The towering cone Vesuvius had chosen them this day to be a monumental preserve- an unalloyed experiment.

On February 19, 1600, South America’s biggest volcanic eruption in all of recorded human history occurred in a mountain close to Arequipa, a city in southern Peru. Its VEI was 6, the same as Krakatau’s, and the type of eruption was also the same as Krakatau’s, a Plinian one.