TERRA INSTABILIS
Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields: the world’s most fearsome super-volcano is a potential time bomb
The world’s most dangerous volcano lies in the heart of Italy, near Naples. It is not the famed Vesuvius—or rather, not only that. The true threat comes from the deadly pair formed by the volcano that destroyed Pompeii and the often-overlooked, almost invisible Phlegraean Fields: a vast and devastating caldera located about twenty kilometres to the west. While Vesuvius rises in all its menacing beauty, the Phlegraean Fields—currently designated a “yellow zone” for certain types of activities—can only be fully grasped from above. This immense volcanic system has been active for more than 80,000 years and is dotted with craters, lakes, cones, and fumaroles, but also with roads, factories, and homes—where more than 600,000 people live.
Together with the 700,000 inhabitants living in the vicinity of Vesuvius, they occupy one of the most hazardous regions on Earth. Today, volcanologists monitor the area with sophisticated instruments, alert to the slightest sign of reawakening—an event that, sooner or later, is certain to come. Volcanoes have brought both death and life to the Bay of Naples: they have killed, but they have also fertilized the soil, created thermal springs whose waters are thought to possess “magical” properties, and provided the tuff stone with which entire cities were built. Yet the danger endures. A recent study has shown that the population living in and around the Campi Flegrei—the Italian name for the Phlegraean Fields—has almost no perception of the risk. An elaborate emergency plan has been devised, involving mass evacuations. But could it ever succeed in an area so densely populated?
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Publications
The Guardian (England) | National Geographic Italia (Italy) | Il Venerdì (Italy) | Gente (Italy) | Luoghi dell'Infinito (Italy)
Annabelle (Switzerland) | Rhythms Monthly (Taiwan)
