In the year 79 CE Mt. Vesuvius of Pompeii erupted. The eruption was so catastrophic that it destroyed cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Pompeii, which is also known as “The Garden of the Fugitives”, is an important part of Ancient Roman history, because it has shown historians a vision of the Ancient Roman society. Historians now believe that the people of Pompeii died by an explosion of gas and hot mud brutally eliminated the residents. Before this, people believed that everyone died by suffocating from the ash. There is evidence that proves this. The ones that will be discussed are Pliny the Younger’s writing, the eruption of Mt. Helens and the body casts.
On the day of Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption, a man named Pliny the Younger was just off the Bay of the Naples. Pliny recorded his observation of the eruption in a series of letters. Pliny’s letters are the only primary source of the eruption. In these letters, he claimed that the sun was completely blocked out by the ash. The shape of the eruption was said to look like a pine tree. “It rose into the sky on a very long ‘trunk’ from which spread some ‘branches”. Pliny also stated that he saw a large mass of dirt fall from the side of the volcano and the volcano erupted through that new gap. These …show more content…
Helens erupted. This eruption helped adjust historians’ idea of what happened to Mt. Vesuvius. Mount St. Helens experienced a pyroclastic flow causing the whole north side of the volcano to collapse. This event was extremely similar to the definition that Pliny the Younger provided to Mt. Vesuvius back in 79CE. Since these two eruptions were so similar, historians went back and tested remains of Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption. After the examinations, they finally concluded that the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius was a pyroclastic flow. Pyroclastic flows are dense mixtures of hot, dry rock fragments and hot gas. The temperatures of these rocks are extremely hot enough to kill a