eruption. Seismic imaging shows that the magma's eruption to the surface was prevented by a very rigid, shallow rock formation located above it. This is why the magma spread laterally and was unable to break through.

This means that the risk from the caldera has migrated. "The Phlegrean Fields can now be compared to a pot of boiling soup beneath the surface," says lead author Dr Luca de Siena, a geologist in Aberdeen.

This means that instead of a single eruption point, a new caldera may form.

How were the Phlegrean fields formed?

The Phlegrean Fields remains a monster that scientists understand very poorly. The caldera was formed 40 thousand years ago during one of the most energetic paroxysms of the last few million years. At that time, the supervolcano ejected about 500 cubic kilometers of debris, which could even reach Greenland, despite a distance of 4,600 kilometers.

There have been several eruptions since then, but it has left most of the fireworks to volcanoes located near or within the crater itself, such as Vesuvius and the ominous sulfurous Solfatara. Volcanologists remain acutely aware of the risk to the 6 million people living in the monster's "blast zone" and are therefore constantly monitoring it.

Should we be afraid of a new eruption?

What's really worrying is that the Phlegrean Fields are growing again, although the risk of an eruption is now 24 times lower than in the early 1980s. As always, volcanologists don't know what's really going on, but they believe the volcano is reaching a critical point where an eruption is imminent.

Regardless of whether the eruption results in a new caldera or a regular eruption, de Siena is confident that the volcano is becoming increasingly dangerous.

Forget Yellowstone. Phlegraean Fields is a supervolcano that's really worth worrying about.

MOSCOW, May 15 – RIA Novosti. Volcanoes on the Phlegrean Fields in the vicinity of Naples may erupt in the near future, this is indicated by the accumulation of tectonic stress and deformation of rocks in the crater of the former supervolcano, according to an article published in the journal Nature Communications.

“Having monitored the formation of cracks and shifts of rocks in the Phlegrean Fields, we believe that this volcano has now reached a critical phase and further increase in activity will make the likelihood of an eruption quite high. It is extremely important that local authorities are prepared for such a course of events,” said Christopher Kilburn (Christopher Kilburn) from University College London.

During the existence of human civilization, there have been seven major eruptions, one of which, the explosion of Mount Tambora in 1815, killed 71 thousand people and led to a noticeable cooling of the climate and crop failure and famine in different countries around the Earth.

Another major eruption, the first to be recorded in human history, occurred in 1538 in the vicinity of Naples, on the so-called Phlegrean Fields. They represent the crater of a large supervolcano, the eruptions of which in the past were not inferior in strength to Tambora and could have served, as geologists now believe, as the cause of the extinction of Neanderthals in Europe about 50 thousand years ago.

Kilburn and his colleagues have been monitoring the state of the Phlegrean fields for several years, the activity of which has noticeably increased recently. As measurements last year showed, the height of some regions of the volcano is growing at a rate of about three centimeters per month, indicating the formation of a magma chamber under the Phlegrean fields. In December 2016, Italian authorities seriously considered evacuating nearby settlements due to the excessively high activity of the volcano.

British and Italian geologists say such fears were well founded. They calculated the rate of accumulation of magma in the depths of the Phlegrean fields in the last half of the 20th century and discovered where the source of seismic tremors and deformations was located.

As scientists explain, many geological and tectonic processes can be thought of as a basin with an incoming and outgoing pipe. The first is played by all sources of seismic stress, including lava flows rising from the depths of the Earth, and the second by weak tremors, mini-eruptions and other ways of “safely” getting rid of this energy. If the tension is not released quickly enough, it gradually builds up, which in the future can lead to a powerful eruption or earthquake.

In the Naples area, as measured by Kilburn and his colleagues, this tension has been building since the early 1950s, and by now enough magma has accumulated under the Phlegrean Fields to cause a powerful eruption if it breaks through.

According to geologists, in the last few months the lava has risen to three kilometers from the Earth's surface. Scientists do not yet know how quickly it will cover this distance and whether it will stop moving this time, but the probability of an eruption today is the highest it has been in the last few hundred years. Geologists are advising Naples authorities to "be prepared" for more serious consequences than the series of powerful tremors that usually accompanied the growth of the Phlegrean fields in the past.

