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NO.2131 - Pompeii of volcanic destruction
Author: Nai Yi Mu
Draft: Gu Hanyi / Editor: Tuna
In recent days, the news of the volcanic eruption in Tonga has attracted countless lights from around the world, and people are watching the fate of this small South Pacific country. At the same time, debates about volcanoes and climate have also sprung up, and various conspiracy theories and speculations have followed.
Really explosive news (Photo: GIMSS)▼
After the news of the volcanic eruption in Tonga came out, everyone thought of different things, some people thought of the "year without summer" in 1816, and some people thought of a city that died due to volcanic eruptions - Pompeii.
Stand on the ruins of Pompeii
You can look at Mount Vesuvius in the distance, where it was buried
(Photo: One Map Network)▼
Pompeii, due to the volcanic eruption and became a city frozen in time, can be described as a world-famous, no one knows, no one knows. However, what one may know about Pompeii is limited to this.
For most people, due to the influence of mindset and overly literary works, many people will also have a series of misconceptions about Pompeii. For example, some people believe that the volcanic eruption wiped out only one city in Pompeii; others think that pompeii disappeared in a similar timeline as Loulan, suddenly disappeared from history, and suddenly attracted attention in recent centuries.
A story about Pompeii
When I was a child, I never saw it in "The World's Top Ten Unsolved Mysteries"
(Photo: shutterstock)▼
Looking at Pompeii from the perspective of a World Heritage Site, Pompeii is a World Heritage Site, and many people imagine that the full name will be "Pompeii Heritage Area" and so on. In fact, the "Pompeii Ruins" are on the Register of World Heritage Sites, the full name "Pompeii, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata Archaeological Area", which covers three juxtapositions.
Location of Mount Vesuvius and surrounding ancient important cities▼
In addition, Pompeii has many clues that need to be sorted out. In terms of the date of the eruption, what day is it? Is the ancient Roman history of letters and documents reliable? It is also a topic worth exploring.
A volcanic eruption destroyed more than one city
In May 62 AD, a major earthquake occurred in the Gulf of Naples in present-day southern Italy, which affected the local area to some extent, but it is estimated that no one expected that after this more terrible earthquake passed, they would encounter another more terrible catastrophe.
More than a decade later, people have gradually forgotten about the earthquake of that year, but the imprint of the earthquake on Pompeii is still everywhere. In the late autumn of 79 AD, where the great earthquake occurred that year, a small earthquake lasted for four days occurred. However, for the ancient Romans who lived in the area, earthquakes here were already commonplace, and there was no need to make a fuss, and daily life continued.
Italy is actually located in the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt
There are many active volcanoes in the territory
(Find Mount Vesuvius in the picture)▼
Four days passed, and it was a day in history when the local mount Vesuvius suddenly began to erupt, and the pyroclastic debris and ash also gushed out and fell on Pompeii with the strong winds of the day.
Pompeii was devastated by the erupting volcano, a city of over 10,000 people, which has fallen three centimeters of volcanic ash and the temperature of each roof is as high as 140 °C.
This great catastrophe in human history has also brought a lot of creative materials to future generations
(Slide left to see more Pompeii oil painting pentets, source: wiki)▼
It should be noted that this can only be regarded as the first wave of attacks suffered by Pompeii, and the reason why this text can be recorded is entirely due to the fact that Pompeii is a certain distance from the eruption site. Herculaneum, closer to the eruption site, was more tragic than Pompeii.
Because of the closer proximity to the volcano, it is different from Pompeii, where objects are more well preserved
The people of the herculaneum site were directly burned by the magma, leaving only the Sensen White Bone Pile
After the eruption, most of the ash and pyroclastic debris will rush straight into the sky, forming a column of volcanic smoke clouds. However, the cloud column needs water vapor as an internal support, and will gradually dissipate under the high temperature volcanic material, and when there is no water vapor support, the cloud column will become a pyroclastic flow that we often see in science fiction movies.
Volcanic smoke clouds and pyroclastic flows
(Pictured: wiki (top), shutterstock (bottom))▼
Herculaneum, the city that was wiped off the map by the first wave of pyroclastic flow up to 500 ° C, was also due to the high temperature, and many materials instantly turned into gas. As for Pompeii, which is slightly farther away, according to relevant records and later scientific research, when it was hit by the fourth volcanic clastic flow, its temperature was 300 ° C, which created conditions for the remains and even clothing of many victims to remain, avoiding complete gasification.
It's just that the roof collapsed under heavy pressure
Various displays in the house have been preserved
Even the bread of two thousand years ago is still in its original shape (photo: One Map Network)▼
One number might come as a surprise, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which released 100,000 times more energy than the two atomic bomb explosions in Nagasaki Hiroshima combined. The eruption also devastated Pompeii and Herculaneum, two cities with a combined population of more than 20,000. So far, however, fewer than 2,000 bodies have been found in the two cities, and how many people have been killed in this natural disaster may always be a mystery.
For each level of volcanic eruption, the total volume of the eruption is multiplied by 10 times
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius reached magnitude 5 (photo: wiki) ▼
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the 1st century AD was characterized by the following characteristics: first, the volcanic ash was spewed out, reaching a height of tens of kilometers, and the volcanic smoke cloud looked like a standing pine tree in the distance; second, the volcanic ash entered the stratosphere for a long time, which could produce abnormal light and affect the climate; finally, there was a loud noise when the eruption occurred, and the original volcanic cone was often seriously damaged by violent explosions and collapses.
Climbing to the crater of Vesuvius, you can see the bottomless valley mouth
(Horizontal viewing, picture: one map network) ▼
It is worth mentioning that the Vesuvius eruption is only one of several basic volcanic eruptions, but the social and historical impact it produces is very significant. Therefore, volcanic eruptions similar to the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius are named Vesuvian eruptions, which are also known as Pliny volcanic eruptions.
Artist's depiction of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1822
Smoke clouds soar into the sky (photo: WIKI)▼
Behind this matryoshka scientific statement is a historical story, and this story is also the focus of controversy about the date of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius today.
Is it really August 24th?
Vesuvius is a place name, Pliny is a personal name, and one might think that this form of volcanic eruption would be named Pliny, related to a man named Pliny. The answer is wrong, and it has to do with two Pliny.
Pliny the Elder (top) and Pliny the Younger (Bottom) adopted the father and son
It is now all outside the Basilica of Santa Maria in Como (photo: wiki).▼
The horrific scene of the eruption was witnessed by many people, but the only person who recorded it comprehensively was only one. This was Pliny The Younger, who was only 17 years old at the time and had witnessed the eruption of Mount Vesuvius 35 kilometers away in Bacoli.
For lovers of Roman history, Pliny the Younger is arguably a well-known figure. Many of his letters survived, and unlike the colloquialism that people imagined, the letters he circulated often adopted a standardized format, similar to official documents, and became a precious material for later generations to study Roman history.
Although he was an excellent slash citizen like Pliny the Elder
When I was a child, I was not beaten up (photo: wiki)▼
The other Pliny was Pliny the Elder, and the famous Naturalist (a translation of Natural History) was written by him. In terms of blood relations, Pliny the Younger is the nephew of Pliny the Elder, but in fact, they are adopted son and father.
Pliny the Elder was a roman naturalist/politician/soldier
The Naturalist is his last and most outstanding work
The content covers science, nature, art and other fields (photo: wiki)▼
When the fire broke out, Pliny the Elder immediately led the fleet to the disaster area to investigate and rescue the disaster, and died on the way. As for the reason for the sacrifice, there are also many opinions, because Pliny the elder has no obvious trauma, and some people think that it is most likely a stroke or heart attack. His adopted son, on the other hand, implied in his first letter to Tacitus that his adoptive father died as a result of inhaling vulcanized gases from volcanic eruptions.
It was also a series of letters between Pliny the Younger and Tacitus that became one of the bases for determining the time of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in later generations.
The site of Pompeii is intact because the direct cause of death of the local population was the sulphur gas released by the volcano. After their deaths, volcanic ash wrapped up their bodies, and later scholars poured them with plaster, which led to so many lifelike disaster restoration scene statues at the site (photo: Yitu Network).▼
In the past, it was often assumed that Mount Vesuvius erupted on August 24, 79 AD, but the origin of this date is not very rigorous from an archaeological point of view.
The direct source of the date is a printed edition of the correspondence between Pliny the Younger and Tacitus in 1508, more than 1400 years after the eruption. The original manuscript of this printed letter was written by Pliny the Younger 25 years after the incident.
An excerpt from Pliny's Epistles, in ten volumes
Only the tenth volume is organized in chronological order of letters
Not to mention that more than 1400 years have passed since the printed edition, and in terms of 25 years, under the conditions of the past history of letters and history, even the authenticity of the original manuscript records of the writer has been greatly reduced. On the other hand, some manuscript experts believe that the date of the original manuscript may not be the original date written by Pliny the Younger, which makes people even more suspicious of the date of August 24.
Adhering to the principle that the chain of evidence cannot be logically self-consistent, generations of researchers strive to restore the true facts.
Most of the high-value objects from the ruins of Pompeii-Herculaneum have been transferred to the collection of the National Museum of Naples
Historians have also studied this historical mystery here
(Model of pompeii ruins, picture: One Map Network) ▼
New chains of evidence
Beginning at least in the second half of the 18th century, a group of researchers believed that Pliny the Younger's record of dates was unreliable, believing that the eruption occurred in late autumn, either in October or November.
In 1797, a researcher reported that during his excavations in Pompeii and Herculaneum, he found traces of seasonal fruits and braziers in autumn, indicating that the date of occurrence was at least not in summer.
Due to being closer to the volcano and covered by thick lava melt currents
The site of Herculaneum is also more well preserved
(It's not even the same as a thousand years ago, figure: one map network)▼
By the end of the last century, modern archaeological techniques were already very developed. During two archaeological excavations in 1990 and 2001, researchers found more fall fruit carbides (such as pomegranates), the remains of victims dressed in thick clothes, and containers filled with wine. In particular, the discovery of wine indicates that the volcanic eruption was at least in the late autumn of the grape harvest.
Such a large number of amphora
It is considered by archaeologists to be a vessel for brewing wine (Photo: Yitu Network).▼
In 2007, meteorologists conducted an analysis of prevailing winds in pompeii. The method was to use the distribution of volcanic eruptive remaining material to perform data simulations, and the results were basically consistent with the trajectory of the local autumn prevailing winds, but the trajectories of the prevailing winds in August were quite different.
The direction of the dispersal of volcanic ash and surrounding important cities
(Photo: wikipedia)▼
Numismatic experts at the British Museum have taken a different approach and given a new interpretation from a numismatic point of view. Among a series of artifacts unearthed in Pompeii, he found a series of coins minted after September 1, thus negating the idea that the volcano erupted in August.
The latest piece of evidence comes from October 2018, when local archaeologists found traces of a text dated "October 17.". According to research, the trace is likely to be a mark made by a worker while renovating the house. Based on the results of the excavation, the team involved in the archaeological work boldly predicted that the eruption time of the volcano is likely to be October 24.
The study of the date of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius is only one aspect of the study of volcanic eruptions, or rather, it has nothing to do with volcanic research at the natural science level. To this day, the public's attention to volcanic eruptions is not only focused on the eruptions themselves, but also on a series of human and social impacts brought about by volcanic eruptions.
Time will make all problems no longer problems, and the millennium will pass
Human civilization is once again shining at the foot of Mount Vesuvius
Later, when studying related historical events, whether it is the eruption of Mount Vesuvius or the eruption of Tonga, looking through the scenes, they will feel a little familiar taste.
bibliography:
1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny_the_Younger
2.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny_the_Elder
3.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plinian_eruption
4.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eruption_of_Mount_Vesuvius_in_79_AD
5.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herculaneum
6.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AD_62_Pompeii_earthquake
7.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii
*The content of this article is provided by the author and does not represent the position of the Earth Knowledge Bureau
Cover: shutterstock
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