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The Independent
4 days ago
- General
- The Independent
‘Mount Etna is erupting, look!' Tourists flee as volcano spews ash and lava
Tourists fled from the sides of Sicily's Mount Etna on Monday after it erupted, sending dense clouds of ash and gas miles into the sky. Dozens of people were seen scrambling down Europe's largest active volcano after it was shaken by tremors that were widely felt in surrounding towns and villages. Billowing clouds were visible from some distance, with images showing the eruption was visible from the Ancient Theatres of Taormina, about 18 miles away. However, the eruption was confined to the summit and did not threaten any visitor zones or local towns, officials said. It began in the early hours of Monday morning following volcanic tremors, and Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said eruption activity has continued since then with 'increasing intensity' and was 'almost continuous', with the potential to further increase. But Sicilian officials and volcanic experts reassured locals and tourists alike that the closely monitored eruption posed no danger to those on the Mediterranean island. 'Although this can appear terrifying to tourists visiting the volcano, this activity is nothing unusual for Mount Etna, which is almost continually active and has these sorts of eruptions every year or two,' Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL told The Independent. Locals close to the volcano took Monday's eruption in their stride. 'Mount Etna is erupting, look!' said Giorgio, a local hotel owner who said the eruptions are regular and that Sicilians in the ancient port city of Catania are now used to regular disturbances which can coat the area in a thin layer of ash. In the centre of the city, celebrations continued for Festa della Repubblica, a national holiday marking the foundation of the modern Italian republic in 1946. Tourists near the Basilica Cattedrale di Sant'Agata queued for gelato in the 29C heat as plumes of smoke drifted skywards in the distance. Alert levels were raised at Catania Airport but no major flight disruptions were reported. It was one of more than a dozen eruptions this year alone at Mount Etna, which is also known as the 'Lady of the Rings' due to rings of water vapour it can produce. Professor Dougal Jerrem, a volcanologist and geologist, said this week's eruption on Etna followed plenty of recent eruptive behaviour. 'There was around, I think, 13 reported eruptions in the year. And often they can be quite small. Occasionally, they can start with an explosive phase like this one has,' he told The Independent. While Monday's eruption began explosively, a key reassurance for officials and the more than 1 million people living within roughly 18 miles of the volcano was that lava flow had not yet reached the Valley of the Lion, which is the limit to how high tourists are allowed to go on the mountain. President of the Sicilian region, Renato Schifani said authorities were following the volcanic activity 'with extreme caution'. 'At the moment, from the first surveys, the material has not exceeded the edge of the Valley of the Lion and, as they assure me, there is no danger for the population.' The mayor of Catania, the closest large town to the volcano, said everything was 'normal and under control'. He told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that due to the monitoring of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, the summit area had already been closed prior to the eruption. Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL, said today's eruption at Mount Etna was 'nothing unusual' for the popular volcano. 'Although this can appear terrifying to tourists visiting the volcano, this activity is nothing unusual for Mount Etna, which is almost continually active and has these sorts of eruptions every year or two,' he said. Prof Jerrem said the thing to look out for was whether the volcanic activity continues for some time. The thing to look out for is whether this then does carry on for some significant time. It can often go on for several days, weeks and even months, whether that leads to more significant lava flows in the not-too-distant future,' he said.
Metro
29-05-2025
- Science
- Metro
Experts reveal what would happen if supervolcano 1,000 miles from London erupted
Solfatara is one of the 40 craters of the Campi Flegrei (Picture: LightRocket/Getty Images) A supervolcano is waking up from a centuries-long sleep, scientists fear, and it could be 'devastating' if it erupts. Campi Flegrei, or 'burning fields' in Italian, is a vast volcanic region that includes nearby Mount Vesuvius. The eight-mile-wide area has been mostly eruption-free since 1538, when Naples saw a week of lava and smoke that formed Mount Nuovo. But the blast was nothing compared to the eruption 40,000 years ago, so strong that the ash clouds and gas changed the Earth's climate. Experts have long believed Campi Flegrei could erupt again, with the volcanic alert level being yellow since 2012. But a burst of volcanic activity – hundreds of small, shallow earthquakes as recently as Sunday and the earth swelling and sinking – is raising fears it might come sooner than later. Will Campi Flegrei erupt? The Solfatara crater coughs up up to 5,000 tons of carbon dioxide a day, the new study found (Picture: KONTROLAB) A 4.4 magnitude quake hit Pozzuoli and Bagnoli in March, the strongest in 40 years. While 6,000 tremors have occurred in the last six months. A new study by Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology says the Solfatara crater is also spewing up to 5,000 tons of gas a day. The institute said that 80% of the carbon dioxide is coming from magma, while the rest is from hot liquids and calcite rocks interacting, another possible sign of the volcano's awakening. One reason for the rise in seismic activity is that layers of the large, caldron-like crater