1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from how 2 00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:13,800 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:17,440 Speaker 1: I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Doughtie, and Atlanta has 4 00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:21,120 Speaker 1: been besieged by rain for what feels like something around 5 00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:23,640 Speaker 1: forty five days, but it's really only been two weeks. 6 00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:27,360 Speaker 1: Two weeks long enough for me, and everything is flooding, 7 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:30,200 Speaker 1: but you know it's worse than flooding, Sarah, I think 8 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:33,640 Speaker 1: I have an idea being rained on with volcanic ash, 9 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:37,720 Speaker 1: which is what happened to Pompeii in a D. Seventy nine. 10 00:00:38,479 --> 00:00:41,080 Speaker 1: Pompeii was founded by the Oskins in the sixth or 11 00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:44,519 Speaker 1: seventh century BC. We're not sure. It was near Naples 12 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:47,319 Speaker 1: in the region of Campania. Was very fertile, lots of 13 00:00:47,400 --> 00:00:50,080 Speaker 1: olives and grain and sheep, Sarah and I are very 14 00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:53,320 Speaker 1: fond of sheep. And it was Greek for a while, 15 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:55,600 Speaker 1: but then Rome took over in about to nine b C. 16 00:00:55,920 --> 00:00:58,160 Speaker 1: And they rebelled in ninety b C. But Celli beat 17 00:00:58,200 --> 00:01:00,640 Speaker 1: them and they became part of a from An empire. 18 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:04,800 Speaker 1: But by seventy nine a d. Pompeii is this bustling 19 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:11,480 Speaker 1: cosmopolitan port city. It has extremely fertile soil, which unfortunately 20 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:15,560 Speaker 1: that's because it's built under a freaking volcano. But it's 21 00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:18,920 Speaker 1: good for agriculture while it lasts, you know. Um. They 22 00:01:18,959 --> 00:01:21,760 Speaker 1: have an aqueduct that supplies fountains in the city and 23 00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:25,440 Speaker 1: homes of the wool industry because of the sheep. Everything's 24 00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:28,680 Speaker 1: going really nice. They have vineyards. UM. I like this 25 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:31,760 Speaker 1: note a lot plenty of the elder said that Pompeian 26 00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:35,479 Speaker 1: wine gives you a really bad hangover, so so none 27 00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:39,160 Speaker 1: of that. Take it easy on the Pompeian wine. Um. 28 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:42,080 Speaker 1: But there's start to be some warning signs around this 29 00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:47,560 Speaker 1: time that Mount Vesuvius Uh is starting to be active again. 30 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:51,960 Speaker 1: There's a huge earthquake seventeen years earlier, and actually at 31 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:55,800 Speaker 1: the time of the volcano explosion, the town hasn't even 32 00:01:55,920 --> 00:01:59,680 Speaker 1: quite recovered from this earth now they're still rebuilding. And 33 00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:03,360 Speaker 1: the year of the volcano there's small earth a small earthquake, 34 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:07,040 Speaker 1: and the wells go dry, and the animals are reported 35 00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:11,000 Speaker 1: to be acting strangely, and the people notice strange waves 36 00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:13,239 Speaker 1: in the ocean that they're not used to seeing. So 37 00:02:13,600 --> 00:02:16,799 Speaker 1: there's an undercurrent of something that's not quite right going on. 38 00:02:17,720 --> 00:02:20,519 Speaker 1: So This brings us to August twenty four in the 39 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:23,440 Speaker 1: year seventy nine, which is when everything starts to go down, 40 00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:25,519 Speaker 1: and we know a lot about what happened on the 41 00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:28,000 Speaker 1: day of the explosion because of an account written by 42 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:31,079 Speaker 1: Plenty of the younger to his friends some years afterwards. 43 00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:34,560 Speaker 1: Um He wrote that he saw a cloud of unusual 44 00:02:34,600 --> 00:02:38,160 Speaker 1: size and appearance, which reminded him of a pine tree, 45 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:40,560 Speaker 1: for it rose to a great height on a sort 46 00:02:40,560 --> 00:02:44,000 Speaker 1: of trunk and then split off into branches. And what 47 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:47,960 Speaker 1: he was describing actually is later termed a plenty In eruption, 48 00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:52,120 Speaker 1: which is a huge column of gas and ash that's 49 00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:56,440 Speaker 1: shot up into the stratosphere by an enormous volcano eruption, 50 00:02:57,120 --> 00:03:01,160 Speaker 1: such as this one with Mount Vesuvius. So August, a 51 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:05,040 Speaker 1: column of smoke appears above the mountain and people are 52 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:09,280 Speaker 1: uneasy because ash and pumice starts falling on Pompeii, and 53 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 1: a bunch of people get the hell out of town. 54 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:15,560 Speaker 1: The people try to try to make it that's not 55 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:19,040 Speaker 1: to sail off them survive, but um, the people who 56 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:21,600 Speaker 1: are taking this as a bad sign ash and pumice 57 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:26,480 Speaker 1: falling leave. The column grows to eighteen miles high and 58 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:29,919 Speaker 1: blocks out the sun. And they're neighboring cities around here 59 00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:31,960 Speaker 1: too that are noticing. And it's not just Pompeii, even 60 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:34,239 Speaker 1: though that's what you usually hear about. We've also got 61 00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:38,400 Speaker 1: Herculaneum and but the others. Uh, I don't know if 62 00:03:38,440 --> 00:03:41,680 Speaker 1: I'm pronouncing this. One writes to Bay to Bay and 63 00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:46,240 Speaker 1: um tour in Unciata, among other little tiny towns. So 64 00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:49,880 Speaker 1: there there's a lot going on in this immediate area. 65 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:52,720 Speaker 1: So the ash and pemmis are still falling, and they're 66 00:03:52,720 --> 00:03:57,160 Speaker 1: falling deeper. People are watching this column grow and more 67 00:03:57,200 --> 00:03:59,680 Speaker 1: people start grabbing your jewelry and their belongings and trying 68 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:02,440 Speaker 1: to flee the city. But at this point it's too late, yeah, 69 00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:06,360 Speaker 1: because by nightfall, the shower of ash and pomis has 70 00:04:06,360 --> 00:04:10,720 Speaker 1: gotten denser and deadlier, and it covers the city nine 71 00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:15,880 Speaker 1: ft deep, which collapses roofs and um. Some of the 72 00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:20,520 Speaker 1: the bodies later discovered or found sheltering under a stairwell 73 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:23,159 Speaker 1: that's collapsed on them. And so a lot of people 74 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:25,680 Speaker 1: are dying in their homes by now, or if they're 75 00:04:25,760 --> 00:04:28,880 Speaker 1: out in the street dying just suffocated by the ash 76 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:31,440 Speaker 1: or burned by it. You can imagine it would be 77 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:33,480 Speaker 1: hard to breathe in a bunch of ash and pumice. 78 00:04:34,080 --> 00:04:36,719 Speaker 1: And then the worst part is still yet to come 79 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:40,520 Speaker 1: on the morning of which is when the column collapses 80 00:04:41,080 --> 00:04:45,960 Speaker 1: and a surge of incredibly hot gas and rocks hits herculaneum. First, 81 00:04:46,080 --> 00:04:49,200 Speaker 1: people are killed instantly from the thermal shock. It's a 82 00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:52,960 Speaker 1: thousand degree heat. It melts the skin and the muscles 83 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:55,599 Speaker 1: from their bodies and it's just skeleton's left. They didn't 84 00:04:55,640 --> 00:04:58,360 Speaker 1: even have time to react. There are no facial expressions 85 00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:03,679 Speaker 1: or anything. Everybody's just buried. Yeah. An earlier eruption amount 86 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:07,560 Speaker 1: Vesuvius and Avelino about two thousand years before this one, 87 00:05:08,120 --> 00:05:13,160 Speaker 1: um had wins at nine hundred degrees fahrenheit and at 88 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:16,480 Speaker 1: two and forty miles per hour. Of the suffocating ash. 89 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:22,000 Speaker 1: It makes your brain boil and your flesh is vaporized 90 00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:26,440 Speaker 1: and your blood is vaporized, and they meld with this uh, 91 00:05:26,480 --> 00:05:29,919 Speaker 1: this volcanic ash to make a concrete or plaster like 92 00:05:30,240 --> 00:05:33,840 Speaker 1: coating on your bones. The groundwater and herculaneum helped too, 93 00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:36,640 Speaker 1: That's why some of it was preserved. And this was 94 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:39,600 Speaker 1: just the first surge. There were multiple surges to follow. 95 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:42,920 Speaker 1: Herculaneum ends up being buried in seventy five feet of 96 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:48,080 Speaker 1: volcanic debris. Herculaneum is completely buried, but Pompeii is not. 97 00:05:48,360 --> 00:05:50,839 Speaker 1: There're still surges left to hit it, and lapalai and 98 00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:54,680 Speaker 1: ash are still falling and burying Pompeians in their home. 99 00:05:55,160 --> 00:05:57,800 Speaker 1: A lot of them are suffocating because no one can 100 00:05:57,839 --> 00:06:01,200 Speaker 1: breathe anymore. The first search to hit Pompeii basically kills 101 00:06:01,200 --> 00:06:04,480 Speaker 1: anyone who's left in the city, but it's followed by 102 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:07,800 Speaker 1: these subsequent surges that continue to coat the city, but 103 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:11,240 Speaker 1: everyone is is dead by them, and even some people 104 00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:13,880 Speaker 1: who managed to get outside the city walls were hit 105 00:06:14,040 --> 00:06:18,000 Speaker 1: by a pyroclastic surge. It's it's volcanoes third surge, but 106 00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:19,719 Speaker 1: it's the first one to hit Pompeii, which is the 107 00:06:19,720 --> 00:06:23,440 Speaker 1: next morning. This whole thing lasted nineteen hours, and so 108 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:26,040 Speaker 1: at the end of it all, Pompeii is buried under palmice, 109 00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:29,440 Speaker 1: stones and ash nineteen to twenty three ft deep, which 110 00:06:29,920 --> 00:06:34,200 Speaker 1: is bad for trying to rebuild the city. Emperor Titus 111 00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:37,440 Speaker 1: declared it an emergency zone and offered funds. It's all 112 00:06:37,560 --> 00:06:42,000 Speaker 1: very modern sounding offers funds to help with cleanup and recovery, 113 00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:44,279 Speaker 1: but there's not anything you can really do about a 114 00:06:44,279 --> 00:06:49,160 Speaker 1: city buried under twenty three ft of ash, so it's quickly, um, 115 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:54,680 Speaker 1: quickly forgotten, then lost. That fertile soil miss covers it 116 00:06:54,800 --> 00:06:59,720 Speaker 1: and people start farming eventually, and um, no one really 117 00:06:59,760 --> 00:07:02,680 Speaker 1: thinks about Pompeii. It disappears from the map for about 118 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:07,200 Speaker 1: seventeen hundred years until the