Italian geologists have plotted the first complete map of the volcanic risk from Mt Vesuvius near Naples, the only European volcano to have erupted in the last 100 years.
The 650-square-km map, charted by researchers from Pisa and Bari universities, "permits a first major preliminary evaluation of the areas potentially at risk," Pisa University said in a statement.
The map, which was drawn up with the help of the Pisan section of the Italian Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), was based on the analysis of 500 years of land movements around the famously active volcano that buried Pompeii in 79 AD.
"It's a first step towards drawing up new detailed evacuation plans," said Pisa University's Giovanni Zanchetta. Naples occasionally goes through scares about its famous volcano.
The last flap was caused by a sonic boom in October 2008.
Citizens of Naples rushed to the phones after hearing a mighty bang over the city that lies in the shadow of Vesuvius.
Switchboards were jammed at the city's eruption hotline until it said the sleeping giant had nothing to do with the noise.
The bang, which was heard across the Naples area and out to sea, was caused by two Italian fighter jets racing to intercept an unidentified intruder.
The sonic boom came as the F16s broke the sound barrier to draw level with the plane and check its credentials.
As the city drew a huge breath of relief, the now-cleared Austrian plane continued its flight home from an aid mission in Chad.
A little over a year before the boom, a previous big fright came in August 2007 after US magazine National Geographic claimed that current evacuation plans wouldn't get people out in time if "the world's most dangerous volcano" blew its stack like it did in 79 AD.
Entitled Vesuvius, Asleep for Now, the report claimed that evacuation plans were not sufficiently up-to-date.
The city's anxiety levels fell after Vesuvius watchers issued a comprehensive denial.
In recent years, Naples officials have repeatedly played down reports that Vesuvius might be set to blow.
Top vulcanologist Franco Barberi recently said that even in the worst-case scenario, Naples' evacuation plan would enable the threatened populace to be smoothly evacuated.
Italy has created simulations of all possible kinds of eruptions, Barberi said.
Recent eruption forecasts have varied, saying the dormant volcano could slumber on for decades or centuries.
Around a million people currently live and work around Vesuvius and at the current rate of expansion this could swell by a further 200,000 by 2016.
In 2003 authorities in Naples started offering people living on the volcano's slopes hefty cash incentives to move away.
So far there have been few takers.
Vesuvius has erupted about three dozen times since it buried the Ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, killing about 2,000 people.
The most serious blast killed some 4,000 people in 1631.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
