The currents continued overnight into the following day, occurring approximately 80 minutes apart, while at sunrise on the 25th, about 5.30am, the eruptive column collapsed onto the ground.
At 7:.07am, the deadliest pyroclastic current struck – a nine-hour ground-hugging flow spreading scalding debris 15 miles (25km) across.
By about 4pm, the volcano interacted with groundwater, increasing its explosiveness and generating finer, less dense pyroclastic currents.
These flows, still capable of traveling around 10 miles (15km), were destructive but do not contain human remains, suggesting few of Pompeii’s residents were still alive.
At 8.05pm, the eruption finally ceased – but an earthquake may have killed any of Pompeii’s survivors, another study concluded.
After the eruption, bodies of the victims at Pompeii were famously preserved in a protective shell of ash before they eventually decayed.
Since the mid 1800s, the voids that these bodies left behind were eventually filled with plaster casts to recreate their final moments.
The new research, detailed in a study in Journal of the Geological Society and reported by Science, extends the timeline of the eruption from 19 to 32 hours.
Map shows Herculaneum and other cities affected by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. The black cloud represents the general distribution of ash and cinder
Around 2,000 people died in Pompeii and 300 are known to have died in Herculaneum, however, the entire death toll could have been around
At Pompeii and other nearby towns, scalding-hot currents vaporised inhabitants and even turned human tissue into glass in a process known as vitrification
Illustration of the first pyroclastic density current (PDC) to hit Herculaneum, estimated to be 1,022°F (550°C)
Heat created by the devastating Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD was so intense, the event transformed one victim’s brains into glass, archaeologists discovered. The team spotted the vitrified remains which appeared as splatters of a shiny, black material in the skull of what they believe was a 25-year-old man
It suggests some residents could have survived if they’d fled during the five-hour period between 2pm and 7pm on the first day, but were unable to due to the dangers.
When pyroclastic currents arrived at 7pm, those who had taken shelter in buildings were tragically killed within an instant.
At the time of the disaster, Mount Vesuvius was thought to be inactive because it hadn’t erupted in around 1,800 years, meaning locals were largely unprepared.
‘We now have a much clearer picture of the impact on buildings and humans over the hours,’ study author Claudio Scarpati told Science.
The volcanologists from the University of Naples Federico II, measured the distribution and volume of volcanic layers around the impact area.
Data was combined with the famous eyewitness account of Pliny the Younger, the Roman administrator who vividly described the eruption in a series of letters.
Pliny the Younger, who was just 17 years old at the time of the disaster, was stationed in Misenum, across the Bay of Naples.
He had observed an umbrella-like cloud looming over Mount Vesuvius around 1pm – the vertical plume of ash known as the ‘eruption column’.
Man in sitting position, killed in the eruption, in storage at Pompeii. Remains of the city are now one of the most popular tourist destinations in Italy
Artist’s depiction of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius at Pompeii. The ancient Roman city was about six miles away from the volcano
Rewind 2,000 years and Pompeii, 14 miles south-east of Naples, was a buzzing city. But on August 24, AD 79, it was destroyed by the eruption of nearby Mount Vesuvius
Now considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world, Mount Vesuvius is still active and could erupt again, although predicting when volcanoes will blow is an extremely difficult task for volcanologists.
Apart from being potentially fatal again for Italians living in the Bay of Naples, such an eruption could also affect aviation passengers.
In AD 79, Mount Vesuvius’ plume of ash and gas reached 21 miles (34km) in height, more than triple the cruising altitude of most commercial jets.
‘This matters for climatic impacts or aviation hazards,’ volcanologist Benjamin Andrews at the Smithsonian Institution told Science.
‘It’s a big difference to an airplane if the ash is at 5 kilometers or 35 kilometers.’
Sadly, the Mount Vesuvius eruption of AD 79 is not the most deadly to occur in recorded history, even when taking into account the upper range of its estimated death toll.
The 1815 eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Tambora killed an estimated 100,000 people in the direct impact, but led to millions of more deaths later.
It released 24 cubic miles of gases, dust, and rock into the atmosphere, causing global temperatures to plummet followed by crops failure, famine and disease.
More recently, the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia erupted in 1985, killing around 25,000 people.
How Pompeii and Herculaneum were wiped off the map by devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius 2,000 years ago
What happened?
Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year AD 79, burying the cities of Pompeii, Oplontis, and Stabiae under ashes and rock fragments, and the city of Herculaneum under a mudflow.
Mount Vesuvius, on the west coast of Italy, is the only active volcano in continental Europe and is thought to be one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world.
Every single resident died instantly when the southern Italian town was hit by a 500°C pyroclastic hot surge.
Pyroclastic flows are a dense collection of hot gas and volcanic materials that flow down the side of an erupting volcano at high speed.
They are more dangerous than lava because they travel faster, at speeds of around 450mph (700 km/h), and at temperatures of 1,000°C.
An administrator and poet called Pliny the younger watched the disaster unfold from a distance.
Letters describing what he saw were found in the 16th century.
His writing suggests that the eruption caught the residents of Pompeii unaware.
Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year AD 79, burying the cities of Pompeii, Oplontis, and Stabiae under ashes and rock fragments, and the city of Herculaneum under a mudflow
He said that a column of smoke ‘like an umbrella pine’ rose from the volcano and made the towns around it as black as night.
People ran for their lives with torches, screaming and some wept as rain of ash and pumice fell for several hours.
While the eruption lasted for around 24 hours, the first pyroclastic surges began at midnight, causing the volcano’s column to collapse.
An avalanche of hot ash, rock and poisonous gas rushed down the side of the volcano at 124mph (199kph), burying victims and remnants of everyday life.
Hundreds of refugees sheltering in the vaulted arcades at the seaside in Herculaneum, clutching their jewelry and money, were killed instantly.
The Orto dei fuggiaschi (The garden of the Fugitives) shows the 13 bodies of victims who were buried by the ashes as they attempted to flee Pompeii during the 79 AD eruption of the Vesuvius volcano
As people fled Pompeii or hid in their homes, their bodies were covered by blankets of the surge.
While Pliny did not estimate how many people died, the event was said to be ‘exceptional’ and the number of deaths is thought to exceed 10,000.
What have they found?
This event ended the life of the cities but at the same time preserved them until rediscovery by archaeologists nearly 1700 years later.
The excavation of Pompeii, the industrial hub of the region and Herculaneum, a small beach resort, has given unparalleled insight into Roman life.
Archaeologists are continually uncovering more from the ash-covered city.
In May archaeologists uncovered an alleyway of grand houses, with balconies left mostly intact and still in their original hues.
A plaster cast of a dog, from the House of Orpheus, Pompeii, AD 79. Around 30,000 people are believed to have died in the chaos, with bodies still being discovered to this day
Some of the balconies even had amphorae – the conical-shaped terra cotta vases that were used to hold wine and oil in ancient Roman times.
The discovery has been hailed as a ‘complete novelty’ – and the Italian Culture Ministry hopes they can be restored and opened to the public.
Upper stores have seldom been found among the ruins of the ancient town, which was destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius volcano and buried under up to six meters of ash and volcanic rubble.
Around 30,000 people are believed to have died in the chaos, with bodies still being discovered to this day.
