Editing Mount Vesuvius (section)

===Eruption of AD 79===
{{main|Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD}}
In AD 79, Vesuvius erupted in one of the [[List of natural disasters by death toll|most catastrophic]] eruptions of all time. Historians have learned about the eruption from the [[Witness|eyewitness]] account of [[Pliny the Younger]], a Roman administrator and poet.<ref name=BBCportents /> Several dates are given in the surviving copies of the letters.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogs.getty.edu/iris/when-did-vesuvius-erupt-august-october-24/|title=When Did Vesuvius Erupt? The Evidence for and against August 24|first1=Kenneth|last1=Lapatin|first2=Alina|last2=Kozlovski |date=23 August 2019|publisher=Getty Museum|work=The Iris}}</ref> The latest evidence supports earlier findings and indicates that the eruption occurred after 17 October.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45874858|title=Pompeii: Vesuvius eruption may have been later than thought|date=16 October 2018|publisher=BBC News}}</ref>

The volcano ejected a cloud of [[Volcanic rock|stones]], [[Volcanic ash|ashes]] and [[volcanic gas]]es to a height of {{convert|33|km|mi|abbr=on}}, [[Volcanic eruption|spewing]] [[Lava|molten rock]] and pulverized [[pumice]] at the rate of {{convert|6e5|m3|yd3}} per second, ultimately releasing 100,000 times the [[thermal energy]] released by the [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombings]].<ref name=sciencepompeii>{{cite magazine|url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,865531,00.html|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081214131422/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,865531,00.html|url-status= dead|archive-date= 14 December 2008|title=Science: Man of Pompeii|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=15 October 1956|access-date=4 February 2011}}</ref> The cities of [[Pompeii]] and [[Herculaneum]] were destroyed by [[pyroclastic surge]]s and the ruins buried under tens of metres of [[tephra]].<ref name=sciencepompeii/><ref name=BBCportents>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/pompeii_portents_01.shtml |title=Pompeii: Portents of Disaster|publisher=[[BBC History]]| first =Andrew | last = Wallace-Hadrill|date= 15 October 2010|access-date=4 February 2011}}</ref>

====Precursors and foreshocks====
The AD 79 eruption was preceded by a [[62 Pompeii earthquake|powerful earthquake in 62]], which caused widespread destruction around the Bay of Naples, and particularly to Pompeii.<ref>{{cite book |last=Martini |first=Kirk |title= Patterns of Reconstruction at Pompeii |date=September 1998 |publisher=Pompeii Forum Project, Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH), University of Virginia | chapter = 2: Identifying Potential Damage Events |chapter-url=http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/struct/pompeii/patterns/sec-02.html }}</ref> Some of the damage had still not been repaired when the volcano erupted.<ref name= VisitingPompeii /> The deaths of 600 sheep from "tainted air" in the vicinity of Pompeii indicates that the earthquake of AD 62 may have been related to new activity by Vesuvius.{{sfn |Sigurdsson|2002|p=35 | ps =, on Seneca the Younger, ''Natural Questions'', 6.1, 6.27.}}

The Romans grew accustomed to minor earth tremors in the region; the writer [[Pliny the Younger]] even wrote that they "were not particularly alarming because they are frequent in Campania". Small earthquakes started taking place four days before the eruption<ref name=VisitingPompeii>{{cite web | url = http://www.archaeology.co.uk/cwa-2/world-features/visiting-pompeii.htm | title = Visiting Pompeii – AD 79 – Vesuvius explodes | first = Rick | last = Jones | work = Current Archeology | year = 2004–2010 | publisher = Current Publishing | location = London | access-date = 27 May 2010 | url-status=dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120308100010/http://www.archaeology.co.uk/cwa-2/world-features/visiting-pompeii.htm | archive-date = 8 March 2012}}</ref> becoming more frequent over the next four days, but the warnings were not recognized.{{efn|name=fn2|The dates of the earthquakes and of the eruption are contingent on a final determination of the time of year, but there is no reason to change the relative sequence.}}

