A VOLCANO outside Rome, long thought extinct, is rumbling to life. But don’t panic: The volcano isn’t likely to blow its top for at least another 1,000 years.

    Colli Albani is a volcanic complex of hills located 19 miles (30 kilometers) from the center of Rome. There are no historical records of eruptions from Colli Albani, so it was long thought to be extinct, according to the American Geophysical Union. Now, researchers have reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters that Colli Albani just doesn’t erupt that often. In fact, it enters an eruptive phase every 31,000 years or so.

    A team of researchers, led by volcanologist Fabrizio Marra of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Rome, used ground-based observations of rising land, earthquake swarms and steam vents alongside satellite data to track Colli Albani’s recent activity. An analysis of rocks from the volcano revealed a history of past eruptions, the most recent of which occurred 36,000 years ago.

    Now, the ground underneath the volcano is inflating, rising at a maximum of about 2 millimeters per year in areas where steam vents are emerging, Marra and his colleagues reported.

    (SD-Agencies)