Nicholas

The Volcano - Mount Vesuvius

My project is about Mount Vesuvius. It is about what happened in A. D. 79 and Mount Vesuvius' other eruptions. Also, my project is about the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and their stories. I selected this topic because my school librarian suggested it. Then I went to the public library and found many interesting resources on Vesuvius. That is why I chose my topic to be Mount Vesuvius. I hoped to learn many things in my Independent Study Project. I hoped to learn about the eruption in A. D. 79 and I did. I hoped to learn about Pompeii and Herculaneum and I also did that. I did not learn all I expected to learn. I thought I would more about Pompeii and Herculaneum than I did. Besides that, pretty much everything turned out the way I expected it to. I used many different resources in my research. I used the internet, books, and movies. I wrote all my information down on fact cards. The internet was very helpful for my research. The problem was that there wasn't much information in the books on Vesuvius. Also, the movies were not very helpful with my research. Many things have happened in Vesuvius's history. Especially in A. D. 79. In A. D. 79 Vesuvius covered the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum with ash and pumice, and hit the cities of Stabiae, Oplantis, Tora, Sora, Taurania, Cossa, and Leucopetra. The eruption in A. D. 79 was the deadliest eruption in Vesuvius's history. It killed about 2,000 people. Vesuvius shot out ash, pumice, and poisonous gas but did not erupt lava. Herculaneum was covered on August 23 and Pompeii on the 24. Pompeii and Herculaneum were not discovered for over 1,600 years! Vesuvius started erupting at 7:00 in the morning. Vesuvius's top blew off when it shot ash 20 miles into the air. A huge stream of steam and mud went down Vesuvius's side at 930 degrees Fahrenheit! No one was prepared for this powerful eruption. Vesuvius has had many powerful eruptions since A. D. 79. In 1794 Vesuvius destroyed the town of Torre del Greco. In 1631 Vesuvius destroyed five towns and took 3,000 lives. Also in 1900 Vesuvius killed another 2,000 people. Vesuvius has not erupted for 60 years but will erupt again. Pompeii was a happy city before A. D. 79. Pompeii had a population of more than 20,000 before the eruption. Pompeii was built on a ridge of volcanic rock. Pompeiians did not know Vesuvius could erupt. Before Vesuvius started erupting in A. D. 79 Pompeii's streets were crowded. In A. D. 79 Vesuvius had many stages of eruption. Before the eruption Vesuvius was quiet. Then first there was a big rumbling sound. Then Vesuvius's top blew off. After that a huge cloud of dust and ash came pouring. Then the cloud got bigger. After that the cloud came down. Then poisonous gas came down. Vesuvius then became quiet again. Today Vesuvius is still dangerous. Today Vesuvius is still regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes around. No one knows when Vesuvius will erupt again but experts say that the next eruption will be as powerful as A. D. 79! If that is true, Naples is in trouble. That is why local governments are paying the 2,000,000 people on the slopes of Vesuvius $30,000 to move out of Vesuvius's reach. Anthropologists had many things to do in order to excavate Pompeii and Herculaneum. First, they had to have the right tools. Next, they had to get to Vesuvius. When they got there they had to carefully dig to find things out. When they found bones they very carefully cleaned and searched them. That is how they found things out. Anthropologists found many things out when they did excavations. They found out what positions the Pompeiians and Herculaneans were when they died. They also made stories from that information. They took pictures to put in books and movies. In Pompeii they put plaster casts over the space left by the Pompeiians because they were all decomposed. In Herculaneum they just found skeletons. One skeleton was a slave and a well fed baby. They think the baby was the slave's owner's baby. They also found jewelry like rings, bracelets, and earrings. All the jewelry was very expensive gold jewelry. They found many things out and were very happy about it too! Pliny the Younger wrote about A. D. 79. He wrote letters to many people about it. Pliny the Younger's uncle, Pliny the Elder, died in the eruption of A. D. 79. His real name was Caius Plinius Secundus. He was a lawyer, a scientist, and an author. Born in Como, Italy, he was orphaned and Pliny the Elder adopted him. He died in Bithynia. I have many interesting facts about Vesuvius. Vesuvius was named after the gods Zeus and Hercules. Vesuvius is the only active volcano on the European mainland. Vesuvius was described by Roman writers as having been covered by gardens and vineyards. Vesuvius is 4,190 feet tall. Those are my interesting facts about Vesuvius. You have to do many things to become a volcanologist. In high school you have to take many classes such as: biology, trigonometry, and pre-calcules. In college you have to take many Earth science classes like sedimentary geology and many others. After that you have to go to graduate school and get a doctor of philosophy degree in geology! I. S. P. has helped me learn a lot about Vesuvius and its history. It has also helped me teach other people about this project. If I had a longer time to work I would do a lot more about my project.   Glossary A. D. 79 - year that Vesuvius had its most powerful eruption Cossa - a city destroyed by Vesuvius destruction - something gets destroyed eruption - a volcano blowing out ash, pumice, and sometimes lava Herculaneum - a city destroyed by Vesuvius history - something that happened before Leucopetra - a city destroyed by Vesuvius Mount Vesuvius (Vesuvius) - a famous volcano Oplontis - a city destroyed by Vesuvius Pompeii - a city destroyed by Vesuvius Sora - a city destroyed by Vesuvius Stabiae - a city destroyed by Vesuvius Taurania - a city destroyed by Vesuvius Tora - a city destroyed by Vesuvius Torre del Greco - a city destroyed by Vesuvius   Bibliography Andrews, Ian, (1980). Pompeii. Minneapolis. Biel, Timothy. (1959). Pompeii. San Diego. Bisel, Sara. (1990). The Secrets of Vesuvius. Toronto. Kunhardt, Edith. (1987). Pompeii: Buried Alive. New York. Magloff, Lisa. (2003). Volcanoes. New York. Unknown Author. Encarta. [Online] Available http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761564987//vesuvius_mount.html, 2005. Unknown Author. Exploring the Environment, Volcanoes. [Online] Available http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/volcanoes.umt/vesuvius.html, 2005. Unknown Author. National Geographic. [Online] Available http://www.nationalgeographic.com/, 2005. Unknown Author. (1995). Pompeii: Buried Alive. Video. .

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