====Scientific analysis====
[[File:Mt Vesuvius 79 AD eruption.svg|left|thumb|Pompeii and Herculaneum, as well as other cities affected by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The black cloud represents the general distribution of ash, pumice and cinders. Modern coast lines are shown.]]
Reconstructions of the eruption and its effects vary considerably in the details but have the same overall features. The eruption lasted two days. The morning of the first day was perceived as normal by the only eyewitness to leave a surviving document, Pliny the Younger. In the middle of the day, an explosion threw up a high-altitude column from which ash and pumice began to fall, blanketing the area. Rescues and escapes occurred during this time. At some time in the night or early the next day, [[pyroclastic surge]]s in the close vicinity of the volcano began. Lights were seen on the peak, interpreted as fires. People as far away as Misenum fled for their lives. The flows were rapid-moving, dense and very hot, knocking down, wholly or partly, all structures in their path, incinerating or suffocating all population remaining there and altering the landscape, including the coastline. Additional light tremors accompanied these and a mild [[tsunami]] in the Bay of Naples. By late afternoon of the second day, the eruption was over, leaving only haze in the atmosphere through which the sun shone weakly.

The latest scientific studies of the ash produced by Vesuvius reveal a multi-phase eruption.<ref>{{harvnb|Sigurdsson|2002}}</ref> The initial major explosion produced a column of ash and pumice ranging between {{convert|15|and|30|km|ft}} high, which rained on Pompeii to the southeast but not on Herculaneum upwind. The chief energy supporting the column came from the escape of steam superheated by the magma, created from seawater seeping over time into the deep faults of the region, which interacted with magma.

Subsequently, the cloud collapsed as the gases expanded and lost their capability to support their solid contents, releasing it as a pyroclastic surge, which first reached Herculaneum but not Pompeii. Additional blasts reinstituted the column. The eruption alternated between Plinian and Peléan six times. Surges 3 and 4 are believed by the authors to have buried Pompeii.<ref>{{harvnb|Sigurdsson|Carey|2002|pp=42–43}}</ref> Surges are identified in the deposits by dune and cross-bedding formations, which are not produced by fallout.

Another study used the magnetic characteristics of over 200 samples of roof-tile and plaster fragments collected around Pompeii to estimate the equilibrium temperature of the pyroclastic flow.<ref>{{harvnb|Zanella|Gurioli|Pareschi|Lanza|2007|p=5}}</ref> The magnetic study revealed that on the first day of the eruption a fall of white pumice containing clastic fragments of up to {{convert|3|cm|in}} fell for several hours.<ref>{{harvnb|Zanella|Gurioli|Pareschi|Lanza|2007|p=3}}</ref> It heated the roof tiles up to {{convert|140|C}}.<ref>{{harvnb|Zanella|Gurioli|Pareschi|Lanza|2007|p=12}}</ref> This period would have been the last opportunity to escape.

The collapse of the Plinian columns on the second day caused pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) that devastated Herculaneum and Pompeii. The depositional temperature of these pyroclastic surges reached up to {{convert|300|C}}.<ref>{{harvnb|Zanella|Gurioli|Pareschi|Lanza|2007|p=13}}</ref> Any population remaining in structural refuges could not have escaped, as gases of incinerating temperatures surrounded the city. The lowest temperatures were in rooms under collapsed roofs, at approximately {{convert|100|C}}.<ref>{{harvnb|Zanella|Gurioli|Pareschi|Lanza|2007|p=14}}</ref>

