WEBVTT - How