In 2023, temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea reached highest thermal value since records began modern, with an increase in the average surface temperature of over 1°C in 25 years, a progressive increase since 2013 in Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, extending northwards, and warming of the deepest layers, up to 800 meters. This is what emerges from the activities carried out by the National Agency for new technologies, energy and sustainable economic development (ENEA) and the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) project and presented at the 25 years of the activity of detecting the temperature of the waters of the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian seas, along the Genoa-Palermo route, in collaboration with GNV, the ferry company of the MSC group.

In addition to the increase in the average surface temperature, the "thermal photograph" of the Mediterranean, made in 100 campaigns during which over 3 thousand probes were launched, it also shows an increase in the deeper layers (100-450 m: +0.4 - +0.6°C; 450-800 m: +0.3 - +0.5°C). In addition, the analysis of the measures shows that between 2013 and 2016 the heating was above 0.4 °C, followed by a slight decrease and from a stationary period in the years and then resumed to increase progressively from the 2021 until September 2023, when it reached its peak. For an indication of the extent of the phenomenon - explained the researchers - it should be noted both the short period of time in which the this variation has taken place, both the fact that in order to induce in the sea Tyrrhenian the temperature increase measured between 2015 and 2023 in the layer between 200 and 800 m deep, a amount of energy equal to tens of times the consumption of electricity in Italy in one year.

With regard to the possible next evolutions of the phenomenon, Simona Simoncelli, a researcher at INGV, specified that "the indications of the available models lean towards a possible further increase in water temperatures, but the veracity of these forecasts can only be confirmed by the measurements that the actors of this twenty-five-year activity have every intention of continuing to carry out, starting with from the hundredth campaign scheduled for next December".