Science noticed this danger lurking under the feet of humanity only recently - and not a single volcanologist has yet been able to witness its awakening. But they pray to their gods that this does not happen.

Bomb near Naples

The Phlegrean Fields are by no means harmless monuments of the planet’s geological past. A more detailed study of them showed that this area, covered with several dozen craters, represents the remains of the caldera of an ancient giant volcano, part of which was flooded by the waters of Pozzuoli Bay. Of course, there are examples of other equally impressive huge calderas in the world. For example, the island of Thira, the “bagel” of which is all that remains after the explosion in the 15th century BC. volcano Santorini. But research into the volcanic region of Naples continues, and who knows what discoveries they will bring.

What if the Phlegrean Fields and Vesuvius are not two separate volcanoes (ancient and modern), but two “exhaust pipes” of an older and much grander volcano, the caldera of which is the Bay of Naples? Of course, such an assumption can only be called science fiction for now, but who knows!

However, let us return to an equally interesting scientific reality - to the Phlegrean Fields. So, their study showed that they represent a huge ancient volcano, now dormant - but with a slightly different design than, for example, its neighbor Vesuvius. This type of volcano received the working name supervolcanoes (supervolcano) - primarily for its size.

Fiery plagues of the Earth

A typical volcano, as we imagine it, is a cone-shaped hill with a crater from which lava, ash and gases erupt. It is formed like this: in the depths there is a volcanic chamber with magma, the contents of which find their way (channel) through cracks, faults and other “defects” of the earth’s crust. As the magma rises, it releases gases, becoming volcanic lava, and flows out through the top of a channel, commonly called a vent. Breaking off around the vent, the products of the eruption build up the cone of the volcano.

Supervolcanoes have their own peculiarity, because of which until recently no one even suspected their existence. The fact is that they are not at all similar to the cone-shaped “caps” with a vent inside that are familiar to us. And it’s unlikely that they would be able to build something similar - and not only because such a mountain would reach several tens of kilometers at the base and 15-20 in height, it would simply begin to fall underground, due to the fact that the crust is not able to withstand such a weight. Actually, this is approximately what happened.

Their sources are located much closer to the surface of the earth and represent huge magma reservoirs - their horizontal cross-sectional area is correspondingly large. According to one version, the eruption of a supervolcano began with magma melting and breaking the layer of the earth’s crust above it, protruding a huge hump on the earth’s surface (several hundred meters high and 15–20 or more kilometers in diameter).

Then the pressure increases, the magma looks for a way out. Numerous vents and cracks appear along the perimeter of the supervolcano - and then its entire central part collapses down into the fiery underworld. The collapsed rocks, like a piston, abruptly release huge volumes of magma and gases from the depths - and they are thrown into the sky in giant fountains of lava and cyclopean clouds of ash.

Such a phenomenon has never been seen before not only by volcanologists, but also by homines sapientes in general - all earthly supervolcanoes erupted long before their appearance. However, the question remains: have they always been a rare geological phenomenon, or once upon a time in the era of the stormy geological youth of our planet, their eruptions shook its body relatively often? Is their occurrence related to periods of the so-called. “increased volcanic activity” of the planet? The answers to these questions have yet to be found.

When the eruption of the supervolcano ended, what was left was a huge caldera, inside of which a huge valley was formed - a kind of “lid” over the magma chamber. The Phlegrean Fields could be part of such a “lid”, its edge. Thus, if a classic volcano can be compared to a “pimple,” then a supervolcano is more like a serious hematoma or abscess.

Today, several objects fall under the definition of “supervolcano”. Firstly, these are the same Phlegrean Fields. Second is the Toba volcano on the island of Sumatra, which last erupted about 74,000 years ago. Now its giant caldera has an area of ​​1775 square meters. km is filled with water and is a very picturesque lake.

An ancient and very large supervolcano was recently discovered in Kamchatka. While exploring the area of ​​the Bath Springs, employees discovered the remains of an ancient caldera there. A more thorough study revealed its dimensions (25 by 15 km) and its approximate age - about one and a half million years. Thus, it is several times older than most of the Kamchatka volcanoes. Scientists were led to the version that the caldera is an ancient supervolcano by studying the dome-shaped uplift in its center - caused by the presence of a powerful magma chamber underneath.

