«Don’t talk about alarm, because there is no alarm», the director in the control room of the Vesuvian Observatory Mauro Di Vito look at the monitors that signal every tremor of the earth and try to convey a reassuring message, even if yesterday the Vesuvius it made its power felt with a 3.1 degree shock and the day before i Phlegraean Fields they gave a vigorous 3.9 degree push that was felt all the way to the center of Naples.
Yesterday’s shock at dawn was barely felt by the population of the Vesuvian area and did not cause any damage, exactly like the one on Saturday in the sea of Bacoli: lots of fear, zero failure, luckily. Yesterday morning the Prefect called a meeting to take stock of the situation, he also obtained reassurances from the mayors of the areas hit by the earthquake, from the experts of the Civil protection, by the same director of the Observatory who connected from the headquarters in via Diocleziano, because you cannot let your guard down, not even on a Sunday morning.
The signals
Di Vito and the team of sixty people who take turns managing the operations room have been unable to catch their breath for many months. Garrison 24 hours on 24, without ever letting our guard down, not even to Christmasto New Year’sto Mid-August: there is always someone keeping an eye on dozens of monitors connected to seismographs and a myriad of other detection devices. When a device registers a more intense shock, the sound of a siren sounds in the room to attract attention. Measurements and checks begin immediately to provide, within the first five minutes, a reliable report to be transferred to the authorities, Prefecture and Civil Protection. There is also a red telephone (it is really red) connected to the Prefecture to launch any, and undesirable, immediate alarms.
The location of the epicenter is pinpointed with ever greater precision as the minutes pass and the computers digest and spit out the details about the event; the magnitude is measured with millimeter precision by women and men of the Observatory: the process is repeated over and over again to return an unassailable value, without a shadow of doubt about the precision, because earthquakes are serious stuff and you cannot run the risk of providing unreliable data.
The controversies
The director smiles Di Vito in the face of the social assault that accuses theObservatory to provide “softened” news so as not to spread panic or for other imaginative reasons spread on the web: «These are paradoxical inferences. Here there are the greatest experts in seismology and volcanology, people who dedicate their entire lives to study and field checks. And then – he says, spreading his arms – we would be condemned if we spread fake data. Social media is not always reliable, which is why we always ask you to rely on official information channels.”
Then there is also the great fear, this too shouted out on social media, which develops on the theme of the expansion of the areas where the shocks are felt which are also felt in the heart of Naples, in the Western province, even on the islands, a sign, according to the internet professors, that the intensity of the tremors is visibly increasing. The director sighs and, patiently, also extinguishes this other fear: “Everything depends on the ability of the ground to cushion or transport seismic waves.”
He approaches a map of the territory, indicates the area that goes towards the hill of the Camaldoli «in this direction the seismic waves find greater resistance», then he points his finger towards the Posillipo area «This route, however, transports the shocks of the earthquake more easily».
Bradyseism
In search of clarity and serenity on the issue of bradyseism and sequential earthquakes, Di Vito also agrees to focus on another issue, that according to which in the bradyseismic crisis of the 1980s the tremors were not felt even in the city of Naplesas happens today.
It is at this moment that the director ofObservatory he picks up his smartphone and clarifies: «In the 80s there weren’t these objects through which it was possible to have real-time reports even of seismic events that only instruments can intercept. Now we discover that in a single day there are many earthquakes, even if they are imperceptible, but the mere fact of knowing that they have occurred makes us imagine a danger that does not exist. Here, know that it is not abnormal for there to be many small shocks during a bradyseism crisis like the current one.”
Steps for the promise to clarify that there is no alarm, steps for the clarification on the spread of panic which occurs only because of social media. But what’s life likeVesuvian Observatory in the midst of the bradyseism crisis? «Obviously we are under pressure, because events follow one another and we have the duty to follow them, report them, monitor them. But we are calm, there are no signs of danger. If there were any we would be the first to report it; if we don’t do it it means that there is no need to be afraid.”
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Read the full article at
The morning
