Volcano Under Italian Resort Could Erupt!

The volcano Ischia, apparently motivated by the Icelandic volcano, has begun loading up its magma chambers and experts now say there may be a danger of a future eruption. Located on a resort island, this can't be too good for business.

Italy has a history of famous volcanoes, including Mt. Vesuvius, which destroyed the city of Pompeii back in 79. (That is, year 79 A.D.). Pompeii was buried under 66 feet of ash and then disappeared for 1,600 years. Today, 500,000 people live on the slopes of Vesuvius, and the Italian city of Naples is eerily close to some of the possible projected eruption paths.

Naples has over 1 million inhabitants, and is the most densely populated city in Italy so you can imagine the chaos that would ensue if they all had to evacuate the city. Scientists are monitering patterns from past eruptions to try to be able to predict any future disasters. Vesuvius's last eruption was in 1944, and it destroyed 88 US airplanes that were stationed nearby during World War Two.

Italy also contains several other Volcanoes on Islands, including Etna and Stromboli. Etna has erupted several times over the last few years, but on a very small scale. The latest eruption was on April 8th 2010, was preceded by earthquakes, but only released a small amount of ash. Stromboli has been in a state of consistent eruption for at least hundreds of years, but there are rarely lava flows and usually the eruptions aren't powerful enough to cause much damage.

I think, for the time being, I probably won't be planning any trips to resorts under active volcanoes, at least until all these earthquakes and other disasters calm down a little bit.