Background of Mt.Vesuvius and Pompeii
February 62AD, the towns surrounding Mt. Vesuvius, including Pompeii and Herculaneum, suffered damage from a major earthquake. This caused a lot of havoc with damage to the springs and the piping in each city. So, in August 79AD, the cities surrounding Vesuvius had the latest and most popular art, buildings and new systems which show archaeologists today exactly what Ancient Roman life was like.
On 24th August of 79AD at 1:15AM, Mt. Vesuvius erupted in one of the most frightening and horrific ways in the history of volcanic eruptions. A pyroclastic eruption is what made this so horrific, the temperatures so hot that people who were caught in the pyroclastic waves had their skin melting off and for the people of Herculaneum, exploding skulls and flesh turned to ash in seconds because it didn't have time to melt.
The sky was so full of volcanic ash that the sun was completely blocked out, nothing was visible and there were earthquake tremors periodically, this lasted for about 19 hours. The two cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were completely buried and forgotten for almost 1700 years.[1]
On 24th August of 79AD at 1:15AM, Mt. Vesuvius erupted in one of the most frightening and horrific ways in the history of volcanic eruptions. A pyroclastic eruption is what made this so horrific, the temperatures so hot that people who were caught in the pyroclastic waves had their skin melting off and for the people of Herculaneum, exploding skulls and flesh turned to ash in seconds because it didn't have time to melt.
The sky was so full of volcanic ash that the sun was completely blocked out, nothing was visible and there were earthquake tremors periodically, this lasted for about 19 hours. The two cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were completely buried and forgotten for almost 1700 years.[1]
Map of Campania
![Picture](/uploads/2/6/8/9/26893467/575376331.gif)
Pompeii is about 8km away from Mount Vesuvius whereas Herculaneum is slightly closer (7km from Mt.Vesuvius) meaning that when the eruption took place, Herculaneum was the first to get hit by pyroclastic waves and was buried in much more ash than Pompeii. However this meant that Herculaneum was preserved much better than Pompeii because archaeologists found wooden objects such as beds and doors, the artwork is better preserved too and even food was found in tact!
Below is an educational video that you may be interested in: [2]
REFERENCES
[1] http://www.livescience.com/27871-mount-vesuvius-pompeii.html
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MQYMcQSZNs
[1] http://www.livescience.com/27871-mount-vesuvius-pompeii.html
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MQYMcQSZNs