Three new underwater volcanoes have been discovered near the Sicilian coast, bringing the total of known volcanoes in the Channel of Sicily, the arm of the sea separating the island from North Africa to about fifteen, said Wednesday an expert at the AFP. “We discovered six volcanoes in 2019, plus the three of this recent discovery, but there are already five or six others listed, that is to say about fifteen submarine volcanoes”, specified Emanuele Lodolo, geophysics expert from the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS).
“We cannot say that there will be no eruption”
These three discovered volcanoes “are located at depths varying from 100 to 400 meters and the closest is about 7 km from the coast” in southwestern Sicily, said Emanuele Lodolo. It is impossible to say, however, if these underwater volcanoes represent a danger for the population: “It’s like for earthquakes, we are not able to make forecasts. We cannot say that there will not be eruption. The important thing is to constantly monitor them”.
The OGS said in a statement that a wreckage of a ship was also discovered during oceanographic research carried out from July 16 to August 5, 2023 by an international team of scientists aboard the German ship Meteor. The unidentified wreck is that of a ship about a hundred meters long and 17 meters wide, lying at a depth of 110 meters and located approximately halfway between the tiny volcanic island of Linosa and the Sicily.
“essential” information
During their work, the scientists also took rock samples from the various underwater volcanoes. “This information will be essential to reconstruct the geological history of one of the most complex regions of the central Mediterranean,” said Matilde Ferrante, an OGS scientist who participated in the work, quoted by the press release.
When we think of Italian volcanoes, the first that come to mind are Vesuvius and Etna “and many people think that the Italian volcanoes are about ten in total but in reality we have counted 70, of which a large number are submarines, ranging from Tuscany to Sicily and in the Sicily Channel”, according to the site of the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV).