People gathered in the 20,seat arena and lounged in the open-air squares and marketplaces. On the eve of that fateful eruption in 79 A. The Vesuvius volcano did not form overnight, of course. Vesuvius volcano is part of the Campanian volcanic arc that stretches along the convergence of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates on the Italian peninsula and had been erupting for thousands of years. In about B. That prehistoric catastrophe destroyed almost every village, house and farm within 15 miles of the mountain.
Villagers around the volcano had long learned to live with their volatile environment. Even after a massive earthquake struck the Campania region in 63 A. Pompeii grew more crowded every year. Sixteen years after that telltale earthquake, in either August or October 79 A.
The blast sent a plume of ashes, pumice and other rocks, and scorching-hot volcanic gases so high into the sky that people could see it for hundreds of miles around. As it cooled, this tower of debris drifted to earth: first the fine-grained ash, then the lightweight chunks of pumice and other rocks.
For those who stayed behind, however, conditions soon grew worse. As more and more ash fell, it clogged the air, making it difficult to breathe. Buildings collapsed. By the time the Vesuvius eruption sputtered to an end the next day, Pompeii was buried under millions of tons of volcanic ash. More than years later, Galenus's hypothesis is proven correct; two eruptions are reported in November 6, and date unknown. Before the eruption, people near the volcano felt some earthquakes. They weren't that scared because earthquakes were common in that town.
The seismic activity was much stronger a few days before the eruption of Mt. The livestock seemed restless the night before the eruption. On December 16, there were explosions, ash clouds, fissures at the base of the volcano sending down lava and toxic smoke.
The next day, the summit has a huge explosion with lava flows and mud flows. This eruption caused about 4, people to die. They died because of the pouring, hot lava and ash. During the eruption of Vesuvius as depicted in the painting of the right, lightning was observed to strike at or near the column of eruption. An eruption in has been documented by the painting on the right that has Vesuvius in the background.
The photograph on the right taken on 26 April has apparently been taken during the day time with the Sun at the back of the photographer. No lightning discharges have been captured in the exposure.
This photograph shows a visit of Kaiser Wilhelm I while Vesuvius is undergoing a mild eruption in the background.
The image shows the surroundings of Naples and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, July 5 , as seen from the Observatory. There is a Vesuvius National Park that was founded on June 5, This park was founded to preserve animals and plants. It holds about plants and animals. On March 17, , a two-week-long eruption began with lava from the summit of Mount Vesuvius. Vesuvius Observatory, is quoted as saying, "A marvelous thing, my Vesuvius. It covers land with precious ash that makes the earth fertile and grapes grow, and wine.
That's why, after every eruption, people rebuild their homes on the slopes of the volcano. That is why they call the slopes of Vesuvius the compania felix — the happy land.
During the eruption, soldiers and airmen of the th Bomber Group were stationed at the Pompeii Airfield just a few miles from the base of the volcano. Diaries record the awesome sights and sounds they witnessed in this latest major eruption.
Guards wore leather jackets and "steel pot" helmets to protect themselves from rains of hot ash and small rocks. Tents collapsed or caught fire when hot cinders were blown over them. Robert F. McRae wrote in his diary on March 20, , according to the American Geosciences Institute , "As I sit in my tent … I can hear at four- to second intervals the loud rumbling of the volcano on the third day of its present eruption.
The noise is like that of bowling balls slapping into the pins on a giant bowling alley. To look above the mountain tonight, one would think that the world was on fire.
The thickly clouded sky glows like that above a huge forest fire. Glowing brighter as new spouts of flame and lava are spewn from the crater. As the clouds pass from across the top of the mountain, the flame and lava can be seen shooting high into the sky to spill over the sides and run in red streams down the slopes.
Today it is estimated that a path of molten lava 1 mile long, half a mile wide, and 8 feet deep is rolling down the mountain. 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.
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