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2022 opened with a violent manifestation of the Earth: the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano. It was an explosion that for days was seen and felt in several points of the planet, with an eruptive cloud thirty kilometers high, tsunami waves and atmospheric pressure shocks. An eruption that cut off the small Polynesian archipelago from the world. Earthquakes are classified according to their magnitude: the greater the magnitude, the higher the energy released, the greater and longer the ground shaking and therefore the consequent damage. Eruptions can instead be classified according to the volumes that are erupted using the explosive index (Volcanic Explosive Index, VEI) which quantifies the volumes emitted during the eruption. The eruption at Tonga Hunga on 15 January had a VEI of about 5, i.e. between 1 and 10 km3 of pyroclastic material and lava. As a reference, the eruption of the Indonesian volcano Tambora in 1815 had a VEI of 7, i.e. with over 100 km3 of material ejected. There are on average always 40-50 active volcanoes on Earth. We do not yet have direct and widespread information on active submarine volcanoes, especially if they do not emerge from sea level with explosive or effusive material. The bottom of the Pacific Ocean is dotted with thousands of volcanoes, but we know only a small part of them. Submarine volcanoes on the western side of the Pacific are linked to the descent of the lithosphere (the outer shell of the Earth about 100 km thick) into the earth's mantle: this phenomenon, called subduction, causes the descending lithosphere to release fluids which partially melt the mantle: these melts, being lighter than the surrounding mantle, rise again, generating the associated explosive magmatism because the chemistry of these magmas is richer in fluids and silica.
The eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 killed over 36.000 people between the eruption and the resulting tidal wave. They are unstoppable natural phenomena in which the planet dissipates energy. This sad ranking reminds us how important it is to study the functioning of the planet, to better understand its dynamics in order to adequately protect ourselves and to respect it. The eruptions of Tambora (1815) or Krakatoa (1883) brought sulfur dioxide and ash into the stratosphere, i.e. above 10-20 km in height, that level of the atmosphere where there are no clouds and rain capable of bringing volcanic emissions: an aerosol is thus formed at that height which disperses a sort of fog around the globe which retains a small part of the radiation, just enough to slightly decrease the temperature of the globe. In the 15 months following the eruption of Pinatubo in 1991, an average drop in global temperature of about 0.6°C was measured. So, yes, volcanoes certainly can change the climate and this has happened many times in the history of the Earth. In the Cretaceous, between 145 and 66 million years ago, terrestrial volcanism was particularly intense and an interpretation of the great mass extinction at the end of this period (including dinosaurs) can be interpreted as an effect of the consequent cooling of the atmosphere terrestrial. However, the eruptions we are experiencing are ephemeral and let us not delude ourselves that they are capable of counteracting the global warming we are experiencing as a result of man-made emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The fields of science are infinite and if a large international project could be created for each of them, unexpected boundaries of knowledge could be reached even in the structure and functioning of our planet, still largely unknown: we invest much more in the study of distant planets thousands of light years rather than understanding the workings of the Earth.
Meanwhile, in our virtual living room the guest of honor is Antonio Zoccoli, president of INFN and professor of physics at the University of Bologna. The professor. Zoccoli offered us some advances on the future of INFN, the Italian research institution engaged in the field of nuclear physics, elementary particles and the more recent astroparticle physics.
January is the previous year's earthquake report month.
44 earthquakes per day is the average number recorded by the National Seismic Network and localized by the INGV Surveillance Rooms: about 1 every 30 minutes, 16095 earthquakes in Italy and in neighboring areas.
The first event of the year obviously took place on New Year's Eve, the last one on December 31st. In this article you will find many curiosities about the characteristics of the seismicity of the year that has just ended. All the curiosities in reading the Newsletter.
The interview in our column dedicated to volcanism focuses on the volcanic event of the year in Tonga and on the curiosities of submarine volcanoes.
From the Tonga Islands we fly to Antarctica. In fact, the second edition of the volume 'Antarctic Climate Evolution' has been published by four of the world's leading experts, including Fabio Florindo, manager of INGV, who have created a unique work of its kind, aimed at improving our understanding of the history of the world's largest ice sheet and how it responded to and influenced climate change during the Cenozoic. A volume published by Elsevier which in the new edition sees unique contributions from international scientists on research in Antarctica and the oceans that surround it.

Our journey returns to Italy to a historic volcanological observatory, which has seen top-level personalities in the panorama of international volcanology alternate between its rooms. The Etneo Observatory of Catania is today one of the three monitoring sections of the INGV, with an operating room manned by researchers and technicians 24 hours a day every day of the year. It is the point of reference for the populations residing on the slopes of the Sicilian volcanoes. With its Director Stefano Branca we also travel through 24, a particularly 'lively' year for Etna with its lava fountains and for the new activity of Vulcano.

Finally, in the month of January, the 27th is Remembrance Day. Humanity pauses to remember the incalculable pain that men have inflicted on other men, in the wake of abominable beliefs. The scientific world was particularly impressed. Some of the best Italian minds were forced to flee, others to change the family name in order not to suffer the darkest evil.
From 27 January, thanks to the efforts of Aldo Winkler and Micol Todesco, INGV launched the "Page of Memory", a stumbling block for Italian science and culture lost forever. A page which, over time, will collect the testimonies and documents on the dramatic impact of the racial laws on the Italian scientific and academic community.
Culture is science, it is literature, it is art. Culture elevates and makes men better, also vaccinating them against intolerance towards others. Geosciences are a pillar of man's culture, helping him to understand his origin, his fragility with respect to the natural events to which we are all associated.
With the Memory Page, INGV wanted to plant a seed, to be watered always, because as Primo Levi wrote “It happened. So it can happen again." Thanks to Senator Liliana Segre for her contribution to the initiative.

Happy reading.