Friday, April 18, 2008

Basic Mt. Vesuvius info

Mt Vesuvius is an active volcano just east of Naples, Italy. Mount Vesuvius is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of the 3,000,000 people living near it, and because it tends to have explosive eruptions. Although Vesuvius has erupted many times, it is best known for its eruption in 79 AD, when it destroyed the city of Pompeii. When Mt. Vesuvius erupted in killed all the people in Pompeii and also the people in its "sister country", Herculaneum. Its explosion was so strong, it didn't burn the people, into just ashes, it actually made a cast of ash aroung the person and sort of "mummified" the body. Most bodies are still aroung and you can tell what they are...inside of the "ash cast" the people suffered immediatley and died. This kind of volcan ois called a stratovolcano, or composite. It's tall, and composed of many layers of hardened lava, tephra, and volcanic ash. These kinds of volcanoes have a steep profile and periodic EXPLOSIONS, not just bubbling ove the sides/rim of the volcano, it is actually like an explosion. The magam that comes out of this kind of volcano cools and hardens without going very far. Now check some of our other blogs about Mt. Vesuvius!