What's Up in Pozzuoli?

The shabby Italian seaport of Pozzuoli, just outside Naples, is widely known as the home town of Sophia Loren. But Pozzuoli (pop. 70,000) has another distinction. Perched atop a geologically active area that includes Vesuvius and boiling sulfur springs named the Campi Flegrei ("Fiery Fields"), the ancient town has been quite literally rising and falling at least since Roman times. These terrestrial undulations--an example of what some geologists call bradyseisms (from the Greek roots bradys, or slow, and seismos, earthquake) --usually occur gradually and imperceptibly. But lately Pozzuoli has been moving at an extaordinary rate. Last week, after parts of Pozzuoli had risen as much as three feet in the past six months, the town fathers began ordering mass evacuations.

God's Will. Pozzuoli's plight is apparent everywhere. Walls and roofs have cracked. Dozens of buildings have been declared unsafe, including a hospital, a police station and the city hall. The waterfront has risen so far above the Bay of Naples that workmen finally had to chop away huge chunks of the stone wharf before ferries could conveniently dock again. The elegant Roman ruin known as the Temple of Serapide, standing in the midst of a small waterfront lagoon created by ancient sinking, now is higher out of the water than ever before in the memory of Pozzuolians. The hardest-hit area has been the town's oldest and toughest section, a slum of narrow winding alleyways called La Terra, or the earth. Told that they would have to move to emergency shelters outside town, many of its residents refused to budge. They were finally evicted after some scuffles with police. Said one fishmonger, a father of nine: "I will stay in my house and let God's will be done."

If Pozzuolians find their slow-motion earthquake puzzling, so do scientists at the University of Naples' Institute of Earth Sciences. They speculate that the dramatic changes have been caused by a sudden shifting of subterranean masses of molten rock, or magma, that well up from deep inside the earth through fractures in its crust. As the magma presses into new regions, it raises the earth on top of it. At the same time, land some distance away may gradually subside to fill the area vacated by the molten rock. That could account for a six-inch drop in the level of the resort island of Ischia, only ten miles offshore.

So far, no one has been injured by the strange earth movements, which also occur in other volcanic areas like Japan and Hawaii. But some Italians fear that the shifts could culminate in a sudden eruption of Vesuvius, which has been quiet since 1944. The institute's scientists do not seem worried; any major eruption, they say, would be preceded by such preliminary warnings as tremors and heating of the crater. Indeed, they look upon Pozzuoli's problems as an opportunity to learn more about the earth's interior. Scientists from all over Italy are currently investigating the rising ground. Offshore, an Italian navy oceanographic vessel is taking soundings. Two volcanologists have rushed to the scene from Japan. "We hope the movement will continue long enough for us to collect valuable data," says Alessandro Oliveri del Castillo, assistant director of the institute. "Without causing any damage, of course."

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