Naples has a population of 3 million individuals, 800,000 of whom live on the volcanos slopes. Today, Vesuvius stays one of the most greatly monitored and studied volcanoes in the world. Because then, the volcano has experienced periodic earthquake activity, ground contortion, and gas venting from the crater.
Naples has a population of 3 million individuals, 800,000 of whom reside on the volcanos slopes. This makes Vesuvius among the most unsafe volcanoes in the world. Its most popular eruption, in A.D. 79, destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The cities were engulfed in pyroclastic circulations– superheated, high-density clouds of volcanic gas, ash, and rock that flow downslope at numerous kilometers per hour. Pliny the Youngers eyewitness account of that eruption, including its towering ash cloud, led volcanologists to describe these kinds of eruptions “Vesuvian” or “Plinian.”.
Such catastrophes are why the location became home to the worlds first volcanological observatory, integrated in the 19th century. Today, Vesuvius stays among the most greatly monitored and studied volcanoes on the planet. By dating lavas, researchers understand that the mountain has actually had 8 major eruptions in the previous 17,000 years. The newest, on March 17, 1944, damaged the town of San Sebastiano, Italy. Ever since, the volcano has actually experienced occasional earthquake activity, ground deformation, and gas venting from the crater.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat information from the U.S. Geological Survey.
January 2, 2022
Clouds parted for a glance of among the most dangerous volcanoes on Earth.
Mount Vesuvius, located 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) southeast of Naples, Italy, is the just active volcano on Europes mainland. It is a composite stratovolcano, comprised of pyroclastic circulations, lava circulations, and debris from lahars that accumulated to form the volcanic cone.
In this natural-color image, acquired on January 2, 2022, by the Operational Land Imager ( OLI) on Landsat 8, the cone of Mount Vesuvius appears through a break in the clouds. The ridge surrounding the cone is a remnant of the collapsed caldera of an older volcano, Mount Somma, from which the cone of Vesuvius emerged.
By Sara E. Pratt, NASA Earth Observatory
January 12, 2022
