Update on Naples Volcano Drilling
The risk from drilling into the Naples Supervolcano, planned to take place this month, has been averted for the time being. According to Newsweek:
The project has set off a passionate scientific and philosophical debate in a country where the idea of a volcano that could bury a city is more than just myth. Should they heed the rumblings under the earth and use science to evaluate the danger, possibly helping Naples avoid the tragedy that befell Pompeii? Or is it better not to tempt fate by drilling into the massive volcanic cauldron for fear that the work will disturb whatever combination of luck and geology has been keeping the city safe for thousands of years? The conflict has finally bubbled over, prompting the mayor of Naples, Rosa Russo Iervolino, to delay the start of the project and call a meeting this week in Rome to determine whether it’s safe to move forward.
…Benedetto De Vivo, a professor of geochemistry at the University of Naples, says probing the area could rattle the volcano, leading to earthquakes, explosions, and devastating pollution if noxious gases are inadvertently released from the caldera. “The risks here are enormous,” he tells NEWSWEEK. “You just don’t do an experiment like this in an urban area.”
Mayor Iervolino is torn. If she allows the drilling to go forward and there is so much as a slight tremor, she will forever be blamed for the carelessness of the decision. She says Naples has enough problems without the risk of man-made volcanic activity. Initially she signed off on the project, assuming that further research might protect the city from untold disaster, not cause it. But after hearing De Vivo’s concerns she delayed the drilling and called the meeting in Rome. “The civil-protection authorities must promise me that this will not put my city at risk,” she says. “Without that guarantee, there will be no drilling in any part of the caldera.”
Well if Deep Water Horizon didn’t wake these idiots up then we are screwed. BTW North West Arkansas, yeah that’s a culdera, which is connected to the New Madrid fault, and the Plantation Garden fault. See the picture, they probably shouldn’t drill in the caldera in the Indian Ocean either. I gotta better idea why don’nt we just blow up Yellowstone, the corporation claw is run by a bunch of filthy, greedy, morons.