late sixteenth century when an 119 00:07:07,279 --> 00:07:12,720 Speaker 1: architect named Domenico Fontana discovered some of the ruins and 120 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:18,040 Speaker 1: work at these archaeological sites in Pompeii and Herculaneum actually 121 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:22,080 Speaker 1: ends up being sort of the start of modern archaeology 122 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:27,000 Speaker 1: and some of the techniques we think about of modern archaeologists, 123 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:30,920 Speaker 1: with the grid system and the little tools and methodically 124 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:37,080 Speaker 1: charting and removing artifacts. It didn't necessarily always go like that, 125 00:07:37,560 --> 00:07:42,240 Speaker 1: and you know, in fact, the early digging was pretty haphazard, 126 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:45,520 Speaker 1: and it wasn't until the eighteen sixties when an Italian 127 00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:50,120 Speaker 1: archaeologist named gspp Fiorelli became the director and really kind 128 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:53,560 Speaker 1: of tightened up the operation. And before that people have 129 00:07:53,760 --> 00:07:56,520 Speaker 1: just been taking things like taking artwork and cutting off 130 00:07:56,520 --> 00:07:58,560 Speaker 1: frescoes and then framing it and sticking in their living 131 00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:00,800 Speaker 1: room like okay, I gotta go from. But the Queen 132 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:03,720 Speaker 1: of Naples helped sponsor the digs because she wanted some 133 00:08:03,880 --> 00:08:07,440 Speaker 1: nice ancient statutory for her for her home. So it 134 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:10,800 Speaker 1: was just sort of, you know, free cool ancient stuff 135 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:15,520 Speaker 1: for the picking. Really intense excavation resumed after World War two, 136 00:08:16,160 --> 00:08:20,840 Speaker 1: and by nine it was declared a World Heritage and 137 00:08:20,880 --> 00:08:24,600 Speaker 1: there's actually still lots of Pompeii that hasn't been uncovered. 138 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:27,280 Speaker 1: Some of it they want to stay covered in general, 139 00:08:27,360 --> 00:08:29,800 Speaker 1: but they did find lots of cool stuff when they 140 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:32,360 Speaker 1: were looking well, and they want some of it to 141 00:08:32,360 --> 00:08:36,720 Speaker 1: stay covered because it once it's exposed, obviously, it's exposed 142 00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:40,280 Speaker 1: to all of the things and protested from here, you know, 143 00:08:40,280 --> 00:08:46,080 Speaker 1: whether that's rain or other weather, or just tourists walking 144 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:48,600 Speaker 1: around and touching things. So remember if you go that 145 00:08:48,640 --> 00:08:52,319 Speaker 1: Pompeii is an open air museum and please stop touching everything. 146 00:08:53,559 --> 00:08:56,240 Speaker 1: So what are some of the cool things they found 147 00:08:56,240 --> 00:08:59,320 Speaker 1: in Pompeii. Well, the coolest thing that we were talking 148 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:02,360 Speaker 1: about earlier as the private homes, because a lot of 149 00:09:02,360 --> 00:09:05,480 Speaker 1: times when a civilization falls or is destroyed, what you'll 150 00:09:05,520 --> 00:09:08,600 Speaker 1: find are the giant monuments and they did find some 151 00:09:08,679 --> 00:09:10,880 Speaker 1: of that. Yeah, they're paying. There are plenty of temples 152 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:17,000 Speaker 1: and of sports fields, amphitheaters, government buildings, public them. You know, 153 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:19,640 Speaker 1: things that you you would even find in modern cities 154 00:09:19,679 --> 00:09:22,200 Speaker 1: because they're would make it two thousand years they're what people, 155 00:09:22,760 --> 00:09:25,640 Speaker 1: you know, try to preserve and keep up um. But 156 00:09:25,960 --> 00:09:30,559 Speaker 1: private homes usually you don't find a two thousand year 157 00:09:30,559 --> 00:09:33,080 Speaker 1: old house, you know. Sarah and I were talking about 158 00:09:33,080 --> 00:09:35,360 Speaker 1: if something happened to Atlanta, what