Perhaps the most famous eruption of all time shook Mount Vesuvius near Naples in Italy in 79 A.D. When the long dormant volcano erupted on August 4th, the residents of the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum were caught unawares. Hot ash and lapilli rained down on Pompeii for hours until it was buried several meters deep. Many people escaped, coughing and stumbling through the darkness of the ash cloud. Those caught in the town were overwhelmed by a sudden powerful blast of ash and gas known as a pyroclastic surge. The apocalyptic events were described in detail by Pliny the Younger. His famous letters to Tacitus are the first known eyewitness accounts of a volcanic eruption. The buried towns were virtually forgotten until excavations began in the 18th century. The digs have since unearthed a priceless archaeological and geological treasure, two thriving Roman towns frozen in the moments of their destruction.

Over 2,000 people died in Pompeii when the eruption of Mount Vesuvius overwhelmed the Roman town. We know about these Roman citizens from plaster casts showing them at the moment of their death. As the fleeing Pompeiians died, the rain of ash and pumice set around their bodies rather like wet cement. With time, the soft body parts decayed and the ash pumice turned to solid rock. Only the hard bones remained inside the hollows.