But the most famous supervolcano is Yellowstone National Park, located in the Rocky Mountains in the northwestern part of Wyoming (USA). The most thoroughly studied, it also became the protagonist of the documentary film “Supervolcano” (produced by the BBC) and the fictional thriller of the same name - presenting its possible eruption as the beginning of a grandiose cataclysm.

Volcanic winter

The eruption of an ordinary volcano on a planetary scale is nothing more than a terrible sight. What is shown in the Hollywood films “Dante’s Peak” and “Volcano” is nonsense compared to what will happen when a supervolcano erupts. In a matter of hours, tens or even hundreds of cubic kilometers of ash and lava will be thrown out. And it will not be possible to defeat the elements with the help of bulldozers and dynamite - humanity can only watch and wait. “Supervolcano” conveys such a sad moral to the audience.

Detailed studies of Yellowstone Park, famous primarily for its geysers, began in the mid-twentieth century. Even then, scientists came to the conclusion that its giant caldera (70 by 30 km) was clearly of volcanic origin. Of course, the mind refused to believe in the existence of volcanoes of such size - so it took many more years of research and theoretical development before a model of a supervolcano was developed.

During them, it became known that the last three eruptions of the Yellowstone supervolcano occurred two million years ago, one million three hundred thousand years ago and six hundred thirty thousand years ago. Thus, the conclusion suggested itself that the eruptions are more or less periodic, and the period is about six hundred and fifty thousand years. This means that the next eruption will only have to wait a little - of course, according to the geological clock. However, not everyone heard this clarification and a sensation swept across the United States, picked up in other countries and then embodied on the screen: the Yellowstone supervolcano will soon explode, save yourself!

Forecasting the consequences of global cataclysms is not only interesting, but also very popular. These forecasts are very popular among millions of ordinary people who read and contemplate the scenario of the coming “end of the world.” Therefore, as soon as forecasts appeared regarding the date of supervolcano eruptions, forecasts of their consequences did not slow down.

So, in the first minutes after the collapse into the sky, columns of hot gases and ash will shoot up to a height of up to fifty kilometers. At the same time, pyroclastic flows will rush along the surface of the earth, burning everything within a radius of several tens of kilometers. And if the Yellowstone area is relatively sparsely populated, then such an explosion of the Phlegrean Fields would incinerate an area inhabited by millions of people.

In a few hours, most of the ejected ash will begin to settle, covering entire states with it. Cities located hundreds of kilometers from Yellowstone, of course, will not suffer the fate of Pompeii, but traffic will be very difficult - if not impossible. In addition, volcanic ash is not snow, it will not melt in the spring, and when it falls, it clogs the respiratory organs of people and animals, and disables machines and mechanisms. It will also be difficult to breathe due to volcanic gases, which include sulfur compounds.

But the ash remaining in the atmosphere will pose a much greater danger: by blocking the sun’s rays, it can create the effect of a “volcanic winter”, almost no different from the “nuclear winter” - an effect that arises during a global nuclear conflict and was calculated for the first time twenty years ago by the Soviet Union. mathematician Nikita Nikolaevich Moiseev. It is now believed that the eruption of Mount Tambora (1815), which released several cubic kilometers of volcanic material into the atmosphere, caused a cooling on a planetary scale - leading to a “year without a summer” in Europe. Because of this eruption, the last pan-European famine in history occurred in 1816. Tens of thousands of Germans then moved to Russia and the USA. But these are just flowers. Recent studies have shown that the eruption of the Toba supervolcano led to a drop in average temperatures by eleven degrees, and the resulting glaciation had the most catastrophic consequences.

As you might guess, such a catastrophe is akin to a nuclear war or the fall of an asteroid. However, humanity can avoid war if it is guided by reason and not by emotions. You can try to shoot down or deflect an uninvited space “aliens” using existing technologies. But methods for preventing the eruption of not only “super-”, but also ordinary volcanoes do not yet exist - which is why these forecasts are, to put it mildly, cause concern.

On the other hand, there is no reason to panic either. The described catastrophe can happen - but not tomorrow or in a year. But a new reason to expect the “end of the world” has appeared in the near future. Therefore, we will still hear new “sensations” about the imminent explosion of a supervolcano, as well as about the collision of our planet with an asteroid, a black hole, and perhaps even with