Cast of a Woman at The Pompeii Antiquarium, Pompeii

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The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD was one of the most devastating volcanic eruptions in European history. The eyewitness account of Pliny the Younger, a Roman administrator and poet, provides valuable insight into this catastrophic event. On that fateful day, August 24th, Mount Vesuvius spewed forth a deadly cloud of volcanic gas, stones, and ash to a height of 33 kilometers (21 miles), ejecting molten rock and pulverized pumice at the rate of 1.5 million tons per second, releasing a hundred thousand times the thermal energy of the Hiroshima bombing. Seventeen Roman settlements were destroyed and buried under massive pyroclastic surges and ashfall deposits, with Pompeii and Herculaneum being the most well-known victims. The number of deaths is still unknown, but about 1500 people have been found at Pompeii and Herculaneum, representing only a small part of the overall fatalities. Reconstructions of the eruption and its effects vary in details, but all share the same core features. The eruption lasted for two days, with Mount Vesuvius violently exploding around 1:00 p.m., throwing up a high-altitude column from which ash began to fall, blanketing the area. Rescues and escapes occurred during this time. Pyroclastic flows in the vicinity of the volcano started sometime in the night or early the next day, August 25th. These rapid-moving, dense, and extremely hot flows knocked down all structures in their path, incinerating or suffocating everyone remaining there, altering the landscape, including the coastline. By evening of the second day, the eruption was over, leaving only haze in the atmosphere through which the sun shone weakly. Pliny the Younger wrote an account of the eruption: "Broad sheets of flame were lighting up many parts of Vesuvius; their light and brightness were the more vivid for the darkness of the night... it was daylight now elsewhere in the world, but there the darkness was darker and thicker than any night." By 2003, around 1,044 remains had been found at Pompeii, with 62% of them in pyroclastic surge deposits. It was initially believed that high temperatures were not a significant cause of death due to the state of the bodies found at Pompeii. However, studies in 2010 indicated that during the fourth pyroclastic surge – the first surge to reach Pompeii – temperatures reached 300°C (572°F), enough to kill hundreds of people in a fraction of a second. Herculaneum, which was much closer to the crater, was saved from tephra falls by wind direction but was buried under 23 meters (75 ft) of material deposited by pyroclastic surges. It is likely that most or all of the known victims in this town were killed by the surges, particularly given evidence of high temperatures found on skeletons and carbonized wood in many buildings. These people were caught on the former seashore by the first surge and died of thermal shock but not carbonization, although some were partly carbonized by later and hotter surges. The arched vaults were most likely boathouses, as crossbeams in the overhead were probably for suspending boats. No boats have been found, indicating they may have been used for earlier escape of some population. The casualties waiting to be excavated may well be as high as the thousands."