There are 136 new chasms that opened up on the soil of Rome in the first 10 months of 2018. The Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Ispra) writes it in a note, underlining that the data, even if updated in October 2018, show a notable increase in the phenomena in the capital.
As of 31 March 2018, the number of holes in the Capitoline area had more than doubled on an annual basis, going from 21 to 43.
"Rome continues to sink - reads the note - just think that in the last 8 years the average number of Roman events has grown exponentially: from 128 chasms (16 events each year) to more than 720 (over 90 per year) ”.
According to Ispra, the main cause of the formation of the Capitoline chasms is the presence of numerous underground cavities, which are mostly concentrated in the eastern portion of the city, of anthropic origin excavated by man for various reasons, mainly for the extraction of materials from construction. These voids often form an intricate network of tunnels.
So far, Ispra has surveyed and mapped 32 sq km of underground tunnels, but many areas are still unknown: for example, the large disappeared catacomb of San Felice, on via Portuense, which was one of the main cemeteries of Christian Rome, is missing. of the IV-V century.