that Campi Flegrei is in are weakening. Layers about 4km deep in the crater, called a caldera, have been softening since 2005 and the crust is now starting to crack. The team said there are two possible outcomes based on their findings. The magma will keep swirling beneath the surface before cooling, causing a 'failed eruption', or a 'large volume' of magma about 8km deep could 'eventually' break out. What would happen if the supervolcano erupts? Campi Flegrei, 'burning fields' in Italian, has been bubbling with volcanic activity in recent weeks (Picture: Metro) Campi Flegrei, only 1,000 miles from London, stretches out into the sea, meaning that an eruption could cause tsunamis, while plumes of ash could blot out the sun, lower temperatures and impact food supplies. Around 360,000 people live in the area, also called the Phlegraean Fields, and it is less than seven miles from Naples, home to 1million people. But Bill McGuire, a professor emeritus in geophysical and climate hazards at University College London, doubts that Campi Flegrei erupting would be world-ending – if it even happens. Speaking to Metro, he said: 'In terms of what an eruption would look like, it would all depend on the scale. A small eruption, like 1538, would probably result in local lava flows and ashfall across the Naples area. Damaging, disruptive and costly, but not devastating. 'A blast on the scale of the one that happened around 40,000 years ago would cause regional devastation and would reduce global temperatures for a number of years, bringing big problems in terms of growing crops.' The authorities have evacuation plans for the millions living in the wider Naples area, with officials posting tremor updates every six hours. McGuire added: 'We will just need to keep monitoring activity and wait and see.' Thousands of tremors, most minor and shallow, have taken place in the last few months (Picture: KONTROLAB/LightRocket/Getty A 4.4 magnitude tremor shook towns around Campi Flegrei in March (Picture: Antonio Balasco/LiveMedia/Shutte) Matthew Watson, a professor of volcanoes and climate at the University of Bristol, said that Campi Flegrei erupting would be 'grave'. He told Metro: 'This is due to both a large population living nearby and the scale at which an eruption might happen. 'Whilst the consequences of a large eruption there would be grave indeed and felt across the world, it is important to remember that eruptions of that size are very, very rare. 'It is important to prepare and plan for such events, as best we can, but talk of an imminent supervolcanic eruption is unfounded.' Christopher Kilburn, a professor of volcanology and geophysical hazards at UCL, said that the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology' findings aren't too surprising. He said to Metro: 'Campi Flegrei is a volcano, after all. The new studies, though, are helping to build a clearer picture of what is happening underground and whether another eruption is likely after nearly 500 years.' A volcanologist told Metro that the supervolcano eruption would be 'felt across the world' (Picture: KONTROLAB/LightRocket/Getty Images) Kilburn, who has studied Campi Flegrei with Italian colleagues for more than 25 years, said talks of a super-eruption are 'misleading'. He said: 'The dozens of eruptions from the volcano in the past 15,000 years have been thousands of times smaller than that. 'These smaller sizes are the most likely should another eruption occur – certainly a menace to the 500,000 people living in Campi Flegrei, but not one that 'could plunge the planet into chaos' as some headlines suggest.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. 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Yahoo
31-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Why was the earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand so damaging as death toll crosses 1,600
A massive 7.7-magnitude earthquake has killed at least 1,650 people in Myanmar and Thailand, leaving the region reeling as rescuers pick through vast piles of rubble to find missing people. Thousands streamed out of their buildings in scenes of panic and chaos after the quake struck at around midday on Friday, causing numerous structures to come crashing down in one of the worst earthquakes the region has seen. The scale of damage in Myanmar, which has recorded 1,644 deaths and 2,376 injuries, appears to be devastating. Religious buildings, roads, hospitals and bridges have collapsed, with the UN's humanitarian agency warning on Saturday that it was struggling to get aid to areas in need due to damage to Myanmar's infrastructure. In Bangkok, rescue efforts for dozens of missing people continued into their second day, after a skyscraper under construction collapsed in a huge plume of dust as onlookers screamed and ran from the site. Bangkok authorities on Saturday revised the number of deaths down from 10 to six, while 26 people have been injured and 47 others are missing at sites across the city. As rescuers continue working to save people trapped under the rubble, here's a look at how and why the earthquake happened in Myanmar. At around 6am GMT, a huge quake was recorded in the centre of Myanmar. The quake, which had a depth of 6.2 miles (10km) and was centred about 10.3 miles (17km) from Myanmar's second-largest city of Mandalay, was followed by a strong 6.4-magnitude aftershock. Earthquakes strike when tectonic plates, the large rocks making up the Earth's crust, rub against each other. The USGS says the Myanmar quake occurred due to 'strike slip faulting' between the India and Eurasia plates - which Myanmar sits on top of. Sitting on the boundary between two tectonic plates, Myanmar is one of the most seismically active countries in the world. But earthquakes of such magnitude are rare in the heavily-affected Sagaing region. "The plate boundary between the India Plate and Eurasia Plate runs approximately north-south, cutting through the middle