The storm once destroyed all life

The supervolcano of the Phlegraean Fields causes fear with endless earthquakes. Scientists believe that this may have contributed to the extinction of the Neanderthals during an Ice Age explosion.

Pozzuoli – Not a day goes by without the earth shaking beneath the supervolcano of the Phlegraean fields in southern Italy. On Wednesday (April 10), more than 60 aftershocks were reported within 24 hours. Scientists believe that the supervolcano will erupt sooner or later. It can happen at any time. A look at the history of the crater field over hundreds of thousands of years shows what great disasters can be caused by Plegraean fields.

Sunsets in what is now Germany were more romantic than 39,500 years ago: for years, the central star of our planetary system bid farewell each day in a deep red twilight. But as the last Neanderthals roamed central Europe in search of food, temperatures were much cooler. A massive volcanic eruption obscured the Sun 1,000 kilometers to the south. He confirmed that the Neanderthals had finally died out. At least some paleontologists believe this.

Ice Age Supervolcanic Eruption: A firestorm wiped out all life within a 70km radius

At that time, the supervolcano of the Phlegrean Fields, where the port city of Pozzuoli is now located, erupted in one of the largest volcanic eruptions in Earth's history. Between 80 and 150 cubic kilometers of lava, pumice stones and ash were exposed. A huge crater 20 kilometers wide was created. Pyroclastic flows of 700-degree hot gas and ash destroyed all life within a 70-kilometer radius.

In the opposite bay of the Gulf of Naples, 50-meter-high strata were deposited on the coast near Sorrento, 30 kilometers away. Scientists call the deposits Campanian Ignimbrite, named after the region of Campania with its capital city of Naples, where the Pleacreon fields are located, and the Latin word for “rain of fire.”

Ash from the massive volcanic eruption reached Libya and Cyrenaica in the north of Egypt and fell to the ground in Syria, Turkey, Georgia, southern Russia and Kazakhstan. But there were microscopic aerosols that spread through the atmosphere and obscured the sun. This so-called “volcanic winter” was cold in Eastern Europe and Asia, but also stronger in Western Europe. The temperature dropped by two to four degrees in a couple of years.

Volcanic ash was transported from Italy to Kazakhstan and Siberia

A team of researchers led by Benjamin Black from the University of California, Berkeley, published a study in 2015 in the journal Geography, according to which supervolcanism may have brought the end of the Neanderthals with the volcanic winter. Russian scientists came to a similar conclusion in 2023. Neanderthal populations had already declined drastically by 39,500 years ago. Neanderthals had the problem of reproducing too quickly, as opposed to Homo sapiens, the ancestors of modern humans. Later environmental stress was caused by flagellar fields.

“The peak of cooling and acid deposition lasted one to two years and the greatest cooling bypassed hominin population centers in western Europe,” it says. Scientists have a caveat: “We conclude that the environmental impact of the Campanian volcanic eruption alone is insufficient to explain the final extinction of the Neanderthals in Europe.”

Central Europe has been colder by up to four degrees for many years

But: “Nevertheless, significant cooling of the volcano in the years following the eruption likely reduced the viability of an already endangered population and affected many aspects of daily life for Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans.” Neanderthals hunted reindeer and wild horses. or bison and collected edible plants, berries and roots. Colder weather may have reduced food supplies. Cold without shelter was a major stress factor. They lived in caves or primitive tents.

“This cataclysm not only severely destroyed the ecological niches of the Neanderthal people, but also caused their physical destruction,” said researchers Lyubov Golovanova and Vladimir Toronichev from the ANO Laboratory for Prehistoric Research in St. Petersburg after examining traces of volcanic ash in the Neanderthal cave. The Caucasus. The researchers found that pollen concentrations were greatly reduced – signs of a dramatic shift to a cooler and drier climate. Another sign: in the Mezmaiskaya cave, all Neanderthal traces end with a layer of ash.

Researchers fear that a supervolcano could erupt in Italy at any moment

The eruption of the Plegreian fields is still feared today. Neapolitan volcanologist Giuseppe Mastrolorenzo warned that the biggest eruption could happen only in March. Researchers from University College London and Italy's National Research Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) concluded in a study last year: Plegreyan fields are weak and prone to cracking.

The supervolcano erupted catastrophically between 29,000 and 15,000 years ago. Since then, the caldera has had dozens of smaller eruptions, the latest being Monte Nuovo near Pozzuoli in 1538.