Editing Mount Vesuvius (section)

===Eruptions in the 20th century===
[[File:Vesuvius (erupting) Circa April 5, 1926.webm|thumb|Vesuvius erupting (seen from the surrounding caldera wall) {{circa}} 5 April 1926]]
[[File:Mt Vesuvius Erupting 1944.jpg|left|thumb|upright|The March 1944 eruption of Vesuvius, by Jack Reinhardt, [[Consolidated B-24 Liberator|B-24]] tail gunner in the [[USAAF]] during [[World War II]]]]
* The eruption of 5 April 1906<ref name=nyt060406>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/04/06/102421540.pdf Vesuvius Causes Terror; Loud Detonations and Frequent Earthquakes], The New York Times, 6 April 1906</ref><ref name=nyt070406>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/04/07/101838227.pdf Vesuvius Threatens Destruction Of Towns; Bosco Trecase Abandoned], The New York Times, 7 April 1906</ref> killed more than 100 people and ejected the most lava ever recorded from a [[Vesuvian eruption]]. Italian authorities were preparing to hold the [[1908 Summer Olympics]] when Mount Vesuvius violently erupted, devastating the city of [[Naples]] and surrounding [[comunes]]. Funds were diverted to reconstructing Naples, and the Games were transferred to London.
* Vesuvius was active from 1913 through 1944, with lava filling the crater and occasional outflows of small amounts of lava.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research|volume=58|issue=1|year=1993|pages=5–25|title=Mount Vesuvius: 2000 years of volcanological observations|first1=Roberto|last1=Scandone|first2=Lisetta|last2=Giacomelli|first3=Paolo|last3=Gasparini|url=http://shadow.eas.gatech.edu/~dufek/PhysVolc2011/Notes_Reading_files/Scandone_Vesuvius_1993.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810123937/http://shadow.eas.gatech.edu/~dufek/PhysVolc2011/Notes_Reading_files/Scandone_Vesuvius_1993.pdf |archive-date=2017-08-10 |url-status=live|bibcode=1993JVGR...58....5S|doi=10.1016/0377-0273(93)90099-D}}</ref>
* That eruptive period ended in the major eruption of March 1944, which destroyed the villages of [[San Sebastiano al Vesuvio]], [[Massa di Somma]], and [[Ottaviano]], and part of [[San Giorgio a Cremano]].<ref>{{Cite video|url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bsmv6PyKs0| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211030/1bsmv6PyKs0| archive-date=2021-10-30|title= Mt Vesuvius erupts near Naples, Italy in 1944|people=Stevens, Robert |medium= The Travel Film Archive|publisher=Castle Films, YouTube |location=Naples|year=1944}}{{cbignore}}</ref> From 13 to 18 March 1944, activity was confined within the rim. Finally, on 18 March 1944, lava overflowed the rim. Lava flows destroyed nearby villages from 19 March through 22 March.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://vulcan.fis.uniroma3.it/vesuvio/1944eng.html| title= The eruption of vesuvius of March 1944| work= Esplora i Vulcani Italiani| date= 1996–2009| author= Giacomelli, L.| author2= Scandone, R.| publisher= Dipartimento di Fisica E. Amaldi, Università Roma Tre| access-date= 9 May 2010| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091230060643/http://vulcan.fis.uniroma3.it/vesuvio/1944eng.html| archive-date= 30 December 2009| url-status=dead}}</ref> On 24 March, an explosive eruption created an ash plume and a small [[pyroclastic flow]].

In March 1944, the [[United States Army Air Forces]] (USAAF) [[340th Bombardment Group]] was based at [[Pompeii Airfield]] near [[Terzigno]], Italy, just a few kilometres from the eastern base of the volcano. The tephra and hot ash from multiple days of the eruption damaged the fabric control surfaces, the engines, the [[Plexiglas]] windscreens and the gun turrets of the 340th's [[B-25 Mitchell]] medium bombers. Estimates ranged from 78 to 88 aircraft destroyed.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Mount Vesuvius Eruption of March 1944|first=Don|last=Kaiser|url=http://www.warwingsart.com/12thAirForce/Vesuvius.html|access-date=13 June 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103062745/http://www.warwingsart.com/12thAirForce/Vesuvius.html|archive-date=3 November 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[File:340th Bombardment Group B-25 Mitchell covered with ash from Mount Vesuvius.jpg|upright|thumb|Ash being swept off a wing of an American [[North American B-25 Mitchell|B-25 Mitchell]] medium bomber of the 340th Bombardment Group on 23 March 1944 after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius]]

The eruption could be seen from Naples. Different perspectives and the damage caused to the local villages were recorded by USAAF photographers and other personnel based nearer to the volcano.<ref>{{cite web|title=Melvin C. Shaffer World War II Photographs|url=http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=any&CISOBOX1=vesuvius&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=%2Fmcs|publisher=Central University Library (CUL), Southern Methodist University (SMU)}}</ref>