When studying a monster volcano, poke softly with a sensitive stick
Sometimes the best thing you can do with a monster is to poke it with a stick. Gently, of course. Prod too hard, and he might roar back in your face. That’s the chance scientists are taking in Italy, where they are drilling right into the heart of a restive supervolcano to see what it might do.
Volcanologists like to work in southern Italy, and not just for the wine. Here, where the crustal plate carrying Africa dives beneath the plate carrying Europe, volcanoes bubble up like marinara on the stove. From Rome southward, the country is studded with volcanoes, from the fire fountains of Stromboli to the iconic peak of Vesuvius. West of Naples lie the Phlegraean Fields, a landscape of steam vents and boiling mud pots where the Roman god Vulcan was said to live. Nearby is Lake Avernus, where Virgil sent Aeneas descending to the underworld.