The massive volcano in the Flygrain Fields causes fear of endless earthquakes. Scientists believe that it may have been the reason for the extinction of Neanderthals during the Ice Age eruption.

POZZOLI — Not a day goes by without the ground shaking beneath the massive volcano in the Flegrain Fields of southern Italy. On Wednesday (April 10), more than 60 earthquakes were recorded within 24 hours. Scientists assume that the giant volcano will erupt sooner or later. It can happen at any time. A look at the hundreds of thousands of years of crater field history shows the enormous catastrophes that phlegraine fields can cause.

Sunsets in what is now Germany were very romantic 39,500 years ago: For years, the central star of our planetary system bid farewell each day in a deep red dusk. But temperatures were frigid as the last Neanderthals desperately searched for food in Central Europe. A massive volcanic eruption blotted out the sun 1,000 kilometers to the south. And make sure Neanderthals finally became extinct. At least some paleontologists are convinced of this.

Massive Ice Age Volcanic Eruption: The firestorm destroyed all life within a 70 km radius

At that time, the giant volcano of the Phlegraine Fields, where the coastal 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 released into the open air. A huge crater up to 20 kilometers wide was created. Lava flows of 700-degree hot gas and ash destroyed all life within a 70-kilometre radius.

On the bay opposite the Gulf of Naples, layers of tuff 50 meters high were deposited on the coast near Sorrento, 30 kilometers away. Scientists call the Campania deposit ignimbrite, named after the Campania region and its capital, Naples, where the phlegraine fields are located, and the Latin word for „rain of fire.”

The ash resulting from the giant volcanic eruption reached Cyrenaica in Libya and northern Egypt, then moved to Syria, Turkey, Georgia, southern Russia and Kazakhstan and fell to the ground there. But there were finer aerosols spreading through the atmosphere and blocking out the sun. The cooling in the so-called „volcanic winter” was strongest in Eastern Europe and Asia, but also in Western Europe. Temperatures dropped by two to four degrees within a year or two.

Volcanic ash was transported from Italy to Kazakhstan and Siberia

A team of researchers led by Benjamin Black of the University of California, Berkeley, published a study in the journal in 2015 geologyAccording to which the giant volcano could have led to the end of the Neanderthals with a volcanic winter. Russian scientists came to a similar conclusion in 2023. The Neanderthal population declined sharply 39,500 years ago. The Neanderthals faced the problem that their rivals, Homo sapiens, the ancestors of modern humans, reproduced faster. Then came the environmental pressures caused by phlegrein fields.

“We found that peak cooling and acid deposition lasted for a year or two, and that the greatest cooling bypassed hominin population centers in western Europe,” the study says. The scientists have one caveat: „We have come to the conclusion that the environmental impact of the Campanian volcanic eruption alone was not sufficient to explain the eventual demise of Neanderthals in Europe.”

It has been getting up to four degrees colder in Central Europe for years

But: “However, significant cooling of the volcano in the years immediately following the eruption may have weakened the ability of an already sedentary population to survive and affected many aspects of daily life for Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans.” Or bison and collect edible plants, berries and roots. The cold climate likely reduced food supplies. Cold was also a major stressor for people without shelter. They lived in caves or primitive tents.

„This disaster not only radically destroyed the ecological environment of the Neanderthals, but also caused their physical extinction,” said researchers Lyubov Golovanova and Vladimir Doronichev from the ANO Prehistoric Research Laboratory in St. Petersburg after examining traces of volcanic ash in a Neanderthal cave in St. Petersburg. Caucasus. The researchers found a significant decline in pollen concentrations, signs of a dramatic shift to a cooler, drier climate. Another indication: In Mezmaiskaya Cave, all Neanderthal traces end in a layer of ash.

Researchers fear that another eruption of the giant volcano in Italy will occur at any time

Today, a volcanic eruption is also feared in the phyllgrain fields. Naples volcanologist Giuseppe Mastrolorenzo warned last March of the possibility of an imminent massive eruption. Researchers from University College London and the Italian National Institute for Geophysical and Volcanological Research (INGV) concluded in a study last year that filigree fields are becoming weaker and more susceptible to rupture, increasing the likelihood of a volcanic eruption.

The giant volcano erupted catastrophically about 29,000 years ago, and again 15,000 years ago. Since then, there have been dozens of small eruptions in the caldera, the most recent of which was Monte Nuovo near Pozzuoli in 1538.