woodchurch science

when the eruption of vesuvius started on the morning of 24 august, ad 79, it caught the local population utterly unprepared. at the same time, as we now know in retrospect, all the tell-tale signs were there to warn them. volcanologists of today constantly monitor any changes in levels of seismic activity from an observatory on vesuvius, because they know that the same increase of activity in the deep reservoir of magma (molten or partially molten rock beneath the earth’s surface) causes both earth tremors and volcanic eruptions. through measuring seismic activity, these scientists expect to predict an approaching eruption months in advance.

the casts that you see below were made by 20th century archaeologists of the people, frozen in their moments of death. they are a haunting reminder of what nature can do.




This entry was posted on Monday, May 28th, 2007 at 1:06 pm and is filed under C1b, chemistry, earth materials, ks4, warren, y10. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.