A 4.7 quake shook Naples and the Campi Flegrei — the strongest there in 40 years
A magnitude 4.7 earthquake in the Campi Flegrei injured 21 people, forced evacuations in Pozzuoli and halted trains and ferries. It was the region's strongest in four decades.
At 7.49pm on Friday the ground west of Naples gave a magnitude 4.7 jolt, and the region knew immediately this was not another of the tremors it has learned to live with. It was the strongest in four decades. Twenty-one people were hurt, two of them seriously, and around 18 families had to leave their homes.
Where did the Campi Flegrei earthquake hit?
The epicentre sat about three kilometres down, between Pozzuoli and Quarto, inside the Campi Flegrei caldera — the stretch of ground beside Naples that has been breathing sulphur for centuries and where half a million people live directly on top of a sleeping volcano. In Pozzuoli, falling rock hit parked cars, several empty buildings collapsed and landslides came down.
Will there be more earthquakes near Naples?
Probably, and saying so is not scaremongering. Italy’s geophysics institute confirmed a seismic swarm is under way and counted, on a first pass, at least 17 tremors above magnitude 2.0. That is the textbook signature of bradyseism, the slow ground uplift the area has been logging for years and which scientists at the INGV monitor around the clock.
The quake also stopped the city as a precaution. Trains through the Naples rail junction were suspended so the lines could be inspected, and the port of Pozzuoli cancelled ferries to Ischia and Procida — in August, the month half of Italy empties onto those islands. Anyone with a trip booked to the Bay of Naples in the coming weeks should check timetables before setting off.
Portugal knows the script: the response to a seismic swarm is judged on preparation rather than magnitude, as the international aid effort after the Venezuela earthquakes showed. In Pozzuoli the evacuation plans already existed on paper. Friday was the test of whether they work on the street.
Image: Norbert Nagel / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
