Super volcano that could knock us back to the Ice Age hit by strongest earthquake in 40 years

Items flew off shelves and people took to the streets.

A volcanic area so active it could put Europe into a new Ice Age if it erupts was struck by a major earthquake yesterday.

Those living nearby felt tremors strongly as the quake hit at a shallow depth, with items flying off shelves in shops and sending people out into the street.

Campi Flegrei near Naples in southern Italy is the UK’s nearest supervolcano, eagerly monitored by scientists as it shows signs it could be gearing up to blow.

Last night’s tremor, which struck at 8.10pm local time, with the town of Pozzuoli as its epicentre, measured at 4.4 magnitude – the strongest measured for decades.

It was part of a ‘seismic storm’, which is when a lot of earthquakes hit back-to-back over a short period.

Over 48 hours, there were more than a dozen seismic events of more than 2.0 magnitude.

A study published in Nature last year looked at how Campi Flegrei is becoming more active, describing how that unrest has been changing the structure of its crust.

It told how any volcano ‘reawakening after long repose’ must rupture the crust before magma can erupt.

Researchers concluded that parts of the volcano had been stretched to almost breaking point.

‘Our new study confirms that Campi Flegrei is moving closer to rupture,’ said lead author Professor Christopher Kilburn.

After hundreds of small tremors last year, the Italian government was pushed to quickly redraft mass evacuation plans.

The volcanic area, which is also known as the Phlegraean Fields, has not had a major eruption since 1538, but it has the potential to cause devastation if it blows.

Near the notorious Mount Vesuvius, it is close to the densely populated city of Naples.

But a massive eruption would impact far further than just the neighbour in its shadow.

Unlike a typical volcano that looks like a mountain, Campi Flegrei is a depression 12 to 14km across – and around 360,000 people now live on its roof, with another 800,000 just outside.

It is the closest active volcano to London, less than 2,000km by road.

There has not been a true super eruption globally for 26,000 years, since New Zealand’s Taupō erupted. If one of Earth’s ‘supervolcanoes’ had an eruption on this scale today, the disruption would eclipse anything in living memory, making the travel problems from 2010’s Eyjafjallajökull eruption look like a blip.

Scientists can’t predict if and when a volcano will spew such a powerful load, but there are 14 around the world known to have released a super eruption, with the most famous perhaps being the Yellowstone Caldera in Wyoming.

As Campi Flegrei is partially under the sea, an eruption could lead to a huge tsunami swallowing up the Mediterranean basin, while ash would fall over hundreds of miles impacting agriculture and harming food supplies.

With a volcanic plume potentially reaching 100 miles into the atmosphere, ash could travel around the world and cause respiratory illnesses like silicosis, caused by breathing in silica, as well as worsening asthma, bronchitis and COPD.

It could cause global temperatures to drop by 1 to 3C due to sunlight being blocked from reaching the ground, with rainfall also reduced leading to potential draughts, Dr Mike Cassidy, an associate professor at the University of Birmingham, said.