National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in the context of Protezione Civile

The Vesuvius Observatory (Italian: Osservatorio Vesuviano) is the surveillance centre for monitoring the three volcanic areas of Campania, Italy: Mount Vesuvius, the Phlegrean Fields and Ischia. Founded in 1841 on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius by Ferdinand II of Bourbon, King of the Two Sicilies, it is the oldest volcanology institute in the world. Its current operative center is based in Naples, hosting an important section of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.

Marsili is a large undersea volcano in the Tyrrhenian Sea, about 175 kilometers (109 mi) south of Naples. The seamount is about 3,000 m (9,800 feet) tall; its peak and crater are about 450 m below the sea surface. Though it has not erupted in recorded history, volcanologists believe that Marsili is a relatively fragile-walled structure, made of low-density and unstable rocks, fed by the underlying shallow magma chamber. Volcanologists with the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) announced on March 29, 2010, that Marsili could erupt at any time, and might experience a catastrophic collapse that would suddenly release vast amounts of magma in an undersea eruption and landslide that could trigger destructive tsunamis on the Italian coast and nearby Mediterranean coastlines.