Boffins have long observed a crater in Italy that is part of a supervolcano that has shown increased activity for nearly two decades, saying they are looking at rising gas levels

A supervolcano with the potential to plunge the world in to chaos is showing signs of increased activity, boffins say.

The area known as the Phlegraean Fields west of Naples, in Italy is one of the highest emitters of volcanic carbon dioxide in the world. Gianmarco Buono, a volcanologist at the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, said boffins are looking at increased volumes of gas being released from part of the fields known as the Solfatara crater.

“Estimating the source of the carbon dioxide is important to properly reconstruct what is happening in the magmatic system and the hydrothermal system,” he said according to Earth.com, meaning that boffins are analysing the rising gas levels and trying to work out what is happening. The fields is thought to be part of a massive supervolcano complex. These are massive volcanoes with several times the power of one volcano. Eruptions can have a major impact on the world’s atmosphere big eruptions could block out the sun with ash, massively impact the global climate and even threaten the very existence of life on Earth.

An increase in gas emissions could be a sign of volcanic activity, but does not always lead to an eruption.

Scientists have monitored the Solfatara crater for years and in 2005 noticed a change in chemical signatures picked up in gases and the temperature of the ‘shallow hydrothermal system’, when heat is transferred through water. You may see an example of this around a volcano with a geyser or vent.

In 2012, the region’s alert level was raised from green to yellow. Boffins have also observed small earthquakes in the area. This month, a volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in south-western Iceland has spewed lava from a fissure in its seventh eruption since December.

The eruption started with little warning at 11.14pm local time on Wednesday and created a fissure around 1.8 miles long but was estimated to be considerably smaller than the previous eruption in August, Iceland’s meteorological office that monitors seismic activity said.

“In the big picture, this is a bit smaller than the last eruption and the eruption that occurred in May,” said Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson, a professor of geophysics who flew over the eruption with the Civil Protection Agency to monitor the eruption. Around 50 houses were quickly evacuated after the Civil Protection Agency issued the alert, along with guests at the famous Blue Lagoon resort.

Iceland, which sits above a volcanic hot spot in the North Atlantic, averages one eruption every four to five years. The most disruptive in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed clouds of ash into the atmosphere and disrupted trans-Atlantic air travel for months.

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