Europe's Largest Undersea Volcano May Flood Southern Italy Any Moment

Europe's largest undersea volcano could disintegrate and unleash a tsunami that would engulf southern Italy "at any time", a prominent vulcanologist warned in an interview published Monday.

Photo: Europe's Largest Undersea Volcano May Flood Southern Italy Any Moment

Europe's Largest Undersea Volcano May Flood Southern Italy Any Moment

The Marsili volcano, which is bursting with magma, has "fragile walls" that could collapse, Enzo Boschi told the leading daily Corriere della Sera.

"It could even happen tomorrow," said Boschi, president of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV).

"Our latest research shows that the volcano is not structurally solid, its walls are fragile, the magma chamber is of sizeable dimensions," he said. "All that tells us that the volcano is active and could begin erupting at any time," AFP reported.  

According to ShortNews.com, the volcano, located 150km off the coast of Naples, rises 3000m off the ocean floor and peaks some 450 metres below the surface. It measures 30km by 70km. It has a big magma chamber which is under pressure and its walls are structurally fragile.

AHN News has reported that, the volcano’s crater is 1,467 feet below the surface of the Tyrrhenian Sea and a tsunami could hit the coasts of Campania, Calabria and Sicily, Boschi warned in an interview published Monday in an Italian newspaper.