Mt. Vesuvius
Mt. Vesuvius is a stratovolcano in the Gulf of Naples, Italy, only about 9km east of Naples and a short distance from the shore. A stratovolcano is a tall, cone-shaped volcano which is composed of one layer of hardened lava, tephra, and volcanic ash. Stratovolcanoes such as Vesuvius are known for periodic, explosive eruptions. The lava that flows from them is usually highly viscous, or thick. Mt. Vesuvius is best known for its eruption on August 24, 79 A.D, which destroyed the cities Pompeii, Herculaneum, and multiple other Roman settlements. The cities were destroyed by a large pyroclastic eruption. Pyroclastic eruptions are large, lava spewing eruptions with immense flows of fast moving volcanic ash, gases, and rock which can reach speeds of 450 mph and temperatures of 1,830 °F. Mt. Vesuvius is currently still an active volcano of the Campanian volcanic arc, which consists of multiple active, dormant, and extinct volcanoes centered on the bay of Naples. The arc formed over a subduction zone created by the convergence of the African and Eurasian plates. Underneath Vesuvius, the lower section of the subducting slab has torn and detached from the upper part to create what is known as a “slab window”, causing the rocks erupted from Vesuvius to have a slight chemical difference from the rocks erupted from other Campanian volcanoes.
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Starting in 1631, Vesuvius entered a period of stable volcanic activity, which consisted of lava flows and eruptions of ash and mud. The most recent eruption was in 1944, during WWII. The eruption caused major problems for the newly-arrived Allied Forces in Italy when ash and rocks from the eruption destroyed planes and forced evacuations of the nearby