At least ten seismic shocks have been recorded since midnight today, May 1st, in the Campi Flegrei area. Yet another seismic swarm continues the trend of intensifying activity underground of the supervolcano. The magnitude of the tremors was slight, the strongest of which, at 1.23am, reached a magnitude of 2.4 on the Richter scale. Others, weaker but less profound, were felt directly by the population, especially in the Pozzuoli area, with the Municipality having in any case promptly alerted the citizens. The seismic activity, which in an episode in April reached a value of 3.9 on the Richter scale, was accompanied during the month by an increase in bradyseism in the Campi Flegrei. Last month, in fact, the ground in the Rione Terra area of Pozzuoli rose by approximately 2.5 centimeters, compared to the centimeter of the previous months, which constitutes the normal threshold for this phenomenon.
More earthquakes coming
To reel off the data interviewed on Fanpage is Francesca Bianco, seismologist and volcanologist, director of the Volcanoes Department (Ingv). «This significant increase must be kept under observation», comments the expert. And she adds: “But, to date, we have no elements that suggest an imminent eruption.” Similar events, which then reversed, also occurred in 2005, and we are still far from the levels of the period between 1982 and 1984 when the ground rose by 1.8 metres. Despite the size of the phenomenon, Bianco also reassures on the earthquake front. In fact, you explain that earthquakes of magnitude 6 or higher tend to cause damage to buildings. «At Campi Flegrei we are in a volcanic area, where there are no large faults that could generate earthquakes of that level. It is reasonable to think that it is not likely to have such events. But the magnitude cannot be predicted.”
