Pompeii: Mount Vesuvius In 79 C. E.

In this film, the eruption of the once dormant Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E. is discussed. It is a volcano that is right between two tectonic plates, so when an earthquake shook it, it finally exploded. The eruption was one that was 1000 times more powerful than the bomb we dropped on Hiroshima. The town of Pompeii was located just below the volcano, and did not stand a chance against its wrath. At the end of Vesuvius’s eruption, Pompeii was covered in sixteen feet of ash. About sixteen centuries passed before archeologists finally rediscovered it. The ash had nearly preserved the city, the temples, homes, and even paintings were intact. Not only were places preserved, but the people who were buried were also intact. The ash left behind molds of the people at the moment of their deaths. The fragile molds were casted in the 19th century to preserve them further. A lot of mystery lays round them, because these people seemed to be frozen in time in contorted positions. It has recently been discovered that lava was not the cause of death for these people, the lava would have taken six days to reach the people of Pompeii. For decades, it was thought that the ash killed them by suffocation. A cast found covering their mouth seemed to prove this. But today, it is shown that this may be false. People suffocate quickly, and fall to the ground in any position, not contorted as the people of Pompeii were. The …show more content…
Also, I never realized how much mystery surrounded the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. I also enjoyed how much they got to talk about the science behind the eruption. The fact that it took centuries to uncover this makes me wonder what else could be hidden out there in the world that no one has yet discovered. Something about these people being frozen in time is very intriguing to me, and I love that scientists are able to uncover so much about history just from this city’s