Download Mount Vesuvius Eruption in 79 CE

Mount Vesuvius Eruption in 79 CE
Mount Vesuvius is most famous for its eruption in the year 79 CE, which buried the cities of
Pompeii and Herculaneum for more than 1700 years, until they were accidentally found again.
I am going to talk about this eruption today.
Volcanic activity in the area of Mount Vesuvius was noticed already 400,000 years.
Mount Vesuvius was formed itself by volcanic eruptions, when the Eurasian collided with the
African plate, about 25,000 years ago. Slowly the lava piled up to form the now 1,281 meter
high volcano. There have been destructive eruptions already long before 79 CE, but none of
them had been as devastating as that one in the first century CE.
In the course of time, notably during the Roman Empire, the Mountain got several
similar names, ranging from Vesaevus to Vesvius. The fertile soil on Mount Vesuvius’s lower
layers was ideal for farmers; for that reason many gardens and fields existed on the slopes of
Mount Vesuvius already long before 79 CE. Even Spartacus kept his army in the crater of
Mount Vesuvius for a while in 73 BCE, to hide away from the Roman army, 152 years before
the fatal eruption.
In 62 CE a heavy earthquake indicated already that the volcano was not dormant, but
active again, since it had not erupted for a very long time. There was much destruction in the
city of Pompeii; some of the destroyed buildings were not yet rebuilt when Mount Vesuvius
erupted seventeen years later. At the time of that earthquake Cesar Nero resided in Naples and
practised as an actor in a theatre production. Rumours say that he was just singing when the
earthquake started and did not even stop, when the theatre already collapsed.
There was another earthquake in 64 CE and many other smaller ones around the 20th
of August 79 CE. However, people did not recognize these signals as an increasing danger but
stayed were they were. A reason for that might be that small earthquakes were quite common
in this region, so it was not clear that they were announcing a huge eruption of a nearby
volcano erupting soon.
At noon on the 24th of August 79 CE the eruption of Mount Vesuvius started.
Ironically, the 24th of August was the day after celebrating Vulcanalia, the festival for the
Roman God of Fire, Vulcan. Mount Vesuvius started erupting, by blowing up ash – about 15
to 30 kilometres upwards - which rained down, covering a very large area. At this moment the
people realized the imminent danger and started to flee. But now it was almost too late. The
ash made it difficult to move as it weighed one down. In the late evening of the first day, or in
the early morning of the next day, a massive pyroclastic flow came down the slopes, which
wiped out everything in its path. Fires started on the mountain, and small tsunamis hit the
coastline nearby. On the evening of the second day, the worst part of the explosion of Mount
Vesuvius ended, leaving behind a cloud of ash over a large area, which blocked out sunlight
almost completely. Minor eruptions continued for another six days. At the end of these
eruptions the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae were totally extinct. They simply
vanished from one day to the other: One day prosperous cities, the next day already turned
into a mass grave. Thousands of people were killed by Mount Vesuvius in less than one day.
Thanks to Pliny the Younger we know quite much about the tragic events during the
days of the eruptions. He wrote in detail what he had seen and experienced, at the age of 17,
in a letter to his friend, the historian Tacitus, 25 years after the event. Pliny the Younger saw a
huge ash cloud over the peak of the “mountain”; he described the cloud as looking like a huge
pine tree. Earthquakes in the morning of the next day caused ash raining down in Misenum,
where he stayed at the house of his uncle, Pliny the Elder. Pliny the Younger realized the
immediate danger, and he and his mother could escape while there still was some light. Soon
after their flight it became very dark, although it was daytime, as the ash cloud covered the
sky completely so that all light from the sun was barred. The air was filled with shrieks of
terrorized people, who tried to find their relatives and friends; with cries of those who had
found the dead corpses of their beloved; of expressions of despair due to the mass destruction
and the presence of death all over the place and shouts full of fear, fearing the darkness to last
forever: despite of the fact that it was daytime, the place was darker than during night. Pliny's
mother told him to go ahead and try to save himself. He often had to brush off the ash, which
covered him completely and weighted him down. But after the fall of ash stopped, he and his
mother were still alive and could return to their home, waiting for Pliny’s uncle, Pliny the
Elder, to return. However, Pliny the Elder did never return.
