Europe’s largest volcano is not the Phlegraean Fields or Etna: it is a huge mountain of fire beneath the surface of the sea off Italy.
Naples – No volcano currently produces as many headlines as the supervolcano of the Phlegraean Fields near Naples. Also the Vesuvius near the Italian port city or Mount Etna in Sicily are famous. But deep beneath the surface of the water in the Tyrrhenian Sea, roughly halfway between Naples and the Sicilian capital Palermo, lies a true volcanic giant – the Marsili.
Underwater volcano off the coast of Italy: Research shows Marsili is active
The underwater volcano rises around 3000 meters from the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, making Marsili the highest underwater volcano in Europe. Its summit is about 450 meters below the water surface. The Marsili was only discovered in 1920 and named after the Italian natural scientist Luigi Fernando Marsili (1658 – 1730). The giant volcano is 30 kilometers wide and 70 kilometers long. For comparison: Mount Etna, Europe’s largest mainland volcano, has a diameter of around 45 kilometers.
According to the Geophysical and Volcanological Institute (INGV) in Rome, Marsili, which was formed around a million years ago, has central fissures and 80 smaller side craters. The last eruptions of Marsili occurred around 2,100 and 3,000 years ago. “Events with a low explosion index that occurred particularly in the central area of the building between 800 and 1000 m depth,” explains INGV researcher Guido Ventura. “Investigations show that the underwater monster is still active,” says the INGV. However, researchers are currently only detecting undersea gas escapes and small seaquakes. But there is a truly catastrophic scenario for the giant.
Italy’s monster volcano could cause a huge catastrophe
Geologists suspect that the steep flanks of the Marsili volcano are in danger of collapsing, and an eruption could be the cause. INGV President Enzo Boschi told Corriere della Sera: “There is therefore an increased risk of tsunami for the coasts of southern Italy.” A rupture of the volcano walls would result in the rapid collapse of a large amount of material cause. This would trigger a tidal wave that could reach the coasts of Campania, Calabria and Sicily. “This could happen tomorrow.”, said Boschi. A YouTube video shows this scenario.
According to the expert, precise predictions are not possible. According to Boschi, the large amount of magma in the volcano’s magma chamber and its unstable structure could indicate “that the volcano is active and could erupt at any time.” A tsunami could devastate large cities such as Naples, Palermo or Cagliari in Sardinia, as well as hundreds of smaller ones Coastal cities and towns. Even just the intrusion of large amounts of magma without an eruption could destabilize the volcano’s flanks.
Italy is threatened by a tsunami: new seaquakes on Marsili are making researchers sit up and take notice
The undersea lava giant is monitored fully automatically around the clock via the Geostar (Geophysical and Oceanographic Station for Abyssal Research) deep-sea station. The seismographs on Marsili have registered increased activity in recent months: In December, ten seaquakes were measured within twelve hours around Marsili, two of them with a magnitude of 4.0 and 4.1. Most recently, there was another tremor on the edge of the sea volcano on September 28, 2023, this time with a magnitude of 3.2.
Although the INGV researchers consider the probability of a tsunami to be low, the risk of such a monster wave caused by Marsili should be examined in detail with an in-depth investigation.
Marsili volcano is active: video shows what an underwater eruption could look like
An eruption could also be quite harmless if the slopes remain stable. According to INGV researcher Ventura, “the only sign would then be boiling water on the surface, which would be associated with the degassing and the floating of the remaining volcanic material such as pumice.” This is likely to result in the suspension of shipping traffic for a few weeks, as was the case in 2011 during the eruption of an underwater volcano off the island of El Hierro on the Spanish Canary Islands, which was captured on video at the time.
Marsili is one of dozens of underwater volcanoes that formed in an arc along the coast of Sicily and the west coast of southern Italy. This is where the Eurasian and African continental plates meet. This led to the creation of many volcanic islands such as Lipari or the active volcano Stromboli.
#Huge #marine #volcano #threatens #Italy #shaken