they would they would 159 00:09:35,440 --> 00:09:37,840 Speaker 1: call our houses because a lot of these are very 160 00:09:37,840 --> 00:09:40,760 Speaker 1: descriptive names, like the House of the Golden Bracelet based 161 00:09:40,800 --> 00:09:42,920 Speaker 1: on the House of the silver wedding sound, and the 162 00:09:42,960 --> 00:09:45,360 Speaker 1: mine would be the Apartment of cat Hair, and mine was, 163 00:09:45,480 --> 00:09:50,320 Speaker 1: unfortunately the House of the Ceiling Mushroom also due to 164 00:09:50,360 --> 00:09:54,800 Speaker 1: the rain. Hopefully and your landlord, hopefully of volcano doesn't 165 00:09:54,960 --> 00:09:58,479 Speaker 1: preserve this moment in time. But the houses in Pompeii 166 00:09:58,559 --> 00:10:01,760 Speaker 1: were lovely, especial like if you were wealthy, because they 167 00:10:01,800 --> 00:10:07,120 Speaker 1: had these huge private gardens and courtyards, really elaborate frescoes, 168 00:10:07,160 --> 00:10:10,240 Speaker 1: some of which were very erotic, which the King of 169 00:10:10,360 --> 00:10:12,840 Speaker 1: Naples was not happy about. He had them hidden for 170 00:10:12,960 --> 00:10:17,319 Speaker 1: years and years. Yeah, the pat deity of um Pompeii 171 00:10:17,360 --> 00:10:19,920 Speaker 1: was Venus, so it's not too surprising that there were 172 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:25,560 Speaker 1: all these suggestion very fellow centric art. But we get 173 00:10:25,600 --> 00:10:29,839 Speaker 1: a really great record of several centuries worth of domestic 174 00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:32,640 Speaker 1: architecture from this time, because some of the houses in Pompei, 175 00:10:32,760 --> 00:10:37,959 Speaker 1: especially the older, more lavish homes, are about four hundred 176 00:10:38,080 --> 00:10:41,240 Speaker 1: years old when they're destroyed, and a lot of them 177 00:10:41,280 --> 00:10:45,080 Speaker 1: had modern conveniences, which might be surprising. Rooms were heated 178 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:48,280 Speaker 1: by hot air running through cavities in the walls, and 179 00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:51,400 Speaker 1: there were spaces under the floors and hydraulic pumps that 180 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:55,200 Speaker 1: gave running water. And we also get some nice touches 181 00:10:55,320 --> 00:11:00,600 Speaker 1: of but not quite so luxurious life there little inns 182 00:11:00,720 --> 00:11:06,520 Speaker 1: catering to lower class clientele. Um, there's graffiti written on 183 00:11:06,840 --> 00:11:09,200 Speaker 1: love house. The graffiti is alsome. I read one thing 184 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:13,360 Speaker 1: that said the largely windowless fronts of the houses were 185 00:11:13,400 --> 00:11:16,520 Speaker 1: like the perfect temptation for graffiti on the streets. But 186 00:11:16,880 --> 00:11:20,080 Speaker 1: there was all kinds of stuff, um, love you know, 187 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:22,640 Speaker 1: a little so and so, love so and so, and 188 00:11:23,440 --> 00:11:28,680 Speaker 1: a debate between which is better blondes or brunettes, and 189 00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:35,679 Speaker 1: even gladiatorial announcements, which one was calling Selidous the Thracian 190 00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:41,320 Speaker 1: the lady's choice. Well, well, Selidus, and it's it's just 191 00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:44,160 Speaker 1: really cool because most of that stuff doesn't last. When 192 00:11:44,160 --> 00:11:46,800 Speaker 1: you're an archaeologist, you don't often get to see graffiti 193 00:11:46,880 --> 00:11:49,520 Speaker 1: from the Roman Empire. Yeah, but it kind of humanizes 194 00:11:49,600 --> 00:11:51,920 Speaker 1: the people who live there and gives you an idea 195 00:11:51,920 --> 00:11:55,040 Speaker 1: of daily life, which is, you know, interesting to people 196 00:11:55,080 --> 00:11:59,000 Speaker 1: like us. How do people live in sev know, so 197 00:11:59,120 --> 00:12:01,720 Speaker 1: all of this you maybe not so much the um 198 00:12:02,440 --> 00:12:07,600 Speaker 1: Pompeii and graffiti, but the fancy houses, the frescoes, the mosaics, 199 00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:11,520 Speaker 1: all of this really influences European taste, much like later 200 00:12:11,960 --> 00:12:17,640 Speaker 1: archaeological excavations in Egypt would. Um new Classical revival kind 201 00:12:17,640 --> 00:12:22,360 Speaker 1: of comes up replaces the