Vesuvius Buries Pompeii and Herculaneum
Mount Vesuvius, Campania, Italy
ESTIMATED70% CONFIDENCEThe day is genuinely disputed: "The large majority of extant medieval manuscript copies ... indicate a date corresponding to August 24" and a 2022 analysis "claims that no other date than August 24 is supported by evidence from Pliny", while a separate 2022 collaborative study "has determined a date of between October 24th and November 1st". The traditional 24 August is taken here and flagged estimated.[1]
Mount Vesuvius threw a column of superheated ash and gas 33 km into the sky, then collapsed it into pyroclastic surges that buried Pompeii and Herculaneum. The remains of more than 1,500 people have been recovered from the two towns.
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