Where was the first reported volcanic eruption?

Melanie Summers

I once wrote a short article about this very topic! Many people think it was the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD which was described by the Roman citizen Pliny the Younger, but the first record, I believe, was a painting on the wall of a house in an ancient village in Turkey. Archeologists of the Catal Hayuk site found a painting showing a twin peaked volcano erupting ash and perhaps also lava flows from the flanks. It is believed that the village was lived in about 6200 BC. Interestingly, there are young volcanic cones nearby that may well have been active at about that time.

Chuck Wood, University of North Dakota

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