Citation

Barberi F, Carapezza ML, Tarchini L, Ranaldi M, Ricci T, Gattuso A. Geohealth 2019; 3(12): 407-422.

Affiliation

Sezione di Palermo, INGV-Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia Italy.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Geophysical Union, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1029/2019GH000211

PMID

32159027

PMCID

PMC7038904

Abstract

The Rome region contains several sites where endogenous gas is brought to the surface through deep reaching faults, creating locally hazardous conditions for people and animals. Lavinio is a touristic borough of Anzio (Rome Capital Metropolitan City) that hosts a country club with a swimming pool and an adjacent basement balance tank. In early September 2011, the pool and the tank had been emptied for cleaning. On 5 September, four men descended into the tank and immediately lost consciousness. On 12 August 2012, after a long coma the first person died, the second one reported permanent damage to his central nervous system, and the other two men recovered completely. Detailed geochemical investigations show that the site is affected by a huge release of endogenous gas (CO₂ ≈ 96 vol.% and H₂S ≈ 4 vol.%). High soil CO₂ and H₂S flux values were measured near the pool (up to 898 and 7.155 g·m^-2·day^-1, respectively), and a high CO₂ concentration (23-25 vol.%) was found at 50-70 cm depth in the soil. We were able to demonstrate that gas had been transported into the balance tank from the swimming pool through two hubs connected to the lateral overflow channels of the pool. We show also that the time before the accident (60 hr), during which the balance tank had remained closed to external air, had been largely sufficient to reach indoor nearly lethal conditions (oxygen deficiency and high concentration of both CO₂ and H₂S).

©2019. The Authors.

Language: en

Keywords

Lavinio; Rome, Italy; hazard from endogenous gas emission; lethal gas accident