by Alessandro Brunelli

Walls Come Tumbling Down in Pompei

The “Domus Dei Gladiatori”, an ancient Roman building which served both as armoury and training ground for gladiators in Pompei, near Napoli, collapsed early this morning.

Some paintings that were reportedly stored beneath the room might also have crushed under the weight of the stones.

The building was part of the UNESCO World Heritage, and its destruction comes as a severe blow to the Italian artistic wealth.

The custodians blamed the collapse on the heavy rain that fell in the area over the past few days, which caused infiltrations in the building, whereas the Soprintendenza Dei Beni Culturali, the authority in charge of preserving the site, also pointed out how the roof, which had been rebuilt in the 1950s following World War II bombings in the area, might have been too heavy for such an old building.

It is safe to say though, that, regardless of the actual reasons of the occurrence, the effort made to keep the area in good conditions has been scarce or non-existent over the past few years, as repeatedly denounced by the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera and local residents.

The Domus, along with several other buildings like the Spa or the Antiquarium, was closed to the general public despite the continuous flow of visitors in the area, which is visited by about 5000 tourists every day.

The funds allocated for the restoration works in Pompei amount to several millions of euros, and €548.000 had been earmarked for the Casa dei Vestii, a nearby building, which was supposed to be restored completely by the end of 2009 but has not been opened yet.

Sergio Bondi, the Culture Minister, affirmed that “This event shows the need for adequate resources in order to provide ordinary maintenance, which is necessary for the safeguard of the immense artistic heritage of which we dispose”.

However, according to Luisa Bossa, Democratic MP and mayor of the nearby city of Ercolano, Mr. Bondi had repeatedly ignored the complaints about the desperate state of the Pompei buildings during parliamentary discussions, and always defended the work of the appointed superintendents.

by Alessandro Brunelli

Geologist Thorunn Skaftadottir of the Icelandic Met Office, in an interview released yesterday to the Icelandic Newspaper Morgunbladid, played down recent fears of another ash cloud similar to the one which covered European skies in April and stated that “there are no signs of a new possible eruption”.

The small earthquakes that hit Southern Iceland in the past few days are not yet cause for concern and are considered to be common for the area.

Meltwater had started flowing from the top of Grimsvotn volcano in Vatnajokull on October 31st, and later reached  the river Gigjukvisl, whose level rose by 3 feet between Tuesday and Wednesday.

The flooding was interpreted as a signal of the awakening of the volcano, and brought back memories of the 2004 eruption, whose plume reached Sweden, Finland and Norway, and caused minor disruption to flights all over Europe.

This led the UK Civic Aviation Authority to prepare plans to face a similar inconvenient.

Such plans include putting all of the country’s airports under alert and a loosening of previous ash cloud restrictions.

A CAA source revealed yesterday to The Herald that the understanding of the effect of ash cloud on jet engines has significantly improved since last April, and that “there is now a level of volcanic ash that it is safe to operate in, and manufacturers have agreed that”.

This new approach, along with the slowing pace of seismic activity around Grimsvotn, make the possibility of a chaotic Christmas for air travellers very unlikely.

The Grimsvotn volcano has historically been an active one, with previous eruptions in 1998, 1996, 1982 and 1972.

Records of eruptions go back as far as 1782, when the cloud allegedly covered Europe in a blue smoke.

The Grimsvotn Volcano