Supervolcano Campi Flegrei Stirs Under Naples Italy (opens in new tab)

Any guesses how far we are from being able to control volcanoes so that they would not pose a threat? Too far, I would guess.

When this happens it is going to immediately change world climate to something very much colder than it is now. It suggests to me that some sort of preparation for surviving in very different climatic conditions than the one we currently experience would be a good investment in time and resources. That said, I'm not entirely sure how we might plan something like that.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/11/updated-appeals-court...

I'm going to assume it's 1538 AD and that this volcano has slumbered almost 500 years. And if create a "new mountain" was enough to relieve the pressure then, how do they distinguish a major eruption from a minor one when performing these forecasts?

First paragraph: "A long-quiet yet huge supervolcano that lies under 500,000 people in Italy may be waking up and approaching a "critical state," scientists report this week in the journal Nature Communications."

In the actual article:

"The scientists caution that it's possible nothing will happen in our lifetimes. They say it's impossible to say with any certainty when an eruption might actually take place. More monitoring and study are needed, they say."

And of course this:

"There will be another supervolcano explosion," scientist James Quick, a geologist at Southern Methodist University in Texas, said in a statement when that volcano was found.

"We don't know where, [but] Sesia Valley could help us to predict the next event."

is more like a Nostradamus prophecy, something will soon (before or later) happen somewhere ...

Campi is literally "fields". We have that a lot for city/town/village names (e.g. Campi Bisenzio, close to Florence). When used for the name of a place, I would just suggest maybe 'meadows' as a better translation.

Flegreo (pl. -i), on the other hand, exists as an adjective solely to describe someone or something "from the area West of Neaples known as Campi Flegrei".

The etymology is of course related to the volcanic activity and has to do with burning. φλέγω (phlego) in Ancient Greek meant "to burn". In Latin the verb was Flagro.

In Italian we still have these words in use:

- "deflagrazione" (it's similar to the English deflagration, but with a broader meaning of "explosion"; it's normally used as a synonym)

- "flagrante". Literally "burning", but the common meaning is "evident" or "in the act", as in "colto in flagrante", "caught in the act", "caught red-handed".

The greek root, turned to "flog-", is still to be found in some specific terms, especially in medical literature. Flogistico, for example. You have that in English, and it's even more recognizable, thanks to the "ph": phlogistic. It means inflammatory, causing a burning sensation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eruption_of_Mount_Vesuvius_in_...

Naples is the urban area with the highest density in Europe. An eruption of Vesuvio would likely kill at least 1-2 million of people and bring Italy and Europe to total economic collapse.

If we could for once think logically and stop all the culture/tradition crap, we would migrate people out of this area. The Balkans are huge and deserted, with lots of areas with similar climate. Spain comes to mind too. Or even Italy itself.

Obviously, the problem here is always the same. You have lots of people living in the worst possible places, but then if something happens is the State (hence tax payers) that have to re-build houses, pay for the emergency and so on. This is a huge moral hazard.