Pliny the Elder was the leader of the Roman Fleet of Misenum, and a very well-known
scientist. He wrote a whole Encyclopaedia, assessing the reliabilities of several ideas, and
basically compiling information of natural histories. To create this encyclopaedia, he read
2,000 works from over 500 writers. His encyclopaedia was still used until the beginning of the
Renaissance. So, Pliny the Elder, after realising, that something had to be done, after himself
seeing the cloud of ash, decided to help as many people as possible; he assembled sailors on
his fleet and sailed into the direction of the erupting volcano. The nearer he came to Mount
Vesuvius, the more difficult it was, to keep going on, and the more dangerous it was for the
sailors on the fleet. They sailed until they reached Stabiae. But Pliny’s fleet, like all of the
other ships there, could not leave Stabiae any more; they were trapped in Stabiae. On the next
day, the sailors fled over mainland. Pliny the Elder however stayed with his friend
Pomponianus. Pliny the Elder died, when he tried to flee as well. Pomponianus and the rest of
his crew could escape on the mainland. The exact cause of Pliny the Elder's death could not
be identified, since no injuries were detected on him shortly after his death. Pliny the Younger
was of the view that he died due to the toxic fumes sent out by Vesuvius. His uncle had,
according to Pliny the Younger, a weak and narrow windpipe, which probably got blocked
and prevented him from breathing.
Pliny the Younger mentioned as date of the beginning of the eruptions the 24th of
August; but recent scientific research has revealed that it probably took place one or two
months later.
According to the analysis of the ash layers in Pompeii, there were two different types
of eruptions in these days: The first one spitting out enormous quantities of ash, producing a
15 to 30 kilometres high column of ash (the "huge pine tree" as Pliny the Younger has
described it; for that reason the first one is called the Plinian eruption). Since the wind blew at
that day into the direction of Pompeii, the ash came down in Pompeii, covering the floor with
2.8 meters; Herculaneum was not affected. The second part of the eruption, called the Pelean
part, produced pyroclastic flows over a huge area. However, the collapse of the first ash cloud
– due to the cooling down process of the overheated gases - produced a pyroclastic flow in the
area of Herculaneum, the opposite direction of the wind, so that people of both cities were
killed pretty soon after the start of the eruption. The collapse of the following ash clouds
produced the two totally lethal pyroclastic flows over a huge area and reached also locations,
which were very far away from the volcano, like Misenum. The temperatures of the first
pyroclastic flow had between 180 and 220 degrees Celsius; the second one was even hotter,
with temperatures between 220 and 260 degrees Celsius. People in safer areas would have
burnt and suffocated to death, since in these places, the temperatures of the pyroclastic flows
were “only” 100 °C.
Although Pompeii has become very famous, it is not only Pompeii that can tell us a lot
about the past, Herculaneum does so too. It was, similar to Pompeii, a very rich and
prosperous city. Herculaneum however is smaller and it appeared to be much more difficult to
excavate the city: Firstly, the special volcanic ash coverage over Herculaneum made it more
difficult to dig it out than it was in the case of Pompeii. Secondly, new settlements have been
built on top of the covered ruins. Despite of these difficulties around 300 dead bodies could be
found in the ruins of Herculaneum. At the time of the eruption, Herculaneum had a population
of about 5,000 inhabitants. They were burned to death without any chance to flee in a fraction
of a second, when the pyroclastic flow rushed over them.
Only three fifths of Pompeii has been dug up for the time being. The eruption of
Mount Vesuvius covered Pompeii on some places up to six metres. The remaining ruins of
Pompeii can tell us very accurately how life in the first Century CE in Roman times looked
like. In 79 CE, it is guessed that 20,000 people lived in Pompeii. Pompeii was a very
attractive place, and many Romans went here for vacation.
After the eruption Pompeii and Herculaneum and all other buried settlements were
quickly forgotten. For 1700 years nobody knew any more that these cities actually existed. In
1599, in the course of excavations for building an underground channel, two painted wall
were found. But that did not attract the curiosity of the people at that time, so these walls were
buried again. This changed however in 1738: Herculaneum was truly discovered, when
people made excavations for a palace for the King of Naples. Pompeii was found 10 years
later, in 1748, when places around Vesuvius were deliberately inspected to find remnants of
the ancient settlements. Since then, both cities have been excavated bit by bit. During the
excavations of the cities, holes in the ash with the remains of human corpses were found. To
reconstruct the position of the dying humans, plaster was filled into these spaces. This method
perfectly reconstructs the positions and sometimes even the expressions of the dying Romans.
Bibliography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Vesuvius
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/pompeii.htm
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/08/0824-vesuvius-pompeii-pliny/
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/pompeii/history/history.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii