Pompeii Day 2

One of our professors has worked on archaeology at Pompeii the past couple of years, so we spent a second day at Pompeii, whereas past years they've traveled to other locations in Campania. Here's some of what I saw second day, as well as some photos from the modern city Pompeii:

A boat

Ancient oven for baking bread

Ancient mirror

House of the Fawn

And one more dead guy

Two story house, beautifully preserved

Paris!

Nice car...I wouldn't fit, but still nice

So here's the deal with Pompeii, since I'm sure you've been wondering. Vesuvius is very much active. There was an earthquake about 20 years ago, which means an eruption is due at any time (same time frame as the eruption in 79 CE). When it does go, there's lots of problems. Time frame for you, based on the 79 CE explosion:

Noon Day 1-Vesuvius erupts with giant cloud of gas and stone, complete darkness beneath cloud

4-6 am Day 2- Stones fall from cloud at rate of 6 inches an hour (small stones), roofs collapse, lightning and earthquakes as well, eventually, cloud collapses, surges of hot gas and ash flow over and through surrounding area. 

8 am Day 2- After several more surges of gas, reaching temperatures of 212-750 Fº, the eruption reaches its climax. In total about 6 ft of debris in some spots, for a radius of 60 miles around the volcano. 

When the 79 eruption happened, it took about 20 hours for the eruption to reach its peak and then to begin to cool down, although there is belief minor activity continued for several days afterwards. However, people die with the first wave of hot gas and ash, at 4 am, so in reality there's only 16 hours before everyone dies, give or take an hour or two. The current population that would be affected by an eruption from Vesuvius is about 1,000,000 people. Ergo, if Vesuvius starts to go, 1 million people will need to evacuate the area in less than 16 hours, and even that's being generous on time. It's scary to think that this will happen in our lifetime, but if the geologists are right, it should be in the next 10-15 years at most. The government has tried to encourage people to move elsewhere, but if you had the prime real estate, would you move for an eruption that may or may not ever happen? Scary stuff, and it's easily preventable if people would heed warnings. On that cheery note, goodnight!