Pompeii: A Volcanic Disaster

811 Words2 Pages

The volcanologists of today monitor changes in levels of seismic activity from the observatory on Vesuvius, because they know that the “increase of activity in the deep storage of magma causes both earth tremors and volcanic eruptions.” Scientists, through measuring seismic activity, can predict an approaching eruption months in advance. They also know that the activity of Vesuvius is recurrent, and that the “longer the intervals between eruptions, the greater the eventual explosion will be.“ The low-level activity of Vesuvius recently has relieved the build-up of pressure in the magma chamber. The cataclysmic eruption of AD 79 was connected with the extended period of inactivity that preceded it.
Too bad the people Pompeii didn’t know how to predict eruptions, or maybe they would have been able to evacuate right away. Imagine the black dust, and deep smoke choking you, and singeing your clothes. Pompeii was falling and you were dying. This was probably a lot like what the Pompeiian were feeling and thinking. The dust “poured across the land” like a flood, one witness wrote, and it had covered the city in “a darkness…like the black of closed and unlighted rooms” Sadly for them, Pompeians couldn’t know this. The long inactivity of the volcano brought the people of the region into thinking that it was safe, though they were aware of the signs of burning at the peak of the mountain. Would you have been like those people? Would you be letting the serene landscapes, and beautiful architecture lull you into staying there? There were warnings of the eruption of Vesuvius, like earthquakes. The funny part of this is that the Romans were interested in predicting the future, and they had a many different ways to decipher what they saw as the...

... middle of paper ...

...place looking for anything they could take as loot. Almost all of the rooms of the city's buildings had holes in the walls. These were made by tunnellers, and even though Pompeii had richer finds than any other Roman site, it is a city already sacked by looters.
When a group of explorers discovered the site again in 1748, they were surprised to find that Pompeii was mostly intact. The buildings, and almost everything in them, were left behind. This buried city has taught us a great deal about everyday life in the ancient world since the ancient Greeks settled in the area in the 8th century B.C. We’ve learned that townspeople and slaves We now have a much expanded knowledge of Pompeii. We also know more about volcanos, and it’s just sad the Pompeians didn’t know. Different times led to different beliefs, and in the end, at least we learned more about history this way.

Open Document