Death At Pompeii -- New Report

[Narukami]

A recently published report states that the majority of deaths at Pompeii during the eruption of Vesuvius were caused not by the force of the explosion, or by poisonous gases, but by the heat itself.

Finally, contrary to previous hypotheses, our findings based on the interdisciplinary volcanological and bio-anthropological study of the deposits and victims of the 79 AD Plinian eruption reveal that even at the extreme periphery of the S4 surge neither asphyxia nor impact force but heat caused the deaths. Actually, while impact force and exposure time to dusty gas dropped below lethal conditions, the pyroclastic cloud retained its high temperature thus being the main cause of instantaneous mortality for the Vesuvius area inhabitants, including people who were sheltered within buildings as far as in Pompeii.

That is the conclusion of a study just published in PLoS ONE by Giuseppe Mastrolorenzo, Pierpaolo Petrone, Lucia Pappalardo and Fabio Guarino, entitled Lethal Thermal Impact at Periphery of Pyroclastic Surges: Evidences at Pompeii.

Here is a link to an article on iO9 about the report:

http://io9.com/5573879/how-did-the-vict ... suvius-die

And, a link to the report itself:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Ad ... ne.0011127

The force and magnitude of this event are simply staggering.

hock:

Narukami

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

That is evident in their faces.

[Robert Vermaat]

instantaneous mortality

I think that is somehow good to hear. It beats slow suffocation from poisonous fumes.

[Astiryu1]

This is freeze frame/video of Mt.St Helens erupting in 1980.

[url:3druunsp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmsxmbVYMHo[/url]

Just to give perspective.

[Robert Vermaat]

This is freeze frame/video of Mt.St Helens erupting in 1980.
[url:14czj3qj]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmsxmbVYMHo[/url]
Just to give perspective.

Different kind of eruption - at Mt St.Helens, the whole side of the volcano gave out.
This gives a better idea of the speed of a pyroclastic flow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8s0xdAD ... re=related

If you kill the cheesy music you also get some idea from this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxlRpuTed6g , especially the flow running over the water. Pliny the Younger saw such a cloud rolling over the Bay of Naples towards him, and felt its effect.

[Narukami]

When my father retired from the US Army in 1982 he took a position as an Assistant Dean at Pacific University in Forest Grove, a few miles west of Portland Oregon. My parents moved into a house west of the town of Forest Grove in the Fall of '82 and quickly discovered that, even two years after the eruption of Mount St. Helens, volcanic ash still covered many of the plants in the yard and was thickly embedded in the air conditioning filters and ducts.

It was just a thin dusting, but enough so that it adversely effected my mother's asthma until the filters and ducts were throughly cleaned. No doubt it was much worse closer to the site.

:|

Narukami

[Astiryu1]

Watched that one right after I posted mine! You are right it does give a better idea and the people present are understandably freaked out. hock: Glad no one was hurt in that one.

[Robert Vermaat]

Glad no one was hurt in that one.

Too bad, it killed 43 people, including three volcanologists.

[Astiryu1]

Media strikes again... Did Piny the Younger give any written account? Sorry I was not aware that he was there.

I thought the music was good at the beginning (O Fortuna by Orff)! I have that in my Classical collection. Then it changed... :x

[Epictetus]

Here you go: Pliny's Letters to Tacitus about Vesuvius.

[Robert Vermaat]

Thanks for the link David!

It was not clear at that distance from which mountain the cloud was rising (it was afterwards known to be Vesuvius); its general appearance can be best expressed as being like an umbrella pine(3), for it rose to a great height on a sort of trunk and then split off into branches, I imagine because it was thrust upwards by the first blast and then left unsupported as the pressure subsided, or else it was borne down by its own weight so that it spread out and gradually dispersed. Sometimes it looked white, sometimes blotched and dirty, according to the amount of soil and ashes it carried with it. My uncle's scholarly acumen (4) saw at once that it was important enough for a closer inspection, and he ordered a boat to be made ready, telling me I could come with him if I wished. I replied that I preferred to go on with my studies, and as it happened he had himself given me some writing to do.

After my uncle's departure I spent the rest of the day with my books, as this was my reason for staying behind. Then I took a bath, dined, and then dozed fitfully for a while. For several days past there had been earth tremors which were not particularly alarming because they are frequent in Campania: but that night the shocks were so violent that everything felt as if it were not only shaken but overturned. My mother hurried into my room and found me already getting up to wake her if she were still asleep. We sat down in the forecourt of the house, between the buildings and the sea close by. I don't know whether I should call this courage or folly on my part (I was only seventeen at the time) but I called for a volume of Livy and went on reading as if I had nothing else to do. I even went on with the extracts I had been making. Up came a friend of my uncle's who had just come from Spain to join him.(10) When he saw us sitting there and me actually reading, he scolded us both—me for my foolhardiness and my mother for allowing it. Nevertheless, I remained absorbed in my book.

Isn't he quite the stoic young fella! Vesuvius is erupting and the boy continues his studies of Livy! shock:

Soon afterwards the cloud sank down to earth and covered the sea; it had already blotted out Capri and hidden the promontory of Misenum from sight.

This is what vulcanologists recognised (relatively recently only!) as the pyroclastic flow from the collapsing caldera (I think it was) as Pliny rightly decribes 'collapsing under it's own weight'. I think they were lucky to outrun the hot cloud and apparently only being hit by the heavy ashfall.

[Astiryu1]

Yes... Thank You! All this HAZMAT stuff puts a new view on this to me as well. When I get the chance I will look at the guides I have for common gases and such related to volcanic activity. This stuff is quickly turning me into a low level scientist type. Man I never saw this coming in High School! hock: