The government allocates 500 million euros for the safety of the buildings in the Campi Flegrei. And also consider helping those who want to leave the area financially. But in the meantime in Bacoli the municipality authorizes 350 new houses. And while the seismic swarm that began on May 20th ends, another one begins with the 3.6 magnitude shock yesterday, May 22nd. “The general dynamics does not change,” explained Mauro De Vito of the Vesuvian Observatory. «The ground is deforming. The average deformation rate of 2 centimeters per month has been stable for 40 days and is reflected in the increase in seismicity, comparable to that of last autumn”, he adds. Meanwhile, the Minister of Civil Protection Nello Musumeci is defining the evacuation plan: «We must be ready for anything».
The 80 thousand to help and the money
The inhabitants of the area affected by bradyseism in its red zone are around 80 thousand. Even if the entire area instead numbers 600 thousand. Meanwhile, the technicians are carrying out a survey of private real estate assets. Illegal homes and second homes are excluded from the census. The criterion is that of priority bands. And so it turns out that of the eight thousand buildings considered, 50% are at risk. Among these, 1,250 present a high risk and 2,750 a medium risk. «Whoever chose to live in that area knew the risks. We don’t have the perception of it, we remember it when the earth shakes”, said Musumeci. In the meantime, the Major Risks Commission confirms the yellow alert. While the Vesuvian Observatory quantifies the rising of the ground in the Rione Terra, the historic center of Pozzuoli: 25.5 centimeters from January 2023, 7.5 centimeters in 2024.
The new seismic swarm
«The fact that a swarm ends and then there are events is part of the same process. The swarm is our operational convention and indicates a concentration of seismic events in space and time”, adds De Vito. The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology has released a note in relation to the seismic swarm which has been underway in the area since 7.51pm on 20 May. Up until 00:31 on 21 May, approximately 150 earthquakes had been preliminarily recorded with a duration magnitude (Md) = 0.0 (95 localised) and a maximum magnitude (Md) of 4.4 (±0.3). «The Md 4.4 event was the most energetic among those recorded since the beginning of the current bradyseismic crisis that began in 2005. The epicenter is located inside the Solfatara at a depth of 2.6 km», explains Ingv.
The bradyseism crisis of 1982-1984
The INGV recalls that during the bradyseismic crisis of 1982-1984 the ground lifting reached 9 cm per month, and even exceeded 1,300 seismic events per month: «Currently, however, in the last month approximately 450 events with Md=0.0″. But the geochemical parameters measured with continuous stations (temperature and carbon dioxide flows) do not show significant variations compared to the trends of recent months, other than the well-known increase in temperature and pressure that characterizes the hydrothermal system. Seismicity, it is underlined in the note, is not a predictable phenomenon, therefore “it cannot be excluded that other seismic events may occur, even of similar energy to what has already been recorded during the current swarm”.
The 350 new houses in Bacoli
In the meantime, however, the municipality of Bacoli authorizes 350 new houses. Republic says that the new urban plan wanted by the mayor Josi Della Ragione allows for the possibility of new subsidized residential buildings in two areas, that of Cuma and the Chapels between the Gulf of Pozzuoli and Lake Fusaro. The mayor defends himself: «It’s not entirely about new homes. I only gave the opportunity to 350 families who live in areas at risk and in old dilapidated homes, some from the 19th century, to be able to build new homes also with public assistance in a less risky area using standards already applied in other municipalities in the Phlegraean Fields. To encourage them to move to an area which, I assure you, is less panoramic, we will also give a slight increase in volume. In exchange we undertake to demolish their old homes. So the “extra” cement will be very little.”
The extra cement
On social media the mayor also said that with “the new Puc we will allow the construction of new housing cooperatives to provide housing for the many families, especially young and poor, who have no roof.” Even if there is seismic risk there and a high population density: Bacoli has gone from 10 thousand inhabitants in the seventies to almost 30 thousand today. And many homes are old and others completely illegal. The Puc also allows demolitions. But for Fratelli d’Italia it is a threat precisely because it involves the demolition of concrete.
