Today in History: Mount Vesuvius erupts, covering Pompeii in ash
More than 2 000 people were killed in Pompeii alone in the aftermath of the Mount Vesuvius explosion 1 139 years ago.
After centuries of dormancy, Mount Vesuvius erupted in southern Italy, devastating the prosperous Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and killing thousands.
At noon on 24 August 79, the pleasure and prosperity of the citizens came to an end when the peak of Mount Vesuvius exploded, propelling a 16km mushroom cloud of ash and pumice into the stratosphere. For the next 12 hours, volcanic ash and a hail of pumice stones up to 3 inches in diameter showered Pompeii, forcing the city’s occupants to flee in terror.
A westerly wind protected Herculaneum from the initial stage of the eruption, but then a giant cloud of hot ash and gas surged down the western flank of Vesuvius, engulfing the city and burning or asphyxiating all who remained. This lethal cloud was followed by a flood of volcanic mud and rock, which subsequently buried the city.
The people who remained in Pompeii were killed on the morning of 25 August when a cloud of toxic gas poured into the city, suffocating all that remained. A flow of rock and ash followed, collapsing roofs and walls and burying the dead.
Much of what we know about the eruption comes from an account by Pliny the Younger, who was staying west of the city, along the Bay of Naples when Vesuvius exploded.
In two letters to the historian Tacitus, he told of how “people covered their heads with pillows, the only defence against a shower of stones,” and of how “a dark and horrible cloud charged with combustible matter suddenly broke and set forth. Some bewailed their own fate. Others prayed to die.”
According to Pliny the Younger’s account, the eruption lasted 18 hours. Pompeii was buried under 4 to 5m of ash and pumice, and the nearby seacoast was drastically changed. Herculaneum was buried under more than 18m of mud and volcanic material.
The remains of 2 000 men, women, and children have been found at Pompeii. After perishing from asphyxiation, their bodies were covered with ash that hardened and preserved the outline of their bodies. Later, their bodies decomposed to skeletal remains, leaving a kind of plaster mould behind. Archaeologists who found these moulds filled the hollows with plaster, revealing in grim detail the death pose of the victims of Vesuvius.
The cities, buried under a thick layer of volcanic material and mud, were never rebuilt and largely forgotten in the course of history. In the 18th century, Pompeii and Herculaneum were rediscovered and excavated, providing an unprecedented archaeological record of the everyday life of an ancient civilization, startlingly preserved in sudden death.
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