Name:
Mount Vesuvius – Italy
Article by Jessica Ball
Mount Vesuvius Introduction
Vesuvius is the only active volcano in mainland Europe, and has
produced some of the continent's largest volcanic eruptions. Located on
Italy's west coast, it overlooks the Bay and City of Naples and sits in the
crater of the ancient Somma volcano. Vesuvius is most famous for the
79 AD eruption which destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii and
Herculaneum. Though the volcano's last eruption was in 1944, it still
represents a great danger to the cities that surround it, especially the
busy metropolis of Naples.
Mount Vesuvius: Plate Tectonic Setting
Vesuvius is a stratovolcano that is part of the Campanian volcanic arc, a line of
volcanoes that formed over a subduction zone created by the convergence of
the African and Eurasian plates. This subduction zone stretches the length of
the Italian peninsula, and is also the source of other volcanoes like Mount Etna,
the Phlegraean Fields (Campi Flegrei), Vulcano, and Stromboli. Under
Vesuvius, the lower part of the subducting slab has torn and detached from the
upper part to form what is called a "slab window". This makes Vesuvius' rocks
slightly different chemically from the rocks erupted from the other Campanian
volcanoes.
Plate tectonics of Mount Vesuvius
To the right is a simplified plate tectonics cross-section showing how
Mount Vesuvius is located above a subduction zone formed where the
African plate descends beneath Italy. Magma produced from the melting
African plate creates the large, violently explosive volcanoes of the Italian
Peninsula.
Mount Vesuvius: Eruption History
Mount Vesuvius has experienced eight major eruptions in the last 17,000 years. The 79 AD eruption is
one of the most well known ancient eruptions in the world, and may have killed more than 16,000
people. Ash, mud and rocks from this eruption buried the cities of Pompeii
and Herculaneum. Pompeii is famous for the casts the hot ash formed around
victims of the eruptions. The unfortunate people suffocated on ash in the air,
which then covered them and preserved amazing details of their clothing and
faces.
Starting in 1631, Vesuvius entered a period of steady volcanic activity,
including lava flows and eruptions of ash and mud. Violent eruptions in the
late 1700s, 1800s and early 1900s created more fissures, lava flows, and ashand-gas explosions. These damaged or destroyed many towns around the
volcano, and sometimes killed people; the eruption of 1906 had more than
100 casualties.
Name:
Mount Vesuvius – Italy
Article by Jessica Ball
The most recent eruption was in 1944 during World War II. It caused major
problems for the newly-arrived Allied forces in Italy when ash and rocks
from the eruption destroyed planes and forced evacuations at a nearby
airbase.
Did You Know?
The 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius is why volcanologists (scientists who study volcanoes) use "Plinian" to
describe large volcanic eruption clouds. Pliny the Younger, a Roman historian who witnessed the 79 AD
eruption, wrote the oldest surviving description of the tall, tree-shaped cloud that rose above the volcano.
Modern volcanologists use the term to describe large-volume, violent eruptions that produce quicklyexpanding clouds of rock, ash and gases which rise many miles into the
atmosphere. Some more recent examples of Plinian eruptions include
Mount St. Helens in 1980 and Pinatubo in 1990. Here is Pliny's
description...
"On 24 August, in the early afternoon, my mother drew [my uncle's]
attention to a cloud of unusual size and appearance. Its general
appearance can be best expressed as being like an umbrella pine, 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."
Answer the following questions in complete sentences.
Be sure to use evidence from the text.
1. Where is Mt. Vesuvius located?
2. What kind of a volcano is Mt. Vesuvius?
3. What type of plate movement created Mt. Vesuvius?
4. What happened to the people who lived in Pompeii?
5. When was Mt. Vesuvius’ last eruption?