Drilling at Campi Flegrei Caldera (Southern Italy)

• Campi Flegrei caldera is an active volcanic area marked by a quasi-circular caldera depression, formed by huge ignimbritic eruptions. The caldera has recently experienced intense deformation, originating uplift phenomena of more than 3.5 m in 15 years, with maximum rates of 1 m/year in the period 1982-1984, which caused the temporary evacuation of 300,00 people from the centre of Pozzuoli and exposed more than 500,000 the risk of pyroclastic flows (several millions in case of an ignimbritic eruption).
  The role of deep drilling at this area is then crucial. It could give a fundamental, precise insight into the shallow substructure, the geometry and character of the geothermal systems and their role in the unrest episodes, as well as to explain magma chemistry and the mechanisms of magma-water interaction. Detailed studies of ‘in situ' physical properties (e.g. temperature, sonic logs, permeability), at increasing depths would provide information about their evolution. Since Campi Flegrei is a typical example of collapse caldera, the inference about its substructure, thermal state, magma chamber and geothermal system will allow a considerable scientific step towards the understanding of the most peculiar and potentially catastrophic volcanic areas of the World.
  The same group is also preparing an IODP (International Ocean Drilling Project) project in order to create an unique opportunity to afford an exhaustive project for detailed deep study of Campi Flegrei caldera both on-land and at sea. The eventual launch of a huge scientific project at land and sea will also constitute a unique opportunity to experiment new technologies for strain monitoring in the Gulf of Pozzuoli, a crucial step to considerably improve our knowledge of the area and of the nature of volcanic phenomena. The idea of deep drilling at Campi Flegrei has been submitted as pre-proposal the last year and favourably evaluated by the ICDP Panel, who proposed to fund a Workshop to focus the full-proposal and the International team.

(Figure ©:G. De Natale - DTM of the Naples Bay with location of the proposed drill sites and a sesimic profile selected from the site survey database. Red circles are the proposed IODP drill sites; Yellow circle is the drill site proposed by the same core scientiphic partnership to ICDP. Left-top: interpreted mulchannel relflection sesimic profile across the Naples basin and location of proposed drilling sites CAFE-02A and CAFE-03A. The syn/post rift succession is Quaternary in age. The basement is represented by Mesozoic carbonates and thin Upper Miocene siliciclastic cover.)

See also:

• ICDP-04/07

Europe, Italy, Gulf of Pozzuoli, Naples Bay, Campi Flegrei Caldera

40° 49' N, 14° 10.05' E (Please scroll down to end of page for more information.)

• not yet determined

• International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP)
• Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia
• Programma Operativo Regionale Campania
• Dipartimento per la Protezione Civile - Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia
• European Union Framework Program 7
• Programma Nationale della Ricerca, Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Universitŕ della Ricerca

• Guiseppe De Natale, Osservatorio Vesuviano (INGV), Department Volcano Physics
• Claudia Troise, Osservatorio Vesuviano (INGV), Department Volcano Physics
• Jörg Erzinger, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Section 4.2, Inorganic and Isotope Geochemistry
• David P. Hill, U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, Sacramento
• Chris J.R. Kilburn, University College London, Department of Earth Sciences, Benfield Hazard Research Centre
• Agust Gudmundsson, Royal Holloway University of London, Department of Earth Sciences
• Luigi Burlini, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), Department of Earth Sciences, Geological Institute
• María José Jurado Rodríguez, Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera (CSIC), Geophysics

• Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia-Osservatorio Vesuviano, Naples
• GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Section 4.2, Inorganic and Isotope Geochemistry
• U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, Reston, National Center
• Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH), Department of Earth Sciences, Geological Institute
• University College London, Department of Earth Sciences, Benfield Hazard Research Centre
• Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona
• Royal Holloway University of London
• AMRA Scarl, Analysis and Monitoring of Environmental Risk
• Istituto Nazionale di Ottica Applicata, Consiglo Nazionale delle Ricerche (INOA-CNR), National Institute of Applied Optics
• Istituto Nazionale di Ottica Applicata (INOA)
• Istituto per l'ambiente marino costiero, Consiglo Nazionale delle Ricerche (IAMC-CNR), Institute for coastal marine environment
• Iceland GeoSurvey (ISOR), Geological Department
• Universitŕ di Napoli "Federico II"
• University of Salerno
• University of Rome La Sapienza
• Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra
• GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Scientific Drilling ICDP (Operational Support Group OSG/ICDP)
• University of Goettingen, Geoscience Center, Department of Structural Geology and Geodynamics

CAMPI-FLEGREI , Geothermy , ICDP-04/07 , Magma Chamber , Thermal Regimes , Volcanic Hazards , Volcanic Systems

Presite survey done, workshop done, drilling proposal submitted to ICDP on January 15, 2007 (revised 15 January 2008)

• http://www.lab-ov.it/fisica2/

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