The 'Campi Flegrei Deep Drilling Project': from Risk Mitigation to Renewable Energy Production

摘要

The Campi Flegrei Deep Drilling Project will represent a considerable step forward in our knowledge of the most explosive volcanism on the Earth, occurring from large collapse calderas during extreme ignimbritic eruptions. The study of such volcanism, which represents a real threat to humankind due to its potential to generate global catastrophes, will be accomplished in the area with the highest volcanic risk in the world due to its population density - Naples, in Southern Italy. The main target of the project involves drilling of a deep hole, with a deviation of about 25° from the vertical, to sample the Campi Flegrei substructure, from its border to the innermost part, in the Gulf of Pozzuoli. The well will reach about 4 km of depth, where expected temperatures should be in the range 500-600°C. Such a combination of depth and temperature has never been achieved in volcano drilling; in fact it has only been planned in Iceland, into that country's peculiar ridge volcanoes which, in many aspects, are very different from the alkali-trachitic volcanism of Campi Flegrei and from other calderas. The challenging technological aspects of this project will be afforded with an innovative, recently realized rig, namely the InnovaRig from GFZ (Germany).