What happened and when?
In August AD79, Mt Vesuvius erupted, emitting massive amounts of ash and pumice stones which buried Pompeii and Herculaneum under 10 meters of debris, sealing the cities from the rest of the world for the next 1500 years. Mt Vesuvius is known for being a very active volcano, and has erupted periodically over thousands of years. Since AD79 alone it has erupted more than 70 times.
Where did it happen?
The left picture is a map of the way the ash would have fallen over the cities, and include the cities surrounding the bay of Naples.
The middle picture is how Mt Vesuvius looks today, and the right image is a detailed map of the city of Pompeii
Explanation of the events over the 24 hours of the eruption
On August 24th AD79 at approximately 1pm in the afternoon, the lives of everybody in Pompeii and Herculaneum changed forever.
Significance
The eruption of Mt Vesuvius is an extremely significant event in history. From the way that the cities were buried, it allowed them to be preserved in a way that otherwise could never have happened. Because of the way they were preserved, a great deal of detail was found, and this leads to us being able to find out information like how Romans lived their daily lives, how their political systems work, and what their social classes were, including how the class structure of Roman society was reinforced everywhere. If the eruption had never happened, the both Pompeii and Herculaneum could have been destroyed by earthquakes, or another natural disaster, or they could have been built over and changed from their original state as time went on and as architecture changed. This means that we could have never been able to study in such great detail, what Roman life was like in 79AD and earlier.
In August AD79, Mt Vesuvius erupted, emitting massive amounts of ash and pumice stones which buried Pompeii and Herculaneum under 10 meters of debris, sealing the cities from the rest of the world for the next 1500 years. Mt Vesuvius is known for being a very active volcano, and has erupted periodically over thousands of years. Since AD79 alone it has erupted more than 70 times.
Where did it happen?
The left picture is a map of the way the ash would have fallen over the cities, and include the cities surrounding the bay of Naples.
The middle picture is how Mt Vesuvius looks today, and the right image is a detailed map of the city of Pompeii
Explanation of the events over the 24 hours of the eruption
On August 24th AD79 at approximately 1pm in the afternoon, the lives of everybody in Pompeii and Herculaneum changed forever.
- At 1pm, the cities start shaking and smoke is visible coming out of Mt Vesuvius
- At 3pm, darkness gradually starts covering the cities, with smoke still coming out of the volcano
- By 5pm, fires started to break out from the heated rock being emitted, lightning had started, the ground was still shaking and the cities had been enveloped into darkness
- At 8pm, an ash cloud covered everything, the sky reflected the fire in the volcano as a bright orange and the buildings had started to collapsed under the pressure of the weight of the pumice stones and general debris that had gathered on roofs. Approximately 15cm of volcanic deposit had been emitted every hour and this went on for 17 hours resulting in 2.7 meters of ash alone.
- At 1am on the 25th of August AD79, ash covered everything and darkness surrounded the cities
- By 6am, the dark had started to clear, and the rumbling started. Many houses were already destroyed, however the worst was yet to come. A pyroclastic surge swept the city at speeds of 100-300km per hour. This was an avalanche of hot ash and toxic gases, killing everything in its path instantly.
- By 12pm, white ash covered everything and Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried - to be discovered a long 1500 years later.
Significance
The eruption of Mt Vesuvius is an extremely significant event in history. From the way that the cities were buried, it allowed them to be preserved in a way that otherwise could never have happened. Because of the way they were preserved, a great deal of detail was found, and this leads to us being able to find out information like how Romans lived their daily lives, how their political systems work, and what their social classes were, including how the class structure of Roman society was reinforced everywhere. If the eruption had never happened, the both Pompeii and Herculaneum could have been destroyed by earthquakes, or another natural disaster, or they could have been built over and changed from their original state as time went on and as architecture changed. This means that we could have never been able to study in such great detail, what Roman life was like in 79AD and earlier.