MINUTE-BY-MINUTE ACCOUNT REVEALS EXACTLY HOW POMPEII WAS DESTROYED

The eruption of Italy's Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 was one of the most deadly volcanic events in history, killing up to 16,000 people. 

Now, researchers have revealed a minute-by-minute account of how the devastation unfolded across an agonising 32-hour period. 

It all began at about 12pm on the 24th day of August or October AD 79.

The 2,000ft volcano, located in the Gulf of Naples, started spewing a cloud of rocky volcanic fragments and gas into the air, known as the 'eruption column'. 

Chunks of pumice – a porous volcanic rock formed when a gas-rich froth of glassy lava solidifies rapidly – measuring up to nine feet thick rained down on residents and buildings in Pompeii, Herculaneum and other nearby settlements. 

The devastation really ramped up by 7:06pm, when the volcano launched the first 'pyroclastic currents' – the deadly hot and fast-moving flows of gas and volcanic particles. 

These scalding-hot currents vaporised inhabitants and even turned human tissue into glass in a process known as vitrification

The currents continued overnight into the following day, occurring approximately 80 minutes apart, while at sunrise on the 25th, about 5:30am, the eruptive column collapsed onto the ground. 

At 7:07am, the deadliest pyroclastic current struck - a nine-hour ground-hugging flow spreading scalding debris 15 miles (25km) across.

By about 4pm, the volcano interacted with groundwater, increasing its explosiveness and generating finer, less dense pyroclastic currents.

These flows, still capable of traveling around 10 miles (15km), were destructive but do not contain human remains, suggesting few of Pompeii’s residents were still alive.

At 8:05pm, the eruption finally ceased - but an earthquake may have killed any of Pompeii's survivors, another study concluded.

After the eruption, bodies of the victims at Pompeii were famously preserved in a protective shell of ash before they eventually decayed. 

Since the mid 1800s, the voids that these bodies left behind were eventually filled with plaster casts to recreate their final moments. 

The new research, detailed in a study in Journal of the Geological Society and reported by Science, extends the timeline of the eruption from 19 to 32 hours.

At the time of the disaster, Mount Vesuvius was thought to be inactive because it hadn't erupted in around 1,800 years, meaning locals were largely unprepared.

How the devastation unfolded at Pompeii 

August 24, AD 79

12pm – Eruption of Mount Vesuvius starts, sending an ‘eruptive column’ of ash and gas into the air

1pm - Pliny the Younger witnesses umbrellalike cloud looming over Mount Vesuvius (he was in Misenum, across the Bay of Naples)

2pm - Pompeii begins to get covered with ash and pumice, crushing Pompeiians

August 25, AD 79

5:30am (sunrise) - Eruptive column collapses

7:07am - Deadliest pyroclastic current strikes

4pm - Volcano generates finer, less dense pyroclastic currents

8:05pm – Eruption finally ceases

'We now have a much clearer picture of the impact on buildings and humans over the hours,' study author Claudio Scarpati told Science.

The volcanologists from the University of Naples Federico II, measured the distribution and volume of volcanic layers around the impact area.

Data was combined with the famous eyewitness account of Pliny the Younger, the Roman administrator who vividly described the eruption in a series of letters. 

Pliny the Younger, who was just 17 years old at the time of the disaster, was stationed in Misenum, across the Bay of Naples. 

He had observed an umbrella-like cloud looming over Mount Vesuvius around 1pm – the vertical plume of ash known as the 'eruption column'. 

Now considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world, Mount Vesuvius is still active and could erupt again, although predicting when volcanoes will blow is an extremely difficult task for volcanologists. 

Apart from being potentially fatal again for Italians living in the Bay of Naples, such an eruption could also affect aviation passengers. 

In AD 79, Mount Vesuvius' plume of ash and gas reached 21 miles (34km) in height, more than triple the cruising altitude of most commercial jets. 

'This matters for climatic impacts or aviation hazards,' volcanologist Benjamin Andrews at the Smithsonian Institution told Science. 

'It’s a big difference to an airplane if the ash is at 5 kilometers or 35 kilometers.' 

Sadly, the Mount Vesuvius eruption of AD 79 is not the most deadly to occur in recorded history, even when taking into account the upper range of its estimated death toll. 

The 1815 eruption of Indonesia's Mount Tambora killed an estimated 100,000 people in the direct impact, but led to millions of more deaths later. 

It released 24 cubic miles of gases, dust, and rock into the atmosphere, causing global temperatures to plummet followed by crops failure, famine and disease. 

More recently, the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia erupted in 1985, killing around 25,000 people. 

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2025-01-23T15:25:33Z