fully Coco. We even have 202 00:12:22,480 --> 00:12:27,520 Speaker 1: Marie Antoinette getting her Fontainebleu apartment decorated in a Pompeii 203 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:32,320 Speaker 1: and style, and it became part of the quintessential grand 204 00:12:32,400 --> 00:12:34,840 Speaker 1: tour to go and see Pompeii when you were doing 205 00:12:34,840 --> 00:12:41,120 Speaker 1: your little European trap and Vesuvius today is actually still 206 00:12:41,160 --> 00:12:43,600 Speaker 1: a problem which we didn't know. You might want to 207 00:12:43,640 --> 00:12:46,240 Speaker 1: think before you make it part of your grand store 208 00:12:46,280 --> 00:12:49,440 Speaker 1: to day, or if you're thinking of moving to Naples, 209 00:12:49,520 --> 00:12:53,000 Speaker 1: maybe don't so. Vesuvius is a strato volcano. It's tall, 210 00:12:53,080 --> 00:12:56,000 Speaker 1: and it's mountainous, and it's also on the edge of 211 00:12:56,040 --> 00:12:59,960 Speaker 1: the Eurasian Plate which collides with the Africa Plate quite 212 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:05,760 Speaker 1: it often. And the last enormous subplenty interruption not not 213 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:10,079 Speaker 1: quite the size of Pompeii, but the last sizeable eruption 214 00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:13,240 Speaker 1: was in sixteen thirty one, and after that there were 215 00:13:13,240 --> 00:13:17,319 Speaker 1: a few centuries worth of lava streams and just little 216 00:13:17,320 --> 00:13:21,680 Speaker 1: bits of activity UM. And the last relatively small eruption 217 00:13:21,720 --> 00:13:25,040 Speaker 1: was in nineteen forty four. But this is kind of 218 00:13:25,080 --> 00:13:28,560 Speaker 1: the scary part. For the past twenty five thousand years, 219 00:13:28,600 --> 00:13:32,640 Speaker 1: and they can they know this from UM geological records. 220 00:13:33,040 --> 00:13:37,280 Speaker 1: The stuvious has had these catastrophic plenty in eruptions on 221 00:13:37,320 --> 00:13:42,800 Speaker 1: the scale of Pompeii nearly every two thousand years. Pompey 222 00:13:42,920 --> 00:13:48,400 Speaker 1: was the last major eruption eight seventy nine, which Katy 223 00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:52,480 Speaker 1: and I were calculating. This is about two thousand years 224 00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:56,480 Speaker 1: years ago, and three million people live in Naples today. 225 00:13:56,640 --> 00:14:01,240 Speaker 1: And if evacuation was a problem in a d seventy 226 00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:04,600 Speaker 1: nine Pompeii. I can't imagine what it would be like, 227 00:14:04,679 --> 00:14:06,960 Speaker 1: no the scale if that would be today. They have 228 00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:12,920 Speaker 1: drills and emergency procedures in place, and obviously our um 229 00:14:13,080 --> 00:14:17,720 Speaker 1: geology knowledge is a lot more extensive and hopefully we'd 230 00:14:17,720 --> 00:14:20,760 Speaker 1: be able to get a sizeable warning, but it's still 231 00:14:21,120 --> 00:14:23,920 Speaker 1: a rather unsettling thought thing to think about. The studious 232 00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:27,480 Speaker 1: is monitored around the clock by geologists, but it's it's 233 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:29,600 Speaker 1: still a little scary to think of a modern Pompeii. 234 00:14:29,760 --> 00:14:32,360 Speaker 1: So don't be the house with cat hair. If you are, 235 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:36,640 Speaker 1: get your stream off the ceiling before you're preserved in time. 236 00:14:37,400 --> 00:14:39,920 Speaker 1: So if you'd like to learn more about the volcanoes 237 00:14:39,960 --> 00:14:42,760 Speaker 1: and ancient history, head over to our home page and 238 00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:45,600 Speaker 1: check out the blog while you're at it at www 239 00:14:45,760 --> 00:14:49,120 Speaker 1: dot how stuff works dot com. For more on this 240 00:14:49,320 --> 00:14:53,200 Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com. 241 00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:55,440 Speaker 1: Let us know what you think. Send an email to 242 00:14:55,560 --> 00:14:58,560 Speaker 1: podcast at how stuff works dot com and be sure 243 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:00,560 Speaker 1: to check out the stuff you missed in sstry glass 244 00:15:00,600 --> 00:15:11,040 Speaker 1: blot on the House to works dot com home. Pete M.