What If Mount Vesuvius Erupted Today?

Mount Vesuvius is one of the near dangerous volcanoes in the world, located in the most densely populated volcanic region in the earth. And experts say it is due for another cataclysmic blowout.

Vesuvius looms over PompeiiVesuvius looms over the ruins of nearby Pompeii

In AD 79, Mount Vesuvius famously erupted, spewing a deject of stones, ash and fumes 33 kilometres in to the air. More than 2,000 people died and the thriving Roman city of Pompeii (equally told in the Nature of Things doctor,Pompeii'southward People) was buried nether metres of ash for centuries.

The only surviving eyewitness account was documented in ii messages written by Pliny the Younger to historian Tacitus. "Ashes were already falling, not as yet very thickly. I looked circular: a dense black deject was coming upward behind us, spreading over the earth similar a flood. We had scarcely sabbatum downwardly to rest when darkness fell, not the dark of a moonless or cloudy night, but as if the lamp had been put out in a closed room," he wrote. We at present know that the eruption had 100,000 times the thermal energy of the Hiroshima bombing.

Mount Vesusius is Even so a Unsafe Volcano

Mount Vesuvius is one of the about dangerous volcanoes in the earth, located in the most densely populated volcanic region in the earth.

It'due south a stratovolcano, a type known for its explosive eruptions. It's very active, having blown a dozens times before, including subsequently the famous Pompeii consequence. Information technology last erupted 1944, when 26 people were killed, nearby villages destroyed and US airplanes based at the Pompeii airfield nearby coated with a thick layer of ash.

Today, Vesuvius sits on a 154 square-mile (400 square-kilometer) layer of magma and although its been silent for 72 years, experts say it is due for another cataclysmic blowout.

satellite map of Vesu ias and area

Vesuvius and the surrounding Naples surface area seen July, 2015. Photo: Copernicus Sentinel Information

Making Plans To Evacuate

The city of Naples, with a population of over iii meg people is located simply a short 12 kilometres away. And another 600,000 people live fifty-fifty closer, in the red zone (a distance of 10 kilometres from the crater) where they are in the direct path of deadly pyroclastic flows.

The eruption that levelled Pompeii measured a 5 (some experts say 6) on the Volcanic Explosivity Index. Each increased number indicates an eruption that is 10 times more powerful (the highest score on tape so far being viii). It was preceeded by a powerful earthquake 17 years beforehand, merely nearly accounts, the actual explosion was adequately sudden and lasted ii days.

These eruptions are rare, scientists guess that there have been only 20 effectually the world since 1500. Vesuvius' final major eruption in 1631 was a VEI 4; the volcano started roaring and finally exploded near 6 days afterwards. Still, 6000 people are thought to have died.

If Vesuvius erupted today, the damage would depend on the scale of the eruption. As a worst case scenario, experts are planning for a VEI four.

volcano erupts, plume of smokeEyjafjallajökull erupts spewing a plume of smoke into the atmosphere. Photograph: iStock

Cost of an Eruption

Even at that level, an eruption would create an intense heat blast capable of cooking people to death in less than a second, followed past a pyroclastic flow of lava and stone while smoke and ashes would shoot into the atmosphere. By some skilful estimates, a VEI iv or 5 eruption could impale over x,000 people and toll the Italian economy more than $twenty billion. Millions of people would certainly lose power, water and transportation, some for months.

Similar Eyjafjallajökull (VEI 4), which blew in 2010, an eruption would disrupt air travel and shipping on the entire continent, this time for weeks — non days.  Depending on which way the wind is blowing, Pompeii and virtually probable downtown Naples could be buried in metres of ash creating piece of work for time to come archaeologists as they uncover our Rick Astley CDs and Mutant Ninja Turtle figurines.

That's why the Vesuvius Observatory monitors seismic activeness on Vesuvius 24/7 looking for signs of an impending eruption. The government of Italy has prepared an emergency evactuation plan to move the 600,000 people nearby out of harm's fashion within 72 hours. It'southward also actively trying to reduce the population living nearby by demolishing illegally synthetic buildings, establishing a national park around the volcano to prevent farther construction and offering a financial incentive to get families to relocate.

But the reality is that Vesuvius, the Pompeii ruins and nearby Naples are a huge attraction and vital to the local economic system, drawing millions of tourists a year who are drawn to the fascinating site of a past civilization — a two,000-twelvemonth-quondam city frozen in time and preseved by the same volcanic eruption that caused its destruction.

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