Pompeii 2? Supervolcano ‘time bomb’ that could explode ‘anytime’ puts 2million at risk
MORE than 1.5million people have been warned they are now living in the danger zone of a super volcano which could go off anytime -causing a global catastrophe.
By JON AUSTIN
Express.co.uk
Mon, Jan 25, 2016
Half of the three million people living in Naples in Italy have now been told they live within a new yellow danger zone of the Vesuvius supervolcano, the infamous peak which was responsible for the historic destruction of Pompeii in 79AD.
Fears are so strong that people have been warned in the event of a catastrophic eruption those in the yellow zone could be hit by falling ash and rocks.
Officials in the city have added around 1.5 million people living in 63 towns and villages on the outskirts of Naples to an existing red-zone of 600,000 people, within the closest 200 square kilometres to the peak, who were already deemed most at risk – taking the total to 2.1 million.
These people are most at risk and could even experience pyroclastic flows – 200mph blasts of scalding gas, ash and rock that can destroy anything in their path, including buildings.
Vesuvius is so dangerous because it is on top of at least 154 square miles of bubbling magma, meaning a major eruption would send enough ash into the atmosphere to block out sunlight for months.
It would affect huge parts of Europe or even further afield, potentially causing a mini ice age.
One Japanese scientist, Nakada Setsuya, of the University of Tokyo, has been warning for the past three years, that it is not a case of if but when it next erupts.
In 2012, he told a volcano threat conference in Italy that: “Italy must discuss and prepare a plan to manage the situation.”
The Rest…HERE
