The architecture of the deep magmatic system of the Campi Flegrei has been defined to understand the dynamics of the sectors of the caldera, of fundamental importance for the assessment of the volcanic hazard of the area.
These are the results achieved by a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) in the study “New insights into the recent magma dynamics under Campi Flegrei caldera (Italy) from petrological and geochemical evidence”, just published in the journal AGU’s ‘Journal of Geophysical Research’: Solid Earth.
“Calderas are volcanic depressions formed by the collapse of the ground during huge eruptions”, explains Lucia Pappalardo, INGV researcher and author of the study. “They often manifest phases of ‘unrest’ (or ‘imbalance’), with frequent earthquakes, uplift of the ground (the so-called ‘bradyseism’) and a considerable flux of heat and gas. However, since this activity is due to the complex interactions between magma and the hydrothermal system stored under the volcano, it is always difficult to predict the evolution of these manifestations”.