====The two Plinys====
The only surviving eyewitness account of the event consists of two letters by Pliny the Younger to the historian [[Tacitus]].<ref name=epistularum>{{cite book|author=C. Plinii Caecilii Secundi|title= Epistularum|section=Liber Sextus; 16 & 20 |url=http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/pliny.ep6.html |publisher=The Latin Library}}</ref> Pliny the Younger describes, amongst other things, the last days in the life of his uncle, [[Pliny the Elder]]. Observing the first volcanic activity from [[Misenum]] across the Bay of Naples from the volcano, approximately {{convert|35|km}}, the elder Pliny launched a rescue fleet and went himself to the rescue of a personal friend. His nephew declined to join the party. One of the nephew's letters relates what he could discover from witnesses of his uncle's experiences.<ref name=Pliny1>{{cite book|author=Pliny the Younger|editor=Charles W. Eliot|chapter=LXV. To Tacitus |series=The Harvard Classics|year=2001|orig-year=1909–14|title=Vol. IX, Part 4: Letters|location=New York |publisher=Bartelby|chapter-url=http://www.bartleby.com/9/4/1065.html}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author1=Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus ([[Pliny the Younger]])|title=LETTERS OF PLINY|page=LXV|website=Letters of Pliny |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2811/2811-h/2811-h.htm#link2H_4_0065|via=[[Project Gutenberg]] |access-date=3 October 2016 |date=September 2001}}</ref> In a second letter, the younger Pliny details his own observations after the departure of his uncle.<ref name=Pliny2>{{cite book|author=Pliny the Younger |editor=Charles W. Eliot|chapter=LXVI. To Cornelius Tacitus|series=The Harvard Classics|year=2001 |orig-year=1909–14|title=Vol. IX, Part 4: Letters|location=New York|publisher=Bartelby |chapter-url=http://www.bartleby.com/9/4/1066.html}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author1=Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus ([[Pliny the Younger]])|title=LETTERS OF PLINY|page=LXVI|website=Letters of Pliny |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2811/2811-h/2811-h.htm#link2H_4_0066|via=[[Project Gutenberg]] |access-date=3 October 2016 |date=September 2001}}</ref>

The two men saw an extraordinarily dense cloud rising rapidly above the peak. This cloud and a request by a messenger for an evacuation by sea prompted the elder Pliny to order rescue operations in which he sailed away to participate. His nephew attempted to resume a normal life, but that night a tremor awoke him and his mother, prompting them to abandon the house for the courtyard. Further tremors near dawn caused the population to abandon the village and caused disastrous [[tsunami|wave action]] in the [[Bay of Naples]].

A massive black cloud with lightning obscured the early-morning light, a scene Pliny describes as [[sheet lightning]]. The cloud obscured Point Misenum near at hand and the island of Capraia ([[Capri]]) across the bay. Fearing for their lives, the population began to flee the shore along the road. An ash rain fell, causing Pliny to shake it off periodically to avoid being buried. Later that same day, the pumice and ash stopped falling, and the sun shone weakly through the cloud, encouraging Pliny and his mother to return to their home and wait for news of Pliny the Elder.

Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, was in command of the [[Roman Navy|Roman fleet]] at Misenum and had meanwhile decided to investigate the phenomenon at close hand in a light vessel. As the ship was preparing to leave the area, a messenger came from his friend Rectina (wife of Tascius<ref>{{cite web|url=http://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/pompeii/PlinyLetters.htm|title=Pliny Letter 6.16|access-date=11 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150511070405/http://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/pompeii/PlinyLetters.htm|archive-date=11 May 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>) living on the coast near the foot of the volcano, explaining that her party could only get away by sea and asking for rescue. Pliny ordered the immediate launching of the fleet galleys to the evacuation of the coast. He continued in his light ship to the rescue of Rectina's party.

He set off across the bay but, in the shallows on the other side, encountered thick showers of hot cinders, lumps of pumice and pieces of rock. Advised by the helmsman to turn back, he stated, "Fortune favors the brave" and ordered him to continue to [[Stabiae]] (about 4.5&nbsp;km from Pompeii).

Pliny the Elder and his party saw what they believed to be flames coming from several parts of the crater. After staying overnight, the party was driven from the building by an accumulation of material, presumably tephra, which threatened to block all egress. They woke Pliny, who had been napping and emitting loud snoring. They elected to take to the fields with pillows tied to their heads to protect them from the raining debris. They approached the beach again, but the wind prevented the ships from leaving. Pliny sat down on a sail that had been spread for him and could not rise, even with assistance, when his friends departed. Though Pliny the Elder died, his friends ultimately escaped by land.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://volcanology.geol.ucsb.edu/pliny.htm |author=Fisher, Richard V. |collaboration=and volunteers |title=Derivation of the name "Plinian" |department=The Volcano Information Center |publisher=University of California at Santa Barbara, Department of Geological Sciences |access-date=15 May 2010}}</ref>

