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Mount Vesuvius

Mount Vesuvius (/vɪˈsuːviəs/ viss-OO-vee-əs)[a] is a somma-stratovolcano located on the Gulf of Naples in Campania, Italy, about 9 km (5.6 mi) east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. It is one of several volcanoes forming the Campanian volcanic arc. Vesuvius consists of a large cone partially encircled by the steep rim of a summit caldera, resulting from the collapse of an earlier, much higher structure.

"Vesuvius" redirects here. For other uses, see Vesuvius (disambiguation).

Mount Vesuvius

1,281 m (4,203 ft) Edit this on Wikidata

1,232 m (4,042 ft) Edit this on Wikidata

40°49′17″N 14°25′34″E / 40.82139°N 14.42611°E / 40.82139; 14.42611

Campania, Italy

25,000 years before present to 1944; age of volcano = c. 17,000 years to present

Somma-stratovolcano

Campanian volcanic arc

17–23 March 1944

Walk

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis, Stabiae, and several other settlements. The eruption ejected a cloud of stones, ash and volcanic gases to a height of 33 km (21 mi), erupting molten rock and pulverized pumice at the rate of 6×105 cubic metres (7.8×105 cu yd) per second.[5] More than 1,000 people are thought to have died in the eruption, though the exact toll is unknown. The only surviving eyewitness account of the event consists of two letters by Pliny the Younger to the historian Tacitus.[6]


Vesuvius has erupted many times since. It is the only volcano on Europe's mainland to have erupted in the last hundred years. It is regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because 3,000,000 people live near enough to be affected by an eruption, with at least 600,000 in the danger zone. This is the most densely populated volcanic region in the world. Eruptions tend to be violent and explosive; these are known as Plinian eruptions.[7]

From Greek οὔ = "not" prefixed to a root from or related to the Greek word σβέννυμι = "I quench", in the sense of "unquenchable".[14]

[13]

From Greek ἕω = "I hurl" and βίη "violence", "hurling violence", *vesbia, taking advantage of the collateral form.

[15]

From an root, *eus- < *ewes- < *h₁ews-, "shine", "burn", sense "the one who lightens", through Latin or Oscan.[16]

Indo-European

From an root *wes = "hearth" (compare e.g. Vesta)

Indo-European

Vesuvius was a name of the volcano in frequent use by the authors of the late Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. Its collateral forms were Vesaevus, Vesevus, Vesbius and Vesvius.[13] Writers in ancient Greek used Οὐεσούιον or Οὐεσούιος. Many scholars since then have offered an etymology. Given that peoples of varying ethnicity and language occupied Campania during the Roman Iron Age, the etymology depends to a large degree on the presumption of what language was spoken there at the time. Naples was settled by Greeks, as the name Nea-polis, "New City", testifies. The Oscans, an Italic people, lived in the countryside. The Latins also competed for the occupation of Campania. Etruscan settlements were in the vicinity. Other peoples of unknown provenance are said to have been there at some time by various ancient authors.


Some theories about its origin are:

25,000 years ago: Vesuvius started forming in the Codola .[17]

Plinian eruption

Vesuvius was then built up by a series of lava flows, with some smaller explosive eruptions interspersed between them. By this time, the volcano was 2,000 meters (6,560 feet) tall, with the summit being 500 meters (1,640 feet) east of the current summit.[31]

[30]

About 19,000 years ago: the style of eruption changed to a sequence of large explosive and caldera-forming Plinian eruptions, of which the AD 79 one was the most recent. The calderas are aligned in a roughly east–west direction, and all contributed to forming present-day's Somma caldera. The eruptions are named after the tephra deposits produced by them, which in turn are named after the place where the deposits were first identified:[32][30]

[30]

18,300 years ago: the Basal Pumice (Pomici di Base) eruption,  6, the original formation of the Somma caldera. The caldera's formation was asymmetric towards the west.[30][31] The eruption was followed by a period of much less violent, lava-producing eruptions.[21]

VEI

16,000 years ago: the Green Pumice (Pomici Verdoline) eruption, VEI 5.

[17]

Around 11,000 years ago: the Lagno Amendolare eruption, smaller than the Mercato eruption.

8,000 years ago: the (Pomici di Mercato) – also known as Pomici Gemelle or Pomici Ottaviano, VEI 6.[17]

Mercato eruption

Around 5,000 years ago: two explosive eruptions smaller than the Avellino eruption.

3,800 years ago (19th century BC): the (Pomici di Avellino), VEI 6; its vent was apparently 2 km (1.2 mi) west of the current crater and the eruption destroyed several Bronze Age settlements of the Apennine culture, including ancient Afragola.[33] Several carbon dates on wood and bones offer a range of possible dates of about 500 years in the mid-2nd millennium BC. In May 2001, near Nola, Italian archaeologists using the technique of filling every cavity with plaster or substitute compound, recovered some remarkably well-preserved forms of perishable objects, such as fence rails, a bucket and especially in the vicinity, thousands of human footprints pointing into the Apennines to the north. The settlement had huts, pots and goats. The residents had hastily abandoned the village, leaving it to be buried under pumice and ash in much the same way that Pompeii and Herculaneum were later preserved.[34][35] Pyroclastic surge deposits were distributed to the northwest of the vent, travelling as far as 15 km (9.3 mi) from it, and lie up to 3 m (9.8 ft) deep in the area now occupied by Naples.[36]

Avellino eruption

The volcano then entered a stage of more frequent, but less violent eruptions, until the most recent , which destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum. Evidence of these eruptions comes from badly preserved ashfall deposits that have been dubitatively assigned to Either the Somma-Vesuvius complex, or the Phlegrean fields.[30]

Plinian eruption

The last of these may have been in 217 BC. There were earthquakes in Italy during that year and the sun was reported as being dimmed by gray haze or dry fog. Plutarch wrote of the sky being on fire near Naples, and Silius Italicus mentioned in his epic poem Punica[37][38] that Vesuvius had thundered and produced flames worthy of Mount Etna in that year. However, both authors were writing around 250 years later. Greenland ice core samples of around that period show relatively high acidity, which is assumed to have been caused by atmospheric hydrogen sulfide.[39]

[22]

Funicular

Mount Vesuvius' first funicular — a type of vertical transport that uses two opposing, interconnected, rail-guided passenger cars always moving in concert — opened in 1880, subsequently destroyed by the March 1944 eruption.


"Funiculì, Funiculà", a Neapolitan language song, was written to commemorate the opening of the first funicular on Mount Vesuvius.[82]

Battle of Mount Vesuvius

List of volcanic eruptions by death toll

List of volcanoes in Italy

List of stratovolcanoes

Purcell, N.; Talbert, R.; Gillies, S.; Elliott, T.; Becker, J. (20 March 2015). . Pleiades. Retrieved 8 March 2012.

"Places: 433189 (Vesuvius M.)"

Fraser, Christian (10 January 2007). . Naples: BBC News. Retrieved 11 May 2010.

"Vesuvius escape plan 'insufficient'"

Garrett, Roger A.; Klenk, Hans-Peter (April 2005). . Geotimes. Archived from the original on 12 May 2007. Retrieved 8 December 2006.

"Vesuvius' next eruption"

. Global Volcanic and Environmental Systems Simulation (GVES). 1996–2003.

"Vesuvius: The making of a catastrophe: Il problema ignorato"