MARSILI: POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS VOLCANO UNDER THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA
Anne Fornier
Anne Fornier
In the depths of the Mediterranean Sea stands the largest volcano in Europe and is considered “potentially dangerous“. Marsili in the Tyrrhenian Sea, north of Sicily. And, although it has been silent for several thousand years, it is not exactly dormant.
The largest volcano in Europe
Its size is truly impressive, as the volcanic cone rises some 3,000 meters above the seabed and its summit reaches only 450 meters below the surface of the sea. Its base is 70 kilometers long and has a total surface area of 2,100 square kilometers, which is approximately the size of the island of Tenerife.
Potential landslide leading to a tsunami
Experts agree in considering it a potentially dangerous volcano since it would be capable of generating a tsunami 20 meters high that would affect the Tyrrhenian Sea coasts.
The last eruption of the volcano occurred a few thousand years ago. Today, its activity is still perceptible, but it is limited to soft rumbles, with gaseous emissions and low-energy tremors.
It has been proved that it presents an important instability, especially in a part of its summit, which is made up of low-density rocks, strongly weakened by the hydrothermal action present in the area.
Therefore, a landslide of great proportions, which would generate this hypothetical tsunami, has not been ruled out.
The INGV points out that, in the event of an eruption, the only signal that would be visible on the surface would be boiling water, related to the emission of gases from the cone, as happened in October 2011 on the island of El Hierro, in the Canary Islands.
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