Earthquakes make Mount Vesuvius eruption 2,000 years ago more deadly

Ancient walls of Pompeii with Mount Vesuvius in the background

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In a new study by geologists and archaeologists from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and the Pompeii Archaeological Park, the authors show that the destruction of the Roman city of Pompeii 2,000 years ago was a double catastrophe – a volcanic eruption by Mount Vesuvius followed by powerful earthquakes.

“We have shown that seismic activity during the eruption played an important role in the destruction of Pompeii, and may have influenced the choices of the inhabitants of Pompeii who faced inevitable death,” explained Dr. Domenico Sparris, a volcanologist at the Institute of Volcanology of Vesuviano and first author of the study, in an interview with the online magazine Frontiers.

“A correct identification of the cause-and-effect relationship is essential to reconstruct the interaction between volcanic and seismic phenomena, and their effects on buildings and humans,” adds co-author Dr. Fabrizio Galadini, a geologist and senior researcher at the National Institute of Geophysics.

During excavations in one of the buildings preserved by a layer of volcanic sediment, researchers noticed damage likely related to earthquakes and, most importantly, found two bodies with injuries that today are only noticeable after a strong earthquake.

“We found strange characteristics that were inconsistent with the effects of volcanic phenomena described in the volcanological literature dedicated to Pompeii. There had to be a different explanation,” said co-author Dr. Mauro De Vito, a volcanologist and director of the INGV-Osservatorio Vesuviano.

The eruption caught the people of Pompeii in the middle of their daily lives. Vesuvius erupted shortly after 1 p.m., according to the writings of Pliny the Younger, a Roman historian who survived the disaster. For about 18 hours, pumice, small rocks, and ash particles rained down on the city, sending people scrambling for shelter. When the eruption stopped, the surviving residents probably thought they were safe—until powerful earthquakes began.

“People who did not flee their shelters were probably swept away by the earthquake-induced collapse of already overburdened buildings. This was the fate of the two people we recovered,” says Dr. Valeria Amoretti, an anthropologist who heads the Laboratory of Applied Research at the Pompeii Archaeological Park and co-author of the study.

There are several hints that these individuals did not die from ash inhalation or the intense heat from the lava wave that killed most of the people trapped within the city walls.

The skeletal remains lie on a layer of volcanic sediment, indicating that they survived the initial eruption. The position of Individual 1, a man who was around 50 years old at the time of his death, suggests that he was suddenly crushed by a large collapsed section of wall, causing severe trauma and bone fractures. However, Individual 2, also a 50-year-old man, may have been aware of the danger and tried to protect himself by hiding in a corner of the room and under a circular wooden object, of which the researchers found faint traces in the volcanic sediment, before he was crushed to death.

Scientists have discovered two skeletons in the ruins of a building in Pompeii, and have concluded that they are… [+] The deaths must have been caused by the collapse of walls caused by earthquakes.

Pompeii Archaeological Park

Stone carvings found in Pompeii show the effects of an earthquake that struck the city 17 years before the deadly eruption. It is not clear whether this earthquake was linked to the reawakening of Mount Vesuvius after the volcano had been dormant for more than 1,000 years. When it finally erupted, probably in September or October of 79 AD, damage from the seismic shaking was still visible on some buildings.

Since Pompeii was rediscovered in April 1748, the remains of more than 1,150 individuals have been found in the excavated ruins. The destruction of Pompeii buried them in a single day with a series of lava flows and hours of ashfall, creating a rock barrier against grave robbers and erosion, and their destruction ensured their preservation over time.

“The new discoveries about the destruction of Pompeii bring us closer to the experience of the people who lived here 2,000 years ago,” concludes Dr. Gabriele Zuchtriegl, director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park and co-author of the study. “The choices they made and the dynamics of events, which remain the focus of our research, determined the fate of life and death in the last hours of the city’s existence.”

The full open access paper, “A New Perspective on the Destruction of Pompeii during the Eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79: Earthquakes Co-occurring with Volcanic Eruptions as an Additional Cause of Building Collapses and Deaths,” was published in Frontiers in Earth Science and can be found online here.

Additional material and interviews provided by Frontiers e-magazine.

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