Mount Vesuvius

Mount Vesuvius is most known for destroying the Roman city of Pompeii in 79 AD.  It is still regarded as one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world and is the only to have erupted in the last 100 years on mainland Europe (the last being in 1944).  It is also the most populated volcanic region on Earth (zoom out to see it) with over 3 million living in surrounding cities.

The massive eruption in 79 AD released 1 cubic mile of ash and rock over the course of 19 hours.  Pompeii wasn't the only city to be buried, as several surrounded the volcano.

For a ton of detailed information, see Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Vesuvius

Mount Vesuvius has erupted more than 50 times since the eruption in 79 AD, when it buried Pompeii and its sister city, Herculaneum. After Pompeii was buried and lost to history, the volcano continued to erupt every 100 years until about 1037 A.D., when it entered a 600-year period of quiescence. In 1631, the volcano killed an additional 4000 unsuspecting inhabitants. It was during the restoration after this eruption that workers discovered the ruins of Pompeii, buried and forgotten for nearly 1600 years. It would take another 300 years for the excavations to reveal the story of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

On the fateful day in August 24th 79 AD, the area around Mount Vesuvius shook with a huge earthquake. The mountain's top split open and a monstrous cloud raced upward. The inhabitants of Pompeii were showered with ash, stones, and pumice. A river of mud was beginning to bury the city of Herculaneum. Pliny the Elder, a commander of a fleet of war ships at close by Misenum. He decided to use his ships to rescue people close to the volcano.

When the site was excavated, it revealed much of what Pompeii looked like in 79 A.D. had been preserved by the ash that had fallen. A bakery oven contained loaves of bread nearly 2000 years old! Victims of Vesuvius were immortalized when their decomposed bodies left cavities in the hardened ash. The cavities were filled with plaster to recreate victims much as they looked at the time of their death.

Mt. Vesuvius has been an alluring sight for me since the first time I landed at Naples’ Capodichino airport and caught a glimpse of it rising dramatically in the distance. It is one of the dangerous and famous volcanoes in the world. During 79 Ad the eruption caused killing peoples of Pompeii and Herculaneum. There is a large city where pwoples are situated under the feets of these mountains.