 |
|
 |
|
Warning of volcanoes!
|
WARNING: Prudence while visiting the area of the crater of the volcano.
| |
The gases emitted from fumaroles of the crater are harmful to
health: do not breathe them.
Be careful not to get too close to the emission points: high
temperatures can cause combustion.
Above all,
do not go inside the crater:
there can be dangerous concentrations of carbon dioxide,
suffocating gas that being heavier than air, accumulates in
depressions. The gases emitted from fumaroles consist
predominantly of water steam, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide,
carbon monoxide and acid gases such as sulphide acid,
hydrochloric and fluoride. It is dangerous to breathe them
without appropriate masks with filters. The metal objects will
ruin into contact with gas and must wear appropriate footwear to
prevent burns. |
|
Get defended from
volcanoes
 In
historic times in Italy there were eruptions in eight volcanic areas:
Vesuvio (1944), Campi Flegrei (1538) and Ischia (1302) in Naples; Lipari
(seventh century BC.) Volcano (1888-1890) and Stromboli (permanently
active) in the Aeolian islands; Etna (almost always in assets) and in
the channel of Sicily where in 1831 the island of Fernandea originated
from the sea and where another eruption occurred in 1891 in the ocean, 5
km off the northern coast of Pantelleria. Depending on the type of
activity that characterizes them, volcanoes can be divided into type
effusion such as Etna, which produces almost only lava flows, and
explosives type, such as Campi Flegrei, Vesuvius and Vulcano, whose
eruptions consist predominantly in violent expulsion of clouds of steam
and gas, filled with incandescent fragments and solid material. The
former volcanoes can produce significant damage, but is not very
dangerous for people, so emergency plans can start to eruption began.
In explosive volcanoes, however, the only form of defence is the timely
evacuation of people from threatened areas. To take protective measures
in time, it is necessary to have an efficient network of permanent
surveillance that would permit to establish sufficiently in advance of
the resumption eruption, both of plans that guide the actions of a civil
protection, according to a scientific reliable scenario expecting the
phenomena. From 1983 these activities are under the responsibility of
the Department of Civil Protection, controlled by the National Group for
Volcanology that coordinates all the research facilities in Italy. More
recently, the same department and the Sicilian region have promoted the
creation of an operational structure - the Poseidon system - with the
task of ensuring the seismic monitoring of eastern Sicily and monitoring
active volcanoes in Sicily, as well as to conduct research activities on
precursors earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
|
