Naples didn’t just wake up—it was shaken awake. A 4.4-magnitude earthquake hit just after 1:25 a.m., shaking the city with a deep, guttural roar that sent people sprinting into the streets. It was the most powerful tremor in the region in four decades.
The quake lasted 20 long seconds, rattling windows, cracking buildings, and tearing chunks of masonry from rooftops. The epicenter sat just 2.5 kilometers beneath Pozzuoli, a coastal town near Naples, according to Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology. And it didn’t stop there.
A series of smaller aftershocks kept the city on edge for hours. Pozzuoli’s firefighters pulled a woman from the wreckage after her home’s ceiling collapsed. Elsewhere, residents were seen climbing out of windows to escape crumbling structures.
The Phlegraean Fields—Europe’s largest active volcanic caldera—sits beneath this region, a constant, simmering threat beneath the surface. The same area was hit by another 4.4-magnitude quake last May, but this time, the damage was more widespread. In Bagnoli, rescue crews scrambled to free trapped residents while buildings shed debris onto cars below.
Images flooded social media, showing streets littered with rubble and terrified locals standing in their pajamas outside cracked and battered homes. Some buildings took a serious hit, forcing Naples authorities to shut down schools in Bagnoli for safety inspections. Emergency shelters were set up for those too shaken to return home.
Fire crews fanned out across Bacoli, Bagnoli, and Pozzuoli, checking for structural damage. No major casualties were reported, but the psychological impact was immediate. Naples knows disasters well, from volcanic eruptions to historical plagues, but no one ever gets used to the ground turning against them.
Five Fast Facts
- Naples sits atop the Phlegraean Fields, a supervolcano capable of eruptions more powerful than Vesuvius.
- The last major eruption from the Phlegraean Fields happened nearly 500 years ago, in 1538.
- In ancient times, Romans used the volcanic steam vents in the region for natural saunas and baths.
- The Naples area experiences hundreds of minor tremors every year, though most go unnoticed.
- Some scientists believe the Phlegraean Fields are showing signs of reawakening, a scenario that would dwarf the infamous eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
