What’s in a supervolvano? 🌋 US!
The blue is the caldera of the supervolcano. Pozzuoli is us 😳🫣🫠
*My first attempt at a post from my phone as the computer has journeyed to Djibouti for a few weeks.*
This morning I was awoken in a weird combination of familiarity and newness. I was laying in bed, doing my morning Italian lessons, when loud rattling and rumbling filled our apartment quickly followed by Olaf sounding his own bark alarms. I instinctively identified the clattering as the earth moving beneath me - the shifting and slipping of tectonic plates. Although a foreign, and honestly terrifying noise 30 years ago, when we moved to Alaska, I hardly take notice anymore. Earthquakes are common in Alaska, where North America’s highest peak is the result of tectonic collisions along an active fault line. Occasionally these earthquakes cause road cracks or for a knickknack to fall from a shelf. Even more rarely they do actual harm like building damage or scaring the poop out of a 12th floor hotel guest! Usually I log into social media, confirm it was an earthquake by everyone’s casual posting, and forget about it by the next meal.
Today I ran to social media to confirm my early morning suspicions because everything from the sound to the feel of this Italian quake was a different experience. It was even more brief than at home. The sound was louder and sharper, like someone was breaking into something. The shaking was less severe and instead felt like a giant shift instead of a back and forth sway.
Armed with internet knowledge and, more importantly, that of our geologist friends Rebecca Missler and Dr Karen Spaleta, here are some takeaways:
- We live IN the supervolcano
- It last erupted in 1538 but that was really a baby eruption compared to its potential
- A 3.1 earthquake here is a much bigger deal than it would be at home.
- A 4.0 killed people on the nearby island of Ischia in 2017
- A study in 2009 basically said this area is going to blow soon rather than later. Even suggesting maybe within decades. A 2017 study suggested maybe sooner 😳
- Locals are concerned with the frequency and increased severity of the quakes (since drafting this we’ve had two others that I could feel)
- Most of “our” supervolcano is underwater. Yup that same water we see from the terrace!
- The mythological home of the Roman God of fire, Vulcan, is within walking distance (Solfaterra)
- The mythological entrance to the underworld is also walking distance (Lake Averno)
The upper lake is the entrance to the underworld. We are near the lower lake.- It is believed Campi Flegrei’s eruption 40,000 years ago helped push the change from Neanderthal to HomoSapien after a volcanic winter
- An eruption 12,000 years ago formed the caldera that our Commune of Pozzuoli sits in the center of
- There’s a nearby thermal spa you can go pamper yourself in with the angry steamy leakage of our supervolcano 😂
- There’s an ancient Roman underwater city within walking distance. It sank into the ocean after an earthquake and was the summer home for emperors including Nero (BTW, there are snorkel and dive tours there!)
- The 3.1 quake that woke me up was the strongest here since 1982. Since then there’s been a 2.9 and a 2.7.
- The “future hazards” paragraph on wiki says “a large scale eruption like the one 40,000 years ago [capable of killing millions] is unlikely” Wikipedia is rarely this reassuring 🤔
- The combo of thermal activity and ancient volcanic ash make great wine 🍷 👍🏼
NOVA 1hr Special with the Ever Comforting Title "The Next Pompeii"
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