Do you have any information on Mt. Vesuvius?
Sue ,Michelle
Dear Sue and Michelle.
You are absolutely right. VolcanoWorld lacks sufficient information on
many of the world volcano, including
Mt. Vesuvius
. I started on this
project last week and have about two years to describe close to 1,500
volcanoes. I've written some new material on Vesuvius and will send it
to our computer scientists to add to the homepage. I hope you found other
sources of information for your science report.
Here are the basics on Vesuvius:
Vesuvius erupted catastrophically in 79 A.D., burying the towns of
Herculaneum and Pompeii. The Somma Rim, a caldera-like structure formed
by the collapse of a stratovolcano about 17,000 year ago, flanks Vesuvius
to the east.
The 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius was the first volcanic eruption ever to
be described in detail. From 18 miles (30 km) west of the volcano, Pliny
the Younger, witnessed the eruption and later recorded his observations
in two letters.
Volcanologists now refer to sustained explosive eruptions which generate
high-altitude eruption columns and blanket large areas with ash as
plinian eruptions. It is estimated that at times during the eruption
the column of ash was 20 miles (32 km) tall. About 1 mi3 (4 km3) of ash
was erupted in about 19 hours. Vesuvius has erupted about three dozen
times since 79 A.D., including a large, explosive eruption in 1631 that
killed 4,000 people. The most recent eruption was from 1913-1944.
An excellent source of information on Vesuvius is an article titled :The
Eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79 by Sigurdsson and others (National
Geographic Research, v. 1 no. 3, p. 332-387). Most books about volcanoes
also describe Vesuvius.
Sorry for the delay in my response.
Steve Mattox, University of North Dakota
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