Campi Flegrei earthquakes, monitoring of the Gulf of Pozzuoli strengthened: new infrastructure to detect gas and marine currents

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The installation of the INGV joins the pre-existing Medusa network and will allow the parameters linked to gas emission to be kept under control

Monitoring of the marine area of the Gulf of Pozzuoli is strengthened where, as is known, the Campi Flegrei caldera extends, and where many of the tremors detected in recent months during the ongoing bradyseismic crisis have been recorded. In fact, a new infrastructure of the Vesuvian Observatory of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology has been installed, which will complement the pre-existing monitoring network called Medusa, with the aim of studying gas emissions in the submerged sector. The installation, also created thanks to the contribution of the Civil Protection Department, was made possible thanks to the INGV diving group, in coordination with the Campi Flegrei Archaeological Park.

The affected area was identified in a particular sector of the Gulf of Pozzuoli known as Secca delle Fumose, already the subject of studies and monitoring, and where the installation of other marine scientific instruments is also planned. It is, in fact, un the focal point of the Phlegraean thermalism, where already in ancient times the emergence of hot waters and vapors was evident, so much so that it pushed the ancient Romans to build a unique artificial island that allowed them to take advantage of the healthiness of the phenomenon.

The new marine observatory will make it possible to constantly monitor the temperature of hydrothermal emissions on the seabed, the concentration of carbon dioxide of volcanic origin dissolved in sea water and the marine current: all useful parameters for estimating the energy associated with underwater gas emission and for monitoring any variations. This new instrumentation, therefore, strengthens the existing infrastructure at the Campi Flegrei in the submerged sector of the caldera, which presents objective logistical difficulties.

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