Mount Vesuvius, a sleeping giant and of the only active volcanoes located on the west coast of Italy, erupted on August 24th, 79AD covering the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum “to a depth of more than 14 to 17 feet of pumice, volcanic ash, and debris. Vesuvius is located above a subduction zone form where the African plate descends beneath Italy. Magma produced from the melting African plate creates the large violently explosive volcanoes of the Italian Peninsula.” (Ball) Due to the fact that seismic activity was so common in the area, people did not pay much attention when several quakes shook the earth beneath Herculaneum and Pompeii and were unprepared for the explosion that took place killing more than 16,000 people. I will be responsible for the atmospheric effects that resulted from the volcano’s eruption. At noon on August 24th, Vesuvius exploded, impelling a 10 mile mushroom cloud of ash and pumice into the stratosphere. For the next 12 hours, volcanic ash and a hail of pumice stones up to 3 …show more content…
The pyroclastic eruption created a huge mushroom cloud consisting of three regions. The first region consisted of the gas thrust, the second consisted of the convective, and finally the umbrella region. In the gas thrust region, expanding gas in the magma determines the type of eruption and magnitude of the explosion before the magma ascends from the magma chamber. The convective region, directly above the gas thrust region is to a hot air balloon. Just like a hot air balloon, the plume retains its resistance by the heating of entrained air. The tephra, ash, and atmospheric gases remain airborne in the plume since their combined density is the less than that of the ambient atmosphere. Lastly, the umbrella region, or top of the plume, is the point in which the plume has equal density to the surrounding atmosphere and begins to horizontally spread and resemble a mushroom