Scientists to drill 13,000ft into active volcano

Scientists are planning to drill 13,000ft into the heart of an active volcano in Italy in an attempt to protect the nearby city of Naples by gauging when it is likely to erupt. But experts have warned that the project could trigger an explosion of red hot magma or even an earthquake.

The team of scientists wants to insert a borehole inside Campi Flegrei, a huge volcanic formation outside Naples, in the hope of gauging how active it is.
Also known as the Phlegraean Fields, Campi Flegrei is an eight-mile-wide caldera lying west of Naples.

It comprises 24 volcanic fissures and craters – one of which was believed by the ancient Romans to be the home of Vulcan, the god of fire - although much of it lies under water as it extends into the Bay of Naples.

It last erupted in 1538, and recent seismic activity in the area has raised fears that it could be ready to blow again. The project is due to start early next month, when the team will drill 1640ft into the ground at a site in Bagnoli, near Naples. The second phase, due to start in the spring, will involve the drilling of a 4,000 metre deep borehole at the same location.

Scientists will use sensors to measure seismic activity and the temperature of the rock at different depths in an attempt to understand how unstable the area is.

"Calderas are the only volcanoes that can cause truly catastrophic eruptions with global consequences, yet they are still poorly understood," Giuseppe De Natale, the project's coordinator and a geophysicist at Italy's National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology, told the science magazine Nature.

But there are fears that the experiment, which will tap into 500-600C hot magma, could lead to an eruption which would endanger the 1.5 million people who live in and around Naples.

Benedetto de Vivo, a professor of geochemistry at the University of Naples, said a similar drilling project in Iceland had to be stopped last year after magma was found at a much shallower depth than expected. The Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed by a catastrophic eruption by nearby Mt Vesuvius in AD79.


/Telegraph.co.uk/