Italian and French geophysicists have shown that the gas pressure under the Phlegraean fields is approaching a critical level. This means that an eruption of a supervolcano may occur in the Naples region (Italy), which probably caused the extinction of the Neanderthals about 40 thousand years ago. A study on this has been published in the journal Nature.
Since 1950, the Phlegrean fields have been showing increasing activity. Over the past 15 years, scientists have observed an increase in the frequency of events associated with the uplift, heating and release of gases hidden under the caldera - the basin left after the collapse and erosion of the walls of the volcano.
Computer simulations made it possible to conclude that the pressure of gases in magma under a dormant supervolcano is approaching its critical value. The authors of the study do not name the exact dates of the volcano's awakening.
On the site of the Phlegrean Fields, there was the largest volcano that has erupted in Europe in the last 200 thousand years. According to a popular hypothesis, the eruption that occurred 39 thousand years ago could have provoked the extinction of the Neanderthals.