Are We Underestimating Mt. Vesuvius?

Are We Underestimating Mt. Vesuvius?

news.discovery.com

A new study, led by vulcanologist Giuseppe Mastrolorenzo from the Naples Observatory in Italy, shows that the residents killed in Pompeii and the neighboring towns located on the slopes of the volcano died from an extreme heat surge produced by the volcano, not suffocation.

(visit the link for the full news article)

My interest was piqued with this article. The findings made by these researchers call for drastic reform of current evacuation procedures and protocol.

From the article:

The blazing heat wave could have traveled up to 12.4 miles from the volcano. Taking this into account, the current plan to evacuate a five-mile radius around in the event of another eruption seems entirely insufficient. The city of Naples sits outside this zone, for example, but it is only 6.2 miles away.

Wow, so Naples could be the next Pompeii?

Mastrolorenzo believes the victims of Pompeii were killed during a single heat surge from the fourth pyroclastic surge. A few seconds' exposure to the intense heat was enough to kill the villagers immediately. Being inside provided no shelter.

Yep sounds like it.

What implications would this data have for the effects from an eruption of a theoretical "super-volcano"?

news.discovery.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

This is really interesting.

Mt. St. Helens produced a heat wave when it erupted. Of course the 1980's eruption paled in comparison to what Vesuvius must have looked like.

reply to post by fasteronfire


Is there a way to gauge the potential impact of a specific volcano? Does St. Helens have the potential to produce an eruption similar to Vesuvius? I wonder what cities other than Naples could possibly be wiped out with this new info?


[edit on 18-8-2010 by misinformational]

I have been literally obsessed with Pompeii and Vesuvius since I was a young child, yes I was odd .

I agree with the massive expulsion of heat, however I do not know that that is the definitive cause of death. People were able to make an attempt at escape, granted it wasn't in the cards for them, but there was a bit of time there where the village was still alive and trying to survive, not much but time none the less.

Did some searching and found some alarming information about Naples and their emergency/evacuation plan.

First, the plan only entails the "red zone" or within 12KM of the volcano. Second, there are over 3,000,000 people living within 20KM of the volcano.

With these considerations, the possibility of an extremely large catastrophe exist. Pile that on top of the fact, that Pompeii type eruptions are theorized to occur approx. every 2000 yrs, Naples is due for a big one.

EDIT TO ADD:

More info here.

[edit on 18-8-2010 by misinformational]