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Tremors at the Phlegraean Fields supervolcano have been causing fears of an eruption for months. SSC Napoli wants to build a new stadium in the high-risk zone.
Naples – For months, the earthquakes in the Phlegraean Fields in the west of Naples have been causing fear and terror among the approximately 500,000 residents of the red zone of the Italian supervolcano. Here, of all places, the professional football club SSC Naples is planning to build a new stadium.
The Azzurri want to move out of their legendary Maradona Stadium
The president of SSC Naples, Aurelio De Laurentiis, recently caused a stir with the idea of a new building in the Neapolitan district of Bacoli. The Azzurri want to give up the legendary “Stadio Diego Armando Maradona”, which was built in 1959 and has 54,726 seats. This is where the former club of the Argentine football god, who died in 2020, celebrated its greatest triumphs with three Italian championship titles, six Italian cups, two Italian Super Cups and a UEFA Cup.
The original plan was to renovate the “Stadio Diego Armando Maradona” and bring it up to modern standards when the rental agreement with the venerable venue was extended. But the costs of converting the multifunctional arena would significantly exceed those of a new building, according to an investigation by the club. In addition, a three-year exodus from Naples would be necessary.
The new stadium will be located in a particularly risky area within the red zone
The club now wants to have a new stadium by 2025, as the European Championship will then be held in Italy and Turkey. In Bagnoli, an entire sports complex is to be built on the site of the Italsider steelworks, which was closed in 1992, including a training center with twelve additional playing fields. But the site lies in the middle of the danger zone of the Phlegraean Fields.
The renowned volcanologist and leading researcher at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), Giuseppe Mastrolorenzo, now warns in an interview with the Neapolitan football site areanapoli.it urgently about the construction of the arena in the volcanic zone. He had recently warned in another interview not to underestimate the possibility of an unexpected eruption and criticized the evacuation plans.
Researcher warns: “Outbreak could affect up to three million people”
The location of the planned new stadium is within the red zone, which is considered to be at high risk and should be evacuated first in the event of an outbreak. There is still a yellow zone that would be evacuated second. An inner zone was recently defined that is considered particularly risky. This applies to both earthquakes and potential volcanic eruptions.
“It is a large caldera that can produce eruptions ten times more powerful than those of Vesuvius, even the one that destroyed Pompeii,” warns Mastrolorenzo. “According to the current emergency plan, around 500,000 people would be involved, but based on volcanological findings and computational simulations, they could affect the entire population living in the greater Naples area, i.e. over three million people.”
Volcano researcher: In an emergency, the stadium and the surrounding area can hardly be evacuated
The new building must certainly be earthquake-proof, according to the researcher. In practice, however, all stadiums built from reinforced concrete and steel would have to be designed in such a way that they can withstand several thousand vibrations over a longer period of time. During SSC Naples games, earthquakes of magnitude 2 were measured at the current stadium due to the simultaneous jumping of the spectators on site. In the Phlegraean Fields, however, the entire ground constantly rises and falls over the decades. “But the fundamental problem is that the stadium is associated with an increased risk for the concentration of tens of thousands of people,” said Mastrolorenzo.
The stadium would bring with it a concentration of over 100,000 people. A quantity that corresponds to the population of the entire Bagnoli-Fuorigrotta district, in which the new building is planned. The number of parked cars would double on match days. “In the event of a seismic or volcanic emergency, the possible obstruction of rescue workers and possible evacuations would create chaos in the middle of an area where there is already constant traffic jams during the Games. Evacuations will be very difficult.”
Expert: “It is certainly not advisable to build a stadium in this area.”
The current stadium location is already outside the narrower danger zone and is directly connected to the main roads and motorways. It can also be hit by pyroclastic clouds during a major volcanic eruption, according to a simulation from the Science Channel Geopop showed.
But the new stadium would be even closer to the potential danger points. The plan is actually to transform the site of the former Italsider area into a city park, which could be used as a waiting area and landing site on water and in the air for evacuations in the event of a disaster. Mastrolorenzo: “The construction of the stadium would represent an obstacle”.
An earthquake or even an eruption could also cause panic in a packed stadium. Mastrolorenzo concludes: “It is certainly not advisable to build a stadium in this area.” When asked if there is a similar situation of a stadium in a volcanic zone, the researcher answers: “There are no situations similar to those in Naples, there we are in the particular case of a city inside the volcano and not near it. In general, however, there is a principle not to build stadiums in the red zones of volcanic areas.” Mastrolorenzo and other scientists had already warned several times that an unforeseen volcanic eruption could occur in the Phlegraean Fields at any time.
Mastrolorenzo advises: “In view of new findings, it would make more sense today to build a new facility, for example, in the north of Naples and the Phlegraean Fields, in short, outside the high-risk area.” In the current situation, one would build a stadium in the middle of an urbanized area and in build in an area with a risk of volcanoes and ground movement. “In my opinion, construction should take place in sparsely populated areas and, above all, far from the Caldera area, of course to the north, at least twenty kilometers from Pozzuoli.”
Football boss also thought about a stadium on Vesuvius – even though there is a construction freeze there
The Azzurri boss De Laurentiis had also been thinking aloud about a new building in San Giuseppe Vesuviano, a community at the foot of Mount Vesuvius where construction is not allowed at all because of the danger of volcanoes there. This also causes horror for Mastrolorenzo: “A sports center can be built anywhere if the urban planning requirements are adhered to, but if it is built in a red zone like the Vesuvius zone, where there is a construction freeze, you should not have an excessive influx of people and vehicles, as this would inevitably contribute to an increase in risk.”
A recent series of earthquakes on Vesuvius also indicated that the feared volcano is far from extinct.
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