From 07:51PM on May 20th to 00:31AM on May 21st, 150 earthquakes were recorded in the Campi Flegrei area, the strongest occurred in the evening of May 20th and was of magnitude 4.4. Another earthquake occurred in the same area, also on Tuesday May 21, and was of magnitude Md 1.6.
According to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) there is no increase in the speed of ground lifting, currently it is 2 cm/month, with approximately 450 in a month, lifting which in the period between 1982 and 1984 it reached 9 cm per month, even exceeding 1300 earthquakes in a month.
The earthquakes were felt as far as Torre del Greco and also in the Vesuvian area and in the Caserta area. There was great fear, especially in Pozzuoli where most of the inhabitants spent the night outside their homes, sleeping in their cars, without any support. Cornices of some buildings and some cracks fell but, fortunately, no one was hurt.
Making the situation worse is the inadequacy of precautionary measures and possible aid. While the Vesuvius Observatory continues its ordinary and extraordinary monitoring activities regarding the current ongoing phenomenon, the Municipality of Naples
announces that the Front Office of Palazzo San Giacomo is closed.
At a press conference after the earthquake, the mayor of Naples Manfredi announced that the schools will not close and reassured the Neapolitans, making the superstitious gesture of the horns and as reported by the Vista agency, pronouncing the exact words: “From the eruption today we are far away, we pray, but we are 1000 years away.”
