What If Mount Vesuvius Erupted Today?

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

Vesuvius looms over PompeiiVesuvius looms over the ruins of nearby Pompeii

In Advertizement 79, Mountain Vesuvius famously erupted, spewing a cloud of stones, ash and fumes 33 kilometres in to the air. More than 2,000 people died and the thriving Roman metropolis of Pompeii (as told in the Nature of Things doc,Pompeii's People) was buried under metres of ash for centuries.

The only surviving eyewitness account was documented in two letters written by Pliny the Younger to historian Tacitus. "Ashes were already falling, not as yet very thickly. I looked round: a dense black deject was coming up behind united states of america, spreading over the earth similar a inundation. Nosotros had scarcely saturday down to rest when darkness fell, not the night of a moonless or cloudy nighttime, but as if the lamp had been put out in a closed room," he wrote. Nosotros at present know that the eruption had 100,000 times the thermal energy of the Hiroshima bombing.

Mount Vesusius is Still a Dangerous Volcano

Mount Vesuvius is i of the most dangerous volcanoes in the earth, located in the near densely populated volcanic region in the world.

It'south a stratovolcano, a type known for its explosive eruptions. It's very agile, having diddled a dozens times before, including after the famous Pompeii upshot. It 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 information technology is due for another cataclysmic blowout.

satellite map of Vesu ias and area

Vesuvius and the surrounding Naples expanse seen July, 2015. Photo: Copernicus Scout Data

Making Plans To Evacuate

The city of Naples, with a population of over iii meg people is located just a brusk 12 kilometres abroad. And another 600,000 people live even closer, in the red zone (a distance of x 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 vi) on the Volcanic Explosivity Alphabetize. Each increased number indicates an eruption that is 10 times more powerful (the highest score on tape and so far being eight). Information technology was preceeded past a powerful convulsion 17 years beforehand, but well-nigh accounts, the actual explosion was adequately sudden and lasted ii days.

These eruptions are rare, scientists estimate that there accept been just 20 effectually the earth since 1500. Vesuvius' last major eruption in 1631 was a VEI iv; the volcano started roaring and finally exploded most six days later. 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 example scenario, experts are planning for a VEI 4.

volcano erupts, plume of smokeEyjafjallajökull erupts spewing a plume of smoke into the atmosphere. Photo: 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 2d, followed by a pyroclastic flow of lava and rock while smoke and ashes would shoot into the temper. Past some proficient estimates, a VEI 4 or 5 eruption could kill over 10,000 people and toll the Italian economic system more than $20 billion. Millions of people would certainly lose power, water and transportation, some for months.

Like Eyjafjallajökull (VEI 4), which blew in 2010, an eruption would disrupt air travel and aircraft on the unabridged continent, this time for weeks — not days.  Depending on which style the wind is bravado, Pompeii and most likely downtown Naples could be buried in metres of ash creating work for future archaeologists equally they uncover our Rick Astley CDs and Mutant Ninja Turtle figurines.

That'southward why the Vesuvius Observatory monitors seismic activity on Vesuvius 24/7 looking for signs of an impending eruption. The authorities of Italy has prepared an emergency evactuation programme to move the 600,000 people nearby out of harm'due south mode inside 72 hours. It'south also actively trying to reduce the population living nearby past demolishing illegally constructed buildings, establishing a national park effectually the volcano to forbid further 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 twelvemonth who are drawn to the fascinating site of a by culture — a two,000-year-sometime city frozen in time and preseved past the same volcanic eruption that caused its destruction.

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