VOLCANIC GEYSER ERUPTS NEAR ROME AIRPORT

Italy has lots of active volcanoes, so Italians should be rather blase' about this rather small eruption.  Hundreds of thousands of Italians live on the slopes of volcanoes and immediately below, such as those near Vesuvius. 

Motorists on Saturday were alarmed to notice hot, stinking gas spurting from a newly formed crater in the middle of a roundabout close to the perimeter fence of Rome’s Fiumicino airport -- less than 900 yards from the end of a runway

 

Spectators gathered around the smoking crater, which measured about six feet wide and three feet deep, before firefighters and vulcanologists arrived to seal off the roundabout to prevent inhalation of the gas, suspected to be a cocktail of carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide and methane. Tests are now underway.

 

While initial reports suggested the gas came from rotting organic matter trapped underground, one expert said volcanic activity was more likely.  Gas underground can remain hot for tens of thousands of years after volcanoes erupt, and every now and then it can rise to the surface from miles underground.

Read more - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/10265372/Volcanic-geyser-erupts-close-to-Rome-airport.html

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More on volcanoes on this blog - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/search/label/Volcanoes

Link to this post - http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/08/volcanic-geyser-erupts-near-rome-airport.html

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