of the country," said Joanna Faure Walker, a professor and earthquake expert at University College London. Plates move past each other horizontally at different speeds. While this causes 'strike slip' quakes which aren't as powerful as those seen in 'subduction zones', they still have the capacity to hit magnitudes of 7 to 8. While Sagaing has been hit by several quakes in recent years, including a 6.8-magnitude quake killing at least 26 in 2012, Friday's event was 'probably the biggest' to hit Myanmar's mainland in 75 years, according to UCL earthquake expert Bill McGuire. The shallow depth of the quake meant the damage would be more severe, honorary research fellow at the British Geological Survey Roger Musson said. "This is very damaging because it has occurred at a shallow depth, so the shockwaves are not dissipated as they go from the focus of the earthquake up to the surface. The buildings received the full force of the shaking. "It's important not to be focused on epicentres because the seismic waves don't radiate out from the epicentre - they radiate out from the whole line of the fault," he added. Fatalities could range between 10,000 and 100,000 people, the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program said using data based on Myanmar's size, location and overall quake readiness. Infrastructure has not been built to withstand large-scale quakes in the Sagaing region due to the relative rarity of large seismic events - meaning the damage could be catastrophic. Mr Musson said that the last major quake to hit the region was in 1956, and homes are unlikely to have been built to withstand seismic forces as powerful as those that hit on Friday. "Most of the seismicity in Myanmar is further to the west whereas this is running down the centre of the country," he said.
The Independent
31-03-2025
- General
- The Independent
Why was the earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand so damaging as death toll crosses 1,600
A massive 7.7-magnitude earthquake has killed at least 1,650 people in Myanmar and Thailand, leaving the region reeling as rescuers pick through vast piles of rubble to find missing people. Thousands streamed out of their buildings in scenes of panic and chaos after the quake struck at around midday on Friday, causing numerous structures to come crashing down in one of the worst earthquakes the region has seen. The scale of damage in Myanmar, which has recorded 1,644 deaths and 2,376 injuries, appears to be devastating. Religious buildings, roads, hospitals and bridges have collapsed, with the UN's humanitarian agency warning on Saturday that it was struggling to get aid to areas in need due to damage to Myanmar's infrastructure. In Bangkok, rescue efforts for dozens of missing people continued into their second day, after a skyscraper under construction collapsed in a huge plume of dust as onlookers screamed and ran from the site. Bangkok authorities on Saturday revised the number of deaths down from 10 to six, while 26 people have been injured and 47 others are missing at sites across the city. As rescuers continue working to save people trapped under the rubble, here's a look at how and why the earthquake happened in Myanmar. What happened and why? At around 6am GMT, a huge quake was recorded in the centre of Myanmar. The quake, which had a depth of 6.2 miles (10km) and was centred about 10.3 miles (17km) from Myanmar's second-largest city of Mandalay, was followed by a strong 6.4-magnitude aftershock. Earthquakes strike when tectonic plates, the large rocks making up the Earth's crust, rub against each other. The USGS says the Myanmar quake occurred due to 'strike slip faulting' between the India and Eurasia plates - which Myanmar sits on top of. Are earthquakes common in Myanmar? Sitting on the boundary between two tectonic plates, Myanmar is one of the most seismically active countries in the world. But earthquakes of such magnitude are rare in the heavily-affected Sagaing region. "The plate boundary between the India Plate and Eurasia Plate runs approximately north-south, cutting through the middle of the country," said Joanna Faure Walker, a professor and earthquake expert at University College London. Plates move past each other horizontally at different speeds. While this causes 'strike slip' quakes which aren't as powerful as those seen in 'subduction zones', they still have the capacity to hit magnitudes of 7 to 8. Why was the earthquake so damaging? While Sagaing has been hit by several quakes in recent years, including a 6.8-magnitude quake killing at least 26 in 2012, Friday's event was 'probably the biggest' to hit Myanmar's mainland in 75 years, according to UCL earthquake expert Bill McGuire. The shallow depth of the quake meant the damage would be more severe, honorary research fellow at the British Geological Survey Roger Musson said. "This is very damaging because it has occurred at a shallow depth, so the shockwaves are not dissipated as they go from the focus of the earthquake up to the surface. The buildings received the full force of the shaking. "It's important not to be focused on epicentres because the seismic waves don't radiate out from the epicentre - they radiate out from the whole line of the fault," he added. Was Myanmar prepared? Fatalities could range between 10,000 and 100,000 people, the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program said using data based on Myanmar's size, location and overall quake readiness. Infrastructure has not been built to withstand large-scale quakes in the Sagaing region due to the relative rarity of large seismic events - meaning the damage could be catastrophic. Mr Musson said that the last major quake to hit the region was in 1956, and homes are unlikely to have been built to withstand seismic forces as powerful as those that hit on Friday. "Most of the seismicity in Myanmar is further to the west whereas this is running down the centre of the country," he said.
Daily Tribune
30-03-2025
- Politics
- Daily Tribune
Why Myanmar quake was so deadly?
TDT | Bangkok, Thailand Email : Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. "High casualties and extensive damage are probable, and the disaster is likely widespread," it said, locating the epicenter near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar's ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had passed 1,000, with more than 2,000 injured. However, the USGS analysis said there was a 35 percent chance that possible fatalities could be in the range of 10,000-100,000 people. The USGS offered a similar likelihood that the financial damage could total tens of thousands of millions of dollars, warning that it might exceed the GDP of Myanmar. Weak infrastructure will complicate relief efforts in the isolated, military-ruled state, where rescue services and the healthcare system have already been ravaged by four years of civil war sparked by a military coup in 2021. Dangerous fault Bill McGuire, emeritus professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London (UCL), said it was "probably the biggest earthquake on the Myanmar mainland in three-quarters of a century". A 6.7-magnitude aftershock struck minutes after the first and McGuire warned that "more can be expected". Rebecca Bell, a tectonics expert at Imperial College London (ICL), suggested it was a side-to-side "strike-slip" of the Sagaing Fault. This is where the Indian tectonic plate, to the west, meets the Sunda plate that forms much of Southeast Asia—a fault similar in scale and movement to the San Andreas Fault in California. "The Sagaing fault is very long, 1,200 kilometers (745 miles), and very straight," Bell said. "The straight nature means earthquakes can rupture over large areas—and the larger the area of the fault that slips, the larger the earthquake." Earthquakes in such cases can be "particularly destructive," Bell added, explaining that since the quake takes place at a shallow depth, its seismic energy has dissipated little by the time it reaches populated areas above. That causes "a lot of shaking at the surface," Bell said. Building boom Myanmar has been hit by powerful quakes in the past. There have been more than 14 earthquakes with a magnitude of 6 or above in the past century, including a magnitude 6.8 earthquake near Mandalay in 1956, said Brian Baptie, a seismologist. Ian Watkinson, from the department of earth sciences at Royal Holloway University of London, said what had changed in recent decades was the "boom in high-rise buildings constructed from reinforced concrete". Myanmar has been riven by years of conflict and there is a low level of building design enforcement. "Critically, during all previous magnitude 7 or larger earthquakes along the Sagaing Fault, Myanmar was relatively undeveloped, with mostly low-rise timber-framed buildings and brick-built religious monuments," Watkinson said. "Today's earthquake is the first test of modern Myanmar's infrastructure against a large, shallow-focus earthquake close to its major cities." Baptie said that at least 2.8 million people in Myanmar were in hard-hit areas where most lived in buildings "constructed from timber and unreinforced brick masonry" that are vulnerable to earthquake shaking. "The usual mantra is that 'earthquakes don't kill people; collapsing infrastructure does,'" said Ilan Kelman, an expert in disaster reduction at UCL. "Governments are responsible for planning regulations and building codes. This disaster exposes what governments of Burma/Myanmar failed to do long before the earthquake, which would have saved lives during the shaking." Skyscraper checks Strong tremors also rocked neighboring Thailand, where a 30-storey skyscraper under construction was reduced to a pile of dusty concrete, trapping workers in the debris. Christian Malaga-Chuquitaype, from ICL's civil and environmental engineering department, said the nature of the ground in Bangkok contributed to the impact on the city, despite being some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the epicenter in Myanmar. "Even though Bangkok is far from active faults, its soft soil amplifies the shaking," he said. "This affects especially tall buildings during distant earthquakes." Malaga-Chuquitaype said that the construction techniques in Bangkok favoring "flat slabs"—where floors are held only by columns without using strengthening beams, like a table supported only by legs—were a "problematic design". He said that initial video analysis of the collapsed tower block in Bangkok suggested this type of construction technique had been used. "It performs poorly during earthquakes, often failing in a brittle and sudden (almost explosive) manner," he said. Roberto Gentile, a catastrophe risk modeling expert from UCL, said the "dramatic collapse" of the Bangkok tower block meant that "other tall buildings in the city may require a thorough assessment".