In the first letter to Tacitus, Pliny the Younger suggested that his uncle's death was due to the reaction of his weak lungs to a cloud of poisonous, sulphurous gas that wafted over the group. However, Stabiae was 16&nbsp;km from the vent (roughly where the modern town of [[Castellammare di Stabia]] is situated), and his companions were unaffected by the volcanic gases. It is more likely that the corpulent Pliny died from another cause, such as a stroke or heart attack.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/history/lecture19/lec19.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120718082232/http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/history/lecture19/lec19.html |archive-date=18 July 2012 |title=Lecture 19: Greek, Carthaginian and Roman Agricultural Writers |work=History of Horticulture |year=2002 |first=Jules |last=Janick |publisher=Purdue University |access-date=15 May 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> His body was found with no apparent injuries the next day, after dispersal of the plume.

====Casualties====
[[File:Pompeii&Vesuvius.JPG|thumb|Pompeii, with Vesuvius towering above]]

Along with Pliny the Elder, the only other noble casualties of the eruption to be known by name were Agrippa (a son of the Herodian Jewish princess [[Drusilla (daughter of Agrippa I)|Drusilla]] and the procurator [[Antonius Felix]]) and his wife.<ref>{{cite book|first=Flavius|last=Josephus|author-link=Josephus|title=Jewish Antiquities |section= xx.7.2|orig-date=94 AD<!-- 94 AD is the real date --> |title-link=Jewish Antiquities}} Also known to have been mentioned in a section now lost.</ref>

By 2003, around 1,044&nbsp;casts made from impressions of bodies in the ash deposits had been recovered in and around Pompeii, with the scattered bones of another 100.<ref name="Episodes">{{cite journal |journal= Episodes |volume= 26 |date= September 2003 |title= The eruption of Vesuvius of 79 AD and its impact on human environment in Pompei |first1= Lisetta |last1= Giacomelli |first2= Annamaria |last2= Perrotta |first3= Roberto |last3= Scandone |first4= Claudio |last4= Scarpati |issue= 3 |pages= 235–238 |doi= 10.18814/epiiugs/2003/v26i3/014 |doi-access= free }}</ref> The remains of about 332 bodies have been found at Herculaneum (300 in arched vaults discovered in 1980).<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.fieldmuseum.org/pompeii/herculaneum_2.asp | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090318012551/http://www.fieldmuseum.org/pompeii/herculaneum_2.asp | archive-date = 18 March 2009 | title = Pompeii, Stories from an eruption: Herculaneum | year=2007|publisher = The Field Museum of Natural History |location=Chicago | work = Soprintendenza archeologica di Pompei| access-date = 12 May 2010}}</ref> What percentage these numbers are of the total dead or the percentage of the dead to the total number at risk remain unknown.

Thirty-eight percent of the 1,044 were found in the ash fall deposits, the majority inside buildings. These are thought to have been killed mainly by roof collapses, with the smaller number of victims found outside of buildings probably being killed by falling roof slates or by larger rocks thrown out by the volcano. The remaining 62% of remains found at Pompeii were in the pyroclastic surge deposits,<ref name="Episodes" /> and thus were probably killed by them – probably from a combination of suffocation from inhaling ashes and blast and debris thrown around. Examination of cloth, frescoes and skeletons shows that, in contrast to the victims found at Herculaneum, it is unlikely that high temperatures were a significant cause of the destruction at Pompeii. Herculaneum, much closer to the crater, was saved from tephra falls by the wind direction but was buried under {{convert |23|m}} of material deposited by pyroclastic surges. Likely, most of the known victims in this town were killed by the surges.

People in Herculaneum, caught on the former seashore by the first surge, died of thermal shock. The rest were concentrated in arched chambers at a density of as high as three persons per square metre. As only {{convert|85|m|ft}} of the coast have been excavated, further casualties may be discovered.