The level of alert in the volcanic
Campi Flegrei area near Naples currently affected by bradyseism,
or ground uplift, may have to be raised on the basis of
available scientific data, Civil Protection Minister Nello
Musumeci said on Tuesday.
Following a meeting at the end of last month, Musumeci told the
Lower House Environment Committee that the experts on the
national commission for major risks "informed us that it is
necessary to prepare for the possible need to quickly move
towards a higher level of alert than yellow" in the area known
as the Phlegrean Fields in English, where recent big seismic
activity has fears of harm to people and property.
"The body of scientific results reinforces the evidence of the
involvement of magma in the current bradyseismic process of
ground uplift," explained the minister.
Musumeci also said no changes need to be made to the recent
government decree on earthquake risk in the Campi flegrei area
in light of the commission's findings.
In early October the government of Premier Giorgia Meloni
approved an emergency decree providing for an "extraordinary
plan for analysing the
vulnerability of built-up areas directly affected by the
bradyseismic phenomenon" underway in the area after an
earthquake swarm culminated in a 4.2-magnitude earthquake, the
biggest quake to hit the area in 40 years.
The decree allocates 52.2 million euros to cover implementation
of the four point plan involving a seismic microzonation study,
an analysis of the seismic vulnerability of private buildings,
an analysis of the seismic vulnerability of public buildings,
and a programme to implement seismic and structural monitoring
and the development of a full evacuation plan, which should be
available by the end of the year.
The Campi Flegrei are a large area of supervolcanic calderas
situated to the west of Naples, also featuring bradyseismic
phenomena, where the earth shifts constantly.
Civil protection officials and local politicians have called for
wide-scale evacuation plans for the area, while some experts
have said they are unfeasible given the high number of people
living there, over half a million.
The chance of a major eruption there is slim but smaller
eruptions and more tremors are widely expected.
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