Mount Paektu, at 9003 feet the highest peak of the Korean peninsula, has great cultural and historical significance for Koreans.  According to legend, Hwanung, the son of the Lord of Heaven, descended to earth on the mountain.  He had a son, Dangun Wanggeom, with a woman who was formerly a bear.  Dangun Wanggeom grew up to found the first Korean kingdom.  Later Korean dynasties considered the mountain sacred.  

A major eruption about 1000 CE gave Mount Paektu its current shape.  According to Wikipedia, ash from that eruption reached the northern Japanese island Hokkaido.  The volcano last erupted in 1903.  The pressure of magma beneath Mount Paektu raises the volcano 3 mm per year.  

A crater lake at Tianchi (Heaven Lake, 天池) at Mount Paektu (Chinese Changbai Shan) at the border of China and North Korea (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

China has developed its side of the mountain commercially.  Tourists go there to see beautiful Heaven Lake in the caldera (crater) of the volcano.  

Taniguchi’s web page describes him as a Professor in the Division of Geochemistry at Japan’s Tohuku University.  Tohuku Unversity is located in Sendai, the city closest to the epicenter of Japan’s great 2011 temblor.  According to the web page, the dynamics of the explosive volcanism is a theme of his research.

Further Reading and Sources

AFP. “S. Korea and North agree volcano research talks.” Retrieved 26 May 2012.

Baekdu Mountain.  Wikipedia. Retrieved 26 May 2012.

Dangun.  Wikipedia. Retrieved 26 May 2012.

Yonhap.  “Japanese expert forecasts major volcanic eruptions in N. Korea.” Retrieved 26 May 2012.

Hiromitsu Taniguchi.  Staff, Center for Northeast Asian Studies.  Retrieved 26 May 2012.

From the archaeological dig in Tambora slope, people found bones of human, artifacts and some furniture. It shows the existence of dense settlements in Tambora slope at the past time. Estimated, at least, the population was 10,000. They were swept away by volcanic materials. They spoke in the same language  with used by Mon-Khmer that related to Kampuchea and Vietnam.

According to Professor Haraldur Sigurdsson, from University of Rhode Island, US, there’s potential that Tambora could be the Pompeii of the East.

Pompeii is an ancient city in era of Roman emperor. It’s near Naples, Italy. Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried by catastrophic eruption of the Vesuvius mount in the year 79 AD. Pompeii lost for 1700 years. It was rediscovered at 1748. Now, Pompeii is one of tourism destinations in Italy. It’s also stated as world heritage site by UNESCO.

The existence of community in Tambora slope was mentioned in an ancient local literature from Bima Kingdom, Bo’ Sangaji Kai. Until April 1815, there were 3 kingdoms in slope of Tambora mount. They were Pekat kingdom, Sanggar kingdom, and Tambora kingdom.

Notwithstanding, the civilization of Tambora (almost) never registered in history of Indonesia. It can be understood because Dutch colonialism was not success to give their influence in Tambora.

According to Peter Lape, anthropologist from University of Washington, “(The Dutch) were trying to regulate shipping (in the East Indies), but they hadn’t made much impact on the local political structure. So for places like Sumbawa, there’s not much historical record.”

The archaeological dig just has done for a part. A little parts of the site of Tambora. If all sites can be dug successfully, the riddle the lost kingdom will be opened. The puzzle of The Pompeii of the East will be answered.

(Images from Google)

I love sledging, making snowmen and igloos, snowball fights,pushing cars up the hills, walks in the deep snow, lovely views, days off. My perfect days.

From tuesday expect to feel cold, wednesday to friday reaching bitterly cold temperatures across the UK, with snowfall in Scotland and in high areas/hills of Northern England/Wales, possibly reaching down to near Cornwall by the end of next week. Although it’s very hard to predict long term, forecasters are predicting possible widespread snowfalls across the whole of the UK by the end of October. I scarsely believe this, but I’m fairly certain November will see snow all across the UK, especially cold temperatures in the South with lots of frost and possibly snow. November–> March will Most Likely see heavy snowfall across the whole UK. I expect this will be the coldest winter period for over 100 years.

Don’t get your hopes too high, but I’m fairly sure this is accurate, as sun activity has been low.

WORST CASE SENARIO = Katla may erupt soon, creating sulfur (used to be sulphur) ash clouds. Could be a tiny eruption or could be big, noone knows. This could, IF big enough eruption, cool down the Northern hemisphere by blocking suns rays from reaching us for a few days/weeks. This would cause records to be smashed, with the temperature well below average, and cause crops to fail animals to die e.t.c. like it has before in the 1600’s, and deaths from toxic fumes if people have lung cancer.
The only thing thats certain is it will effect airlines stock = down because loss of business when ash clouds mean they cant fly. Major disruptions for people who travel by plane.

Global warming seems to be a lie. We seem to be in a cooling trend now, possibly for 30 years.

Image via Wikipedia

REYKJAVIK, Iceland – An Icelandic volcano was flinging ash, smoke and steam miles (kilometers) into the air Sunday, dropping a thick layer of gray soot in an eruption far more forceful — but likely far less impactful — than the one that grounded planes across Europe last year.

The country’s main airport was closed and pilots were warned to steer clear of Iceland as areas close to the Grimsvotn (GREEMSH-votn) volcano were plunged into darkness. But scientists said another widespread aviation shutdown is unlikely, in part because the ash from this eruption is coarser and falling to Earth more quickly.

The volcano, which lies beneath the ice of the uninhabited Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland, began erupting Saturday for the first time since 2004. It was the volcano’s largest eruption in 100 years.

The ash from Grimsvotn — about 120 miles (200 kilometers) east of the capital, Reykjavik — turned the sky black Sunday and rained down on nearby buildings, cars and fields. Civil protection workers helped farmers get their animals into shelter and urged residents to wear masks and stay indoors. No ash fell on the capital.

Scientists said the eruption was unlikely to have the same global impact as last year’s eruption 80 miles (130 kilometers) away at the Eyjafjallajokull (pronounced ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl) volcano, which left 10 million travelers stranded around the world.

“It is not likely to be anything on the scale that was produced last year when the Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted,” University of Iceland geophysicist Pall Einarsson told The Associated Press. “That was an unusual volcano, an unusual ash size distribution and unusual weather pattern, which all conspired together to make life difficult in Europe.”

Still, Icelandic air traffic control operator ISAVIA established a 120 nautical mile (220 kilometer) no-fly zone around the volcano, closed Keflavik airport, the country’s main hub, and canceled all domestic flights. It said Keflavik would stay shut until at least noon Monday, canceling about 40 international flights.

Trans-Atlantic planes — including Air Force One, due to carry President Barack Obama to Ireland later Sunday — were told to stay away from Iceland.

The European air traffic control agency in Brussels, Eurocontrol, however, said there was no impact on European or trans-Atlantic flights further south and said it did not anticipate any impact through Monday.

Britain’s Meteorological Office, which runs Europe’s Volcanic Ash Advisory Center, said the plume from the volcano would spread largely northeast until Monday, but some ash would creep south and east, toward the crowded skies over northern Europe.

Where it goes after that depends on the intensity of the eruption and weather patterns.

A Met Office spokeswoman said if the eruption continues at its current rate, “the U.K. could be at risk of seeing some volcanic ash later this week.” She spoke on condition of anonymity because she wasn’t authorized to be quoted by name.

University of Iceland geophysicist Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson said the Grimsvotn eruption was “much bigger and more intensive” than last year’s eruption and 10 times as powerful as Grimsvotn’s last explosion in 2004.

“There is a very large area in southeast Iceland where there is almost total darkness and heavy fall of ash,” he said. “But it is not spreading nearly as much. The winds are not as strong as they were (last year).”

He said the ash now is coarser than in last year’s eruption, falling to the ground more quickly.

Grimsvotn’s eruption in 2004 lasted for several days and briefly disrupted international flights. The volcano also erupted in 1998, 1996 and 1993.

Sparsely populated Iceland is one of the world’s most geologically unstable countries, sitting astride the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the Eurasian and North American continental plates rub up against one another. Frequent earthquakes push magma from deep underground toward the surface, and volcanic eruptions are common. The ground is covered by hardened black lava from past eruptions and steam belches from the earth — harnessed by Icelanders for geothermal power.

Volcanic eruptions in Iceland often spark flash flooding from melting glacier ice but rarely cause deaths. Usually they only have a local impact, but when they do draw the world’s attention, it’s in a spectacular way.

The 1783 eruption of the Laki volcano spewed a toxic cloud over Europe, killing tens of thousands of people. Crops failed and famine spread.

In April 2010, the Eyjafjallajokull eruption prompted aviation officials to close Europe’s air space for five days out of fear that the ash could harm jet engines. Thousands of flights were grounded, airlines lost millions of dollars and weary travelers slept on airport floors across northern Europe.

Some airline chiefs complained that regulators had overreacted. But a study last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded the shutdown had been justified. It said the hard, sharp particles of volcanic ash blasted high into the air could have caused jet engines to fail and sandblasted airplane windows.

Scientists said there were already signs that the latest eruption was tapering off.

“The intensity of the eruption has decreased markedly overnight,” Matthew Roberts of the Icelandic Meteorological Office told the BBC, saying the ash plume had fallen to about 6 miles (10 kilometers) high.

Gudmundsson said the duration of the latest eruption would probably be short.

“In two or three days, the worst should be over,” he said.

The weather in North America and Europe in 1816 led to the widespread failure of crops, the death of most of the livestock and the worst famine to occur in the 19th century, in turn this led to an increase in diseases and a high number of human fatalities across the northern hemisphere.  Scientists have since linked high concentrations of sulfate found in Greenland within the ice core to have been deposited there from the eruption of 1815. Other studies in Antarctica have found similar results and estimates of up to 120 million tons of sulphur were released into the earths atmosphere.

The spring and summer of 1815 led to a permanent fog being persistent across the eastern seaboard of the US, it was a red colour that blocked out sunlight. Wind and rain were unable to disperse this cloud of fog. It continued until the summer of 1816, that season there were recorded extreme weather conditions as it became known as the year without a summer. Global temperatures decreased that led to problems for agriculture. Widespread frosts were reported across most of New England during June of that year, as well as significant snowfall during what should have been the months of summer. Quebec had up to 12 inches of snow during four days in June 1816.

1816 was the second coldest year in the northern hemisphere on record since the 1400’s. The coldest being 1601 after an eruption in Peru in the year 1600. The 1810’s was the coldest decade known and other eruptions in 1809 or 1810 were believed to have played a part in this. Europe experienced cooler summers and winters of increased stormy weather.

A typhoid epidemic struck much of Europe between 1816 and 1819. Failed harvests led to famine in the UK, particularly in Wales. Ireland suffered from shortages to wheat, oats and potatoes leading to severe shortages. Germany suffered from rising prices, this led to demonstrations and then riots. Arson and looting occurred in a number of European cities as people became desperate for food.

Battle of Waterloo – Image via Wikipedia

Napoleon delayed giving battle until noon on 18 June because bad weather. Rain flushed the war area for several days and he hoped for the nice weather at noon to allow the ground to dry and battle can begin. However the weather remained bad, and Napoleon failed to consolidate his forces in time. The train wheel for driving cannon stuck in mud and all vehicles can not drive smoothly. The delayed attack that should have been made in the morning give time to their enemies to consolidate and finally Napoleon defeated.

Book : The Wars Against Napoleon

The defeat at Waterloo put an end to Napoleon’s rule as Emperor of the French and marked the end of his Hundred Days after his escape from Elba Island because his defeat before at Leipzig, Russia in October 1813. The greatness of Napoleon was over. The general was then exiled to Saint Helena Island, a small island in the southern Atlantic Ocean. he spends his time until death in 1821 due to cancer attack.

Napoleon had failed because one thing that was never expected: bad weather. Since early June 1815 many cities in Europe was embroiled in torrential rain that had softened the ground. Kenneth Spink, a geologist, said that the eruption of Mount Tambora has a big impact on the order of the world’s climate at the time, including bad weather in Waterloo in June 1815 which became one of the trigger the Napoleon’s defeat. Spink conveyed this at a scientific meeting of Applied Geosciences at Warwick, England (1996). (DodDid)

Related Post

Tambora and Krakatoa – The Deadliest Volcanoes Explosion

Mount Tambora – The Killer Volcano That Changed History

How to View A Beautiful Caldera of Mount Tambora

How to Travel Komodo National Park

The Eruption

The first Merapi eruption which happened on October 26, 2010 has killed 38 people, while more than 60 people were injured; mostly due to their bodies were burnt and acute respiratory illness. All the people were residents who live less then 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from Merapi’s peak. All the dead people were burnt by pyroclastic flows. Pyroclastic flow is an avalanche consists of extremely hot gas, ash, and rock that tears down the side of a volcano at high speeds and has more than 600 Celsius degree in temperatures. Included in the dead people is mbah Maridjan, who was found dead in a kneeling Moslem pray (prostration) position. Mbah Maridjan is a Merapi’s spiritual guardian as appointed by Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX (the late) in 1982. In 2006, he was invited by German Embassy to attend World Football Cup but he refused due to the eruption in Merapi during that time (he argued to the local media that if he were in German seeing the World Football Cup, then who will guard the Merapi?).

Pyroclastic flow, courtesy of Totally Cool Pix.

Regarding to the dead people burnt by pyroclastic flow, this will not be happened if they obeyed what the authority, i.e. the Center of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (the CVGHM)  said about the danger to keep staying at the area near Merapi’s peak. Some people still believed to mbah Maridjan, while a lot of others counted on the CVGHM, which based on scientific calculation rather than practical experience like what mbah Maridjan did. Prior to the eruption, the CVGHM urged people to evacuate themselves and declared the safe zone to be 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) far from the peak. Around 13,000 refugees were evacuated during this eruption, mostly from Sleman regency, part of Yogyakarta province.

Merapi wass erupting continuously and fluctuatedly. Some days, Merapi looked calm, while some other days, it looked dangerous. On October 30, 2010, Merapi erupted and spreaded the ash rain to Yogyakarta-40 kilometers (24.8 miles) from Merapi, and Borobudur temple-30 kilometers (18.6 miles) west side of Merapi. The temple now is closed for being clean from the ash.

On November 3, 2010, measuring that Mount Merapi became more dangerous, the CVGHM changed the safe zone to 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) far from the peak. The refugees then increased to 26,000 people spreaded in 4 regencies: Sleman (Yogyakarta province), Magelang, Klaten, and Boyolali (Central Java province). During this day, starting form 11.00 local time (UTC +7) Merapi was erupting endlessly and shot the vertical-hot-ash-clouds into the sky, more than 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) altitude. Merapi also started thundering that make the residents worried. The thunder was heard far from Merapi, about 15 kilometers.

Vertical hot ash clouds shot by Merapi, courtesy of Totally Cool Pix.

On Thursday, November 4, 2010, the thunder became louder and louder and vertical hot ash clouds containing sulfur shot far above the ground, reaching 6,000 meters (19,690 feet) altitude and directed to the west side of Merapi. The thunder was heard in 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) far from Merapi and the vertical clouds were seen in Solo, a city located on 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) east of Merapi. Ash rain was experienced by Muntilan residents. Muntilan is a county located on the west of Merapi. Some south-west of Merapi residents also experienced the ash rain.

An old man refugee is wearing a masker to protect from the volcanic ash, courtesy of Totally Cool Pix.

Thursday night at 23.30 local time (UTC +7), the CVGHM changed the safe zone to 20 kilometers far from Merapi’s peak, making the four regencies around Merapi became very chaotic. Wave of refugees continuously sprinted down, looking for the safer place, far from Merapi.

Merapi is launcing its lava, courtesy of Totally Cool Pix.

Friday November 05, 2010, 00.30 local time (UTC +7), Merapi had a gigantic eruption; shot the hot material up very high into the sky, more than 9,000 meters (29,530 feet) altitude. Merapi also launched the pyroclastic flows in 15 kilometers far from the peak. All the 4 regencies around Mount Merapi experienced hard ash rain followed by sulfur and siliceous rain. Lava-hot material erupted onto the earth surface, flew to the villages near Merapi, especially Cangkringan County and burnt every thing they passed through. That night was very traumatic for the people who live in the radius 20 kilometers from Merapi. More than 270,000 people of the above regencies were evacuated to the safer place.

A man riding his motorcylce blanketed by volcanic ash rain, courtesy of Totally Cool Pix.

On Friday morning, ash rain happened in four regencies above and cities in the west of Mount Merapi such as Purworejo and Cilacap. In the evening, the ash rain has reached Bogor, a city located on 50 kilometers (31.07 miles) south of Jakarta-the capital city of Indonesia. Bogor is 750 kilometers (466 miles) far from Mount Merapi. Everybody who planned to go out of their home were urged by the government to wear masks to protect them from volcanic ash, which endanger the respiratory system and eyes. Due to the ash rain, the government also announced to cancel all the flight from and to Yogyakarta and deactivated Adisucipto Airport until normal air condition has been reached. Although volcanic ash did not reached Jakarta, 12 foreign airlines had also canceled for two days the flight from and to Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Jakarta.

Mount Merapi as observed by NASA, courtesy of Earth Observatory.

The Aftermath

The eruption has changed all the whole life surrounding Mount Merapi. During this eruption, Merapi has released more than 120 million cubic meters of volcanic materials. It is the biggest volume since the 1870 eruption. The material consists of cold lava, sulfur, siliceous stone, sand, gravel, rock, and ash which has reached Bogor city. While the eruption itself is the primary hazard, volcanic material is the secondary hazard that must be aware of.

Volunteers is carrying the burnt dead body, courtesy of Totally Cool Pix.

Approximately, 30.000 people lost their houses either by fully or partly burnt, more than 50.000 people lost their living. Merapi has destroyed everything they have: clothes, houses and equipments, vehicles, families, and the beloved ones. They are still in the refuges, waiting Merapi to stop erupting. Waiting Merapi to stop erupting while they are no work to do can get them mentally depressed. According to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), since the first eruption on November 26, 2010, Merapi eruption has killed 150 people, 410 people are hospitalized, and more than 270,00 people are evacuated.

The cold lava, courtesy of Kompas.

There are 12 rivers, which their upstream are in Merapi, fulfilled by volcanic materials. Some rivers, which used to have 25 meters (82.02 feet) depth, now are reaching the ground surface. In the same time, the National Weather Forecasting Agency said that rainfall intensity in Merapi is above the average. When the hard rain is dropping, the volcanic materials overflow to these rivers and endanger the human life. One of the rivers, Kali Code, flows in the middle of Yogyakarta  City. Kali Code used to have 3 meters (9.8 feet) depth, but now it is only a half meter left.

Farmers is sadly looking their salacca trees, cortesy of Antara.

The soil in Merapi slopes are very productive, many people count on these soil for their living. Supported by water availability, they plant vegetables, coconuts, rice, cassavas, herbal plants, salaccas or snake fruits, and other fruits such as mangoes, bananas, melons, etc. Besides planting, they are also nursing and breeding chicken, fishes, ducks, goats, pigs, and cows. Most of the plants and breeds were vanished, burnt by Pyroclastic flows. No more left.

Recovery from the Merapi eruption will take a long time. Years will be needed to normalize the life around Merapi area. The Indonesian government has decided to allocate 100 billion rupiahs as a replacement cost for the dead livestock and 2 trillion rupiahs to rebuild physical infrastructure such as roads, bridges, drainages, electricity, houses, and dams in Merapi.

“Before I go any further, I want to say that our thoughts and prayers are with all of those Indonesians affected by the recent tsunami and volcanic eruptions – particularly those who have lost loved ones, and those who have been displaced. As always, the United States stands with Indonesia in responding to this natural disaster, and we are pleased to be able to help as needed. As neighbors help neighbors and families take in the displaced, I know that the strength and resilience of the Indonesian people will pull you through once more.” – President Barrack Obama’s Speech in University of Indonesia, November 10, 2010.

Complex

A direct consequence of such a fast developing world is its increasing complexity. Whenever basic needs of a community are provided and well sorted out, this community starts to focus on secondary needs. They want to have access to all sorts of facilities that improves the quality of their lives. This is exactly what happened in our western world. While in Africa people still struggle to meet on their basic needs, we have already passed that stage and are now looking for more opportunities to improve the quality of life. We all want to be connected to the world, we all want to choose from a great range of products, we all want to be able to travel around the world and we all want to live in a nice house. The companies, governments and organizations that provide us with these privileges grow larger while the number of companies and organizations itself increases as well. Their continues process of production, transportation, selling, buying, storing, making profit, etc. is all part of one, immensely complex, system. With so many processes linked together and so many people participating in this system we bring ourselves in a dangerously vulnerable position.

Arrogance

We can do everything! We will control the world! With our technology we will be more powerful than mother nature! Sadly, this is what people say. In their arrogance some people even think they can significantly warm up this planet and control our climate by simply adding a bit more or a bit less greenhouse gasses. A dangerous way of thinking in a world that, even though our efforts, is still unpredictable and uncontrollable by us humans. What most of us are not aware of is that this way of thinking makes up a dangerous combination with the increasing complexity of our world.

Too bloody easy

Luckily there is one great force that won’t let us down: Mother Nature. Whenever and wherever she strikes she will show who’s the real boss. A chain of recent events and one of the reasons why I write this article are the volcanic eruptions on Iceland. Since I live in Europe myself I haven’t seen any high-altitude contrails for almost a week. In the meanwhile newspapers were full of the great disaster that struck Europe. Airline companies that were just about to recover from the financial crisis where crying and begging for mercy at the gates of the European Union. The union, however, was crying about the passenger’s right to receive temporary shelter at cost of their airline. The suffering continued: Passengers that were stuck in a foreign country and wanted to go back, food was rotting, there were important medical products that couldn’t be imported and flowers that were stored in another continent became worthless.

Immediately after the disaster Europe counted its losses and started to investigate the affected economical sectors. Conclusions: every single day there were millions of dollars lost by companies that rely on the airspace and for some companies this was the fatal blow that made them crash. Other investigations focused on how this could have happened. No results have come out yet, but I realized that in a world so complex even the smallest inconsequence can make the place in only a matter of days a yard of endless cries. We’re on our knees too bloody easy!

It is estimated that Pompeii was a city of about 20,000 people located about six miles from Vesuvius. It was a fairly advanced city for its time, it had a sewer system and an aqueduct brought water into the city. Its streets were paved with volcanic rock and it had a raised sidewalk along the side. Crossing the streets were raised stepping stones for pedestrians to cross so they wouldn’t have to get their feet dirty. Most streets were only about 15-20 feet wide, including the sidewalks. It had a forum, which was the business center of the city where information about recent trials and even information about politicians that were running for office could be found. There was also a Saturday market. Pompeii had lots of recreational areas. It had an amphitheater that could hold the entire population of the city where gladiators fought, and had several smaller theaters for plays and public speeches, one of which was built into a hillside.

Mount Vesuvius was about 4200 feet tall and Pompeii was about six miles away from Vesuvius. It was known to the Romans that Vesuvius had been a volcano because of volcanic rock around it, but they regarded it as inactive, so the people had no idea that they would be in danger from an eruption. Vesuvius had previously erupted hundreds of years ago but the eruption to come would be much worse.

There were a few signs leading up to the eruption, though none of them were taken as warnings of a much larger disaster about to happen. The first was in AD 63. An earthquake caused by the building pressure in Mount Vesuvius shook Pompeii and Herculaneum. It destroyed part of Pompeii and caused some minor damage to Herculaneum. Smaller quakes occurred for the next 16 years leading up to the eruption.

The actual eruption of Vesuvius was in AD 79. It started by dark smoke flowing out of Vesuvius. The smoke darkened the day so it looked like evening and within an hour and a half smoke had covered the whole sky. Then a hole was blown in the side of Vesuvius, sending out hot ash, toxic gas and pumice. The rate of pumice shooting out of Vesuvius ranged from 5000 to 80,000 tons every second and it all fell down onto the two cities. After hours of pumice falling down on the cities, waves of hot ash shot down. It traveled as fast as a jet and burned through Pompeii, killing and destroying the city and its population. After the waves of ash and falling pumice finally stopped, it rained. This mixture of rainwater and ash formed casts around the people and preserved them for over 1000 years.

The Roman Army was sent in to look for any survivors. They couldn’t dig through the newly formed concrete very effectively though, so they could dig up very little. No survivors were found but they managed to get out some statues. No plans for uncovering and repairing Pompeii were ever made and the Romans decided to forget about Pompeii.

Fifteen-hundred years later, the first remains of Pompeii were discovered. This first discovery of Pompeii was in 1595. The discoverers didn’t care much for the city. All they did was dig up some treasures and looted them, taking them and selling them, not caring about preserving the city. Pompeii was then forgotten about again until 1710 when a well digger dug up part of a theater. The official excavation of the area started in 1748. King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy put Giuseppe Fiorelli in charge of the excavation. The way Fiorelli directed the excavation was amazing. He divided the city into nine regions. As each region was dug out it was numbered. Then every block of each region was given a number as it was dug out and finally every building on every block was given a number. This way, each building could easily be identified by giving it a number. For example, a building labeled 1.6.4 would go to building number four of the sixth block of the first region.

Bodies of people frozen in time were found. The concrete that formed when it rained had preserved them. People were found still in the positions they were in when they died. There were people who were caught screaming or trying to protect themselves by holding clothing over their faces and some were found even trying to protect their family by shielding them with themselves. Objects were also found, a surgeon’s tools for example.

The eruption of Vesuvius has three sides to it. The first side is the disaster side. Two cities completely buried, like they had never even existed. Thousands of people were trapped inside of the cities without any way to protect themselves from the burning hot ash that rushed through the city, or from the tons of pumice that bombarded their homes. Not only were their lives taken, but any sign of them was also erased. Their homes and the city they had known and lived in, gone, their story untold for over a thousand years. The second side of the eruption is the great discovery of the cities. They are a window looking into the past itself. The cities now are fully uncovered and much has been learned about life in the Roman Empire from it. The third is the fear that something like this could happen again. Maybe there are volcanoes hidden, inactive for hundreds of years that are just sitting and building up pressure. It could happen again, but hopefully now that we have better technology for detecting eruptions it won’t and such a disaster will never happen again.

Drainage, lakes, and transportation routes were all affected because of the huge amount of material that fell on them. In addition to the human losses, the loss of farmland, vineyards, crops, livestock, and water supplies completely disrupted the economy of the area. There were no international trading links, and no manufacturing or similar occupations to which people could turn in 1600 for their survival. They depended totallyon what they could obtain from the ground. Fortunately, recovery was undertaken immediately. Arequipa was rebuilt and within a few years farming activities were close to pre-eruption standards, largely the result of life being very simple. In recent times, mainly through examining underground evidence of past climates, scientists have come to see that the impact of Arequipa was far greater than local records from 1600 would suggest.

It affected countries all over the world. A few scientists said that it contributed to a worldwide cooling that occurred in the summer of the year 1601, the coldest summer within the past five hundred years. The eruption was preceded by a series of earthquakes and explosions as magma made its way upward toward the surface. The volcanic mountain that was about to explode stood more than 13,000 feet high within the upper reaches of a broad valley. It had three vents high above the valley through which gas, smoke, and pumice was about to escape. Each one of the three was huge, about 300 feet deep and over 250 feet in diameter. The setting of the mountain was equally impressive, a valley that had been carved out of an ancient volcano’s side and summit, a horseshoeshaped amphitheater that looked like a glacial cirque. It is clear from the evidence that is being uncovered at the present time that the area around Arequipa experienced numerous volcanic eruptions over the past few millions of years.

In the case of the 1600 eruption, tremors were felt long before February 19. By February 15, these movements increased in both number and intensity, and this condition was maintained right up to the night of February 18. On the fateful day of the eruption there was an explosion like the noise of a cannon, followed by a big fire that scared everyone. Within an hour of the explosion, the whole surrounding region became dark as large volumes of ash and other volcanic materials fell back to earth through the atmosphere. There was little change in this continuous flow of dark material until the eruption ended on the second of April. The following list summarizes the sequence of events.

• February 15
  • Regular earthquakes begin
• February 18
  • 9 P.M.: Earthquakes increase in strength
  • 10 P.M.: People awakened by the strength of the earthquakes
• February 19 Midday: two major quakes of intensity 11 (MM scale)
  • 5 P.M.: Eruption began, pumice and ash falls
  • 6 P.M.: Whole region dark with explosions every few seconds
• February 20 Explosions and ash continue all day
  • 2 P.M.: All day was like midnight 10 inches of sand and ash fall on Arequipa Eruption and earthquakes continue all day
• February 28
  • A major earthquake
• March 5
  • Ash fall finally stops
• April 2
  • Atmosphere finally cleared

A flow of heavy, hot, pyroclastic material began to appear soon after the eruption. It formed new rivers as it traveled, disrupting the natural flow of water as well as the dams that had been built on the River Tambo. It was in the neighborhood of this river that most people lived. As volcanic material fell back from the sky and was added to the surface flow, the combined mass of material rolled down the steep slopes beneath the mountain and further disrupted everything on the surface. Fire and the weight of falling material did most of the damage. Today, geologists examining the scene of the 1600 eruption are finding plenty of evidence of the event. Thick layers of ash and pumice can be seen all over the area west of the River Tambo and the city of Arequipa. It is easy to see why most of the one thousand people of the region were killed. There is a record of the experiences of a hundred people who lived in one village. It tells of stones falling from the sky with many people and animals being killed, without giving them a chance to escape. Chaos and fear had gripped everybody; they hugged one another as hot ashes were falling and burning their homes.

The people were understandably terrified by the event, mainly because of ignorance and fears over the causes of volcanic eruptions. No one knew anything about tectonic plates in 1600. Records tell of Indians praying and casting magic spells because they felt that the church was unable to do anything about the eruption. Some local people prayed on their knees all day as one of their number played a doleful lament and asked for mercy. Fear drove people to walk around their community in a sort of dazed state. Churches kept their doors open all the time. Implicit in all of these reactions was the assumption that God was responsible for what happened and, since this particular event was troublesome and harmful, he must have done it as a punishment for bad behavior. To make matters worse, the local Spanish priest had warned his people at the time of the first small earthquakes that a hit from heaven was going to come to punish them for their sins. It was a similar story more than a hundred years later when Lisbon experienced a powerful earthquake on All Saints Day. Large numbers of people were in their churches when the earthquake struck. Lisbon was a very religious city and they were convinced that the earthquake was a punishment from God.

The warning from the priest was a particularly troubling factor for the social life of the community. The conquest of the area by the Spaniards, in the previous century, had brought to this village all that was best in the world. While it came by force of arms it nevertheless represented many things that were an improvement over their former lifestyle. Arequipa and its surrounding communities had been a traditional Indian village until the Incas captured it and made it the supply center for its capital of Cuzco nearby high in the mountains. Within a century of that development, the Spaniards arrived and took full control of the area. They immediately stopped the ancient practice of sacrificing humans and animals in order to appease the gods of the mountains but now, in 1600, the natives were in a helpless situation. The church could only threaten punishment. It could not stop the eruption. The mythology of the area told them that the devil was upset because they had abandoned sacrifices so he was going to punish them. Local wizards now persuaded them to find the nicest young girls, the best animals, and the prettiest flowers and sacrifice them. During the sacrifice the first burst came from the volcano and they were covered with ash.

There were reports from ships at sea experiencing ash falls, from as far as a thousand miles, just as there had been from Lima, in northern Peru, also a thousand miles away. However, most of the ash falls happened in Bolivia and Chile because the borders of all three countries are close to the site of the eruption. In the Pacific, offshore from Peru, sailors in a British pirate ship heard the explosions and thought they were about to be attacked by a Spanish warship. A merchant sailing south from Lima was caught in a storm of ash and pumice when his ship was off the coast two hundred miles west of Arequipa. The weight of ash dragged most of his boxes overboard. If we take the immediate communities in and around Arequipa for a distance of twelve miles outward from the city, it becomes clear that more than a thousand acres were covered with sufficient ash to make them unusable for many years. One factor that is rarely mentioned is the influence of rainfall on steep slopes when all the natural drainage channels have been dislocated. Rainfall is heavy on the west side of Peru’s mountains and over the year or two following the eruption, without access to their natural channels, rainstorms washed away into the sea every movable thing on the sloping mountainside, including livestock, crops, and fish.

Volcanic eruptions along the west coast of Peru, as well as in other countries on that coast, are due to the accumulation of magma near the surface because of the subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the continent of South America, disrupting both temperature and rock regimes deep below the surface. Peru experiences more earthquakes and volcanic eruptions than most of the countries on that coast. There are dozens of significant earthquakes every year, yet it seems that their familiarity with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions makes the people resilient, ready to start over when tragedy hits. It is an attitude similar to that found in Japan, another country well acquainted with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In 1784, Arequipa was hit with an earthquake that killed fifty people and destroyed almost all the buildings. Two others, in 1868 and 2001, did extensive damage. Despite the hazards, the city has grown rapidly through the years because it is located in a good agricultural area and it is strategically located for transportation. Arequipa’s population has grown from about 20,000 at the end of the eighteenth century to 600,000 today, making it Peru’s second biggest city.

The 1784 earthquake in Arequipa provided a better picture of the ways in which the Spanish overlords used local labor in the work of recovery.

The records of the 1600 event do not tell us anything about relations be tween the Spanish and the local people. In 1784 it is clear that forced labor was the method. Spanish royalty launched their conquest of South America in order to exploit its wealth, just as the British had done in America during the colonial period, and the Spanish would learn at a later time, just as the British did, that exploitation leads to revolution if the local people are not treated fairly. In 1784, the officer in charge arranged for a forced draft of six thousand Indians from neighboring areas to be brought to Arequipa to rebuild the city. There was little difficulty in arranging this as it was a common occurrence. An arrangement for ensuring adequate labor for the mines was a similar forced draft: every Indian community had to send one-seventh of their adult male population for a year to work in the mines. The low wages they were paid did not interfere seriously with the profits that had to be sent back to Spain, even after destructive earthquakes like this one in 1784 when the city was a much bigger place than in 1600.

Fortunately, recovery from the eruption in and around Arequipa did not take too long, perhaps because the area was not highly developed and the work of restoration consisted mainly of removing ash and other volcanic debris. During the eruption, ash had been falling so fast that the mayor of Arequipa gave orders to clear the roofs to protect them from collapsing. About three feet had fallen on the city by the time the eruption began to subside. For the cleanup the Spanish Commander commandeered six hundred natives and forty soldiers to clear the ground and rebuild the homes and public buildings. The work took a few years and Arequipa became known as the white city because of the volcanic stones used in construction; they were whitish in color and very hard, unlike pumice. It seems strange to use volcanic rock as the building material for a city destroyed by a volcanic eruption. Viticulture was a well-known traditional industry of the area and a particular tragedy was the loss of grape crops as a result of the ash fall. Seventeen years after the eruption, a visitor noted that very little development of agriculture had occurred since the eruption and no evidence anywhere of a revival of viticulture.