Level of alert in Campi Flegrei may have to be raised

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 7 - The level of alert in the volcanic Campi Flegrei area near Naples currently affected by bradyseism, or ground uplift, may have to be raised on the basis of available scientific data, Civil Protection Minister Nello Musumeci said on Tuesday.
    Following a meeting at the end of last month, Musumeci told the Lower House Environment Committee that the experts on the national commission for major risks "informed us that it is necessary to prepare for the possible need to quickly move towards a higher level of alert than yellow" in the area known as the Phlegrean Fields in English, where recent big seismic activity has fears of harm to people and property.
    "The body of scientific results reinforces the evidence of the involvement of magma in the current bradyseismic process of ground uplift," explained the minister.
    Musumeci also said no changes need to be made to the recent government decree on earthquake risk in the Campi flegrei area in light of the commission's findings.
    In early October the government of Premier Giorgia Meloni approved an emergency decree providing for an "extraordinary plan for analysing the vulnerability of built-up areas directly affected by the bradyseismic phenomenon" underway in the area after an earthquake swarm culminated in a 4.2-magnitude earthquake, the biggest quake to hit the area in 40 years.
    The decree allocates 52.2 million euros to cover implementation of the four point plan involving a seismic microzonation study, an analysis of the seismic vulnerability of private buildings, an analysis of the seismic vulnerability of public buildings, and a programme to implement seismic and structural monitoring and the development of a full evacuation plan, which should be available by the end of the year.
    The Campi Flegrei are a large area of supervolcanic calderas situated to the west of Naples, also featuring bradyseismic phenomena, where the earth shifts constantly.
    Civil protection officials and local politicians have called for wide-scale evacuation plans for the area, while some experts have said they are unfeasible given the high number of people living there, over half a million.
    The chance of a major eruption there is slim but smaller eruptions and more tremors are widely expected. (ANSA).