L’Vesuvian Observatory communicated in a weekly monitoring bulletin soil lifting in the first 21 days of April approximately 3 cmequivalent to a monthly speed of 4 cm.
On the causes of soil lifting in the area of Phlegraean Fields a debate has opened among experts. To the microphones of Pozzuoli News 24 the volcanologist Giuseppe Luongo, emeritus professor of Volcanism Physics at the University of Naples “Federico II” and former director ofVesuvian Observatory shared his opinion on the matter:
“There are two conflicting thoughts on the cause of the rising of the ground: those who maintain that it is gas that rises and swells the crust to a thickness of about 3 kilometers and others, including me, who believe that it is the magma that pushes. From a source six to eight kilometers deep, we hypothesize a large magmatic mass from which a “small” channel of material migrates upwards.”
“The magma arrives – continues Luongo – to a certain depth of 3 or 4 kilometers and is unable to go further due to a balance problem. The material is very viscous and no longer as light as before and by pushing the crust it deforms. This is why every now and then we have lifting peaks as happened recently.”
But, therefore, is it a concrete hypothesis that the magma has risen? The volcanologist responds like this: “I believe the magma is not rising but I don’t have the data to confirm it. It is sufficient for the magma to push and for the curvature of the rocks to continue up to a certain breaking level to cause the earthquake.”
In the end Luongo launches an appeal toVesuvian Observatory: “Proving that magma does not rise is not impossible. Why don’t they present the data? The shape of the uplift changes over time and this change is also a function of the depth of the source. If this becomes more superficial a change occurs. On the surface we have a GPS network and they should tell us whether the source is closer to the surface or not.”
Concludes volcanologist: “We don’t know if the push is migrating upwards or not, we are not told and the data is not available at the moment or does not show it. This is what we should ask the Competence Center of the Vesuvian Observatory.”
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