<p>They will be placing sensors inside Campi Flegrei, a volcano in southern Italy, by drilling a 4,000-metre hole into its side early next year. <br /><br />They will measure the difference in temperature of the rocks to find out where the red-hot magma lies inside the mountains.<br /><br />Campi Flegrei caldera lies around eight km west of Naples. More than 1.5 million people live near the low-lying volcano, reports the Daily Mail.<br /><br />It has had periods of unrest in 1969-1972, and 1982-1984 but it last erupted in 1538, reports the journal Nature.<br /><br />Movement in the ground over the past 40 years has made geologists fear that another massive eruption is likely. <br /><br />Scientists estimate that magma lies at least 7,000 metres below the surface of the caldera. But little is known about Campi Flegrei, or similar volcanoes. <br /><br />"Calderas are the only volcanoes that can cause truly catastrophic eruptions with global consequences, yet they are still poorly understood," says Giuseppe De Natale, project coordinator and a geophysicist at Italy's National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology in Naples. <br /><br />Scientists also expect to hit high temperature liquids (up to over 900 degrees F) which, could be used to generate geothermal energy. <br /><br />But local critics say the drilling is too close to the city and could even trigger an explosion, which could be catastrophic if it took place close Naples.<br /><br />"No similar project has ever faced such temperatures," De Natale told Nature magazine.<br />Borehole fibre-optic sensors will help scientists know where the magma is stored.</p>
<p>They will be placing sensors inside Campi Flegrei, a volcano in southern Italy, by drilling a 4,000-metre hole into its side early next year. <br /><br />They will measure the difference in temperature of the rocks to find out where the red-hot magma lies inside the mountains.<br /><br />Campi Flegrei caldera lies around eight km west of Naples. More than 1.5 million people live near the low-lying volcano, reports the Daily Mail.<br /><br />It has had periods of unrest in 1969-1972, and 1982-1984 but it last erupted in 1538, reports the journal Nature.<br /><br />Movement in the ground over the past 40 years has made geologists fear that another massive eruption is likely. <br /><br />Scientists estimate that magma lies at least 7,000 metres below the surface of the caldera. But little is known about Campi Flegrei, or similar volcanoes. <br /><br />"Calderas are the only volcanoes that can cause truly catastrophic eruptions with global consequences, yet they are still poorly understood," says Giuseppe De Natale, project coordinator and a geophysicist at Italy's National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology in Naples. <br /><br />Scientists also expect to hit high temperature liquids (up to over 900 degrees F) which, could be used to generate geothermal energy. <br /><br />But local critics say the drilling is too close to the city and could even trigger an explosion, which could be catastrophic if it took place close Naples.<br /><br />"No similar project has ever faced such temperatures," De Natale told Nature magazine.<br />Borehole fibre-optic sensors will help scientists know where the magma is stored.</p>