An earthquake of magnitude 4.4 struck on Wednesday night, this Thursday, March 13, the field of the PHLEGREAN fields, near Naples, without causing serious injuries or great damage, but aroused the panic of the inhabitants of this metropolis in southern Italy.
The main shock was recorded at 01:25, 2.5 kilometers deep, announced the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV).
It was followed by a series of lower intensity replicas, “a maximum magnitude of 1.7,” a press official from the Vesubio Observatory, Francesca Bianco, told a press conference.
“Feel more strongly in the city”
Photos and videos published by the Italian media show cars covered with pebbles and debris, cracked houses, a collapsed roof and panic residents that come out in the streets in the middle of the night.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that the development of the situation in contact with civil protection services followed.
The earthquake “was particularly intense, similar to that of some time (in May 2024), but with an epicenter closer to Naples, so he felt more strongly in the city,” said Naples Mayor Gaetano Manfredi in RTL Radio.
“The situation is under control,” he said, recognizing that “obviously these are times when people are afraid.”
Material damage has been reported in several districts, especially in Bagnoli, a coastal district located in western Naples, where the church bell tower was slightly damaged and where schools will remain closed on Thursday.
“We are afraid”
According The mayor of Naples, a woman was slightly injured in Bagnoli for the collapse of a roof: she was rescued by firefighters, but only subjected to abuse. “Some other people have received glass scratches.
“We cannot continue like this, we cannot sleep, we are afraid,” said a resident of this district at night at the local team agency.
The volcanic area of the fields of Phlegrean, where about 500,000 people live, has already been affected by several earthquakes in recent years. The last important episode, in May 2024, was already 4.4 magnitude, an unprecedented intensity in 40 years.
The volcano, which extends on a perimeter of 15 km of 12, presents the typical depression with a flat bottom to the left after an eruption. This is the boiler (“Caldera” in Spanish) in the largest activity in Europe, located on the borders of the communes of Naples and Pozzoles by the sea.
In this region, the Phlegran fields are eclipsed by the nearby Vesubio, which dominates the Bay of Naples and whose eruption scratched Pompeya from the map in the year 79.
The Phlegran fields, of which an eruption 40,000 years ago had affected the climate of the planet, concern residents and scientists due to the resurgence of their activity due to the gases emitted by the magma and that exert pressure on the surface when the soil cracks.
However, the disaster scenario, namely, the expulsion of lava, ashes and stones, is unlikely in the near future, according to specialists.
Source: BFM TV
