Now scientists say a SECOND super-volcano is poised to blow: Warning over ... trends now
The Italian government is planning for a possible evacuation of more than 300,000 people due to a nearby dormant super volcano showing signs of an eruption - one month after American researchers found one rumbling in the US.
Campo Flegrei, west of Naples, has experienced more than 2,500 earthquakes in the past three months, with the largest hitting a 4.0 magnitude, which is a similar scenario that led to its 1583 eruption.
Scientists have predicted that if this sleeping giant blows, it could create a plum large enough to plunge Earth into a global winter for years.
The warning comes months after California researchers detected more than 2,000 earthquakes rumbling through the state's Long Valley Caldera that they said 'are precursors of an eruption.'
Thousands of earthquakes have been detected rumbling through Italy's Campi Flegrei volcano and California's Long Valley Caldera - both have once erupted with more than 240 cubic miles of material
The term 'supervolcano' implies a volcanic center with an eruption of magnitude 8 on the (VEI), meaning that it erupted at least 240 cubic miles of material at one point.
Explosive events of this size erupt so much magma that a circular-shaped collapse feature called a caldera forms above the evacuated magma storage region.
If Campi Flegrei were to blow, experts believe it would unleash molten lava and volcanic gases into the stratosphere, Live Science reports.
Tsunamis more than 100 feet high would form and spread the plum of toxic ash that could plunge Earth into a global winter for years.
Italy's supervolcano has been making headlines as officials mull over evacuating those living there due to the earthquakes that have reached a 4.2 magnitude and sightings of sulfurous fumes escaping from the surface.
And it is not just the more than 360,000 people who live at the mouth of the volcano who are at risk - there are about 2.3 million living on or around it.
Scientists have claimed that the Campi Flegrei crater was formed 39,000 years ago in a blast, the largest in Europe in the past 200,000 years.
Campi Flegrei last erupted in 1538, though on a much smaller scale.
The devastating Mount Vesuvius in 79 released a cloud of super-heated material and gases 21 miles into the sky, ejecting molten rock, pulverized pumice and hot ash at 1.5 million tons per second.
But Campi Flegrei is much larger than Mount Vesuvius.
Italy's supervolcano has been making headlines as officials mull over evacuating those living there due to the earthquakes that have reached a 4.2 magnitude and sightings of sulfurous fumes escaping from the surface
