Much of what we know about the eruption comes from an account by Pliny the Younger, who was staying west along the Bay of Naples when Vesuvius exploded. Some bewailed their own fate. Others prayed to die. His uncle, Pliny the Elder, was less lucky. Pliny the Elder, a celebrated naturalist, at the time of the eruption was the commander of the Roman fleet in the Bay of Naples. After Vesuvius exploded, he took his boats across the bay to Stabiae, to investigate the eruption and reassure terrified citizens.
After going ashore, he was overcome by toxic gas and died. Pompeii was buried under 14 to 17 feet of ash and pumice, and the nearby seacoast was drastically changed. Herculaneum was buried under more than 60 feet of mud and volcanic material. Some residents of Pompeii later returned to dig out their destroyed homes and salvage their valuables, but many treasures were left and then forgotten. Archaeologists have long debated whether the mountain actually erupted on August Some have pointed to autumnal fruits discovered in the ruins as a sign that the date is too early.
An inscription uncovered in also suggests the eruption could have taken place two months later in mid-October. In the 18th century, a well digger unearthed a marble statue on the site of Herculaneum.
The local government excavated some other valuable art objects, but the project was abandoned. In , a farmer found traces of Pompeii beneath his vineyard. Since then, excavations have gone on nearly without interruption until the present. For those adventurous enough to climb the volcano, Vesuvius offered a spectacular wealth of rock and mineral samples. Visitors collected lavas, pumice and of blocks of crystalline rock excavated from within the volcano during violent eruptions, like this example in the collection at Wallington.
The lavas of Vesuvius were strong enough to walk on while hot with care! Souvenirs of eruptions include samples made by folding molten lava around a coin, and date-stamped tokens made from lava pressed into a cast-iron mould, such as this example in the collections at Townend in Cumbria.
Today, he is perhaps better known as the much older husband of Lady Emma Hamilton during her scandalous love affair with Lord Nelson. Learn how to make your very own volcano and watch it erupt with bubbly fizzy lava with this great Volcano Making Kit!
Sir John Gardner Wilkinson was a nineteenth-century traveller and scholar. He was a pioneer of Egyptology, the modern science devoted to the study of ancient Egypt. David Pyle University of Oxford. It last erupted in The volcano showed signs that it was about to erupt in 79 AD. In the lead up to the eruptions, there were a series of earthquakes.
Unbeknownst to the citizens of Pompeii and Herculaneum , these were signs of things to come. In 62 AD, there was a massive earthquake that flattened many buildings. Luckily for some inhabitants, this was a blessing in disguise since many of them had to leave the city and eventually settled in towns further away from the volcano. It rained elephants…ok, not quite When the volcano began to erupt almost years ago, it shot tons of volcanic debris into the air, which then rained down upon the surrounding towns.
To give you an idea of how much debris was scattered, it was the equivalent of , elephants per second! Over in 24 hours At about midday on August 24th in the year 79, Mount Vesuvius began to erupt. Ruins at the ancient city of Pompeii Brick columns stand among ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii. Did You Know? The 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius is why volcanologists use "Plinian" to describe large volcanic eruption clouds. Pliny the Younger, a Roman historian who witnessed the 79 AD eruption, wrote the oldest surviving description of the tall, tree-shaped cloud that rose above the volcano.
Modern volcanologists use the term to describe large-volume, violent eruptions that produce quickly-expanding clouds of rock, ash and gases which rise many miles into the atmosphere. Some more recent examples of Plinian eruptions include Mount St. Helens in and Pinatubo in Here is Pliny's description Its general appearance can be best expressed as being like an umbrella pine, for it rose to a great height on a sort of trunk and then split off into branches, I imagine because it was thrust upwards by the first blast and then left unsupported as the pressure subsided, or else it was borne down by its own weight so that it spread out and gradually dispersed.
Sometimes it looked white, sometimes blotched and dirty, according to the amount of soil and ashes it carried with it. Gates, A. Wortel, M. Review full text upon subscription. Spatter Cones Mount St. Find Other Topics on Geology. Maps Volcanoes World Maps. Facts About Mount Vesuvius. Etna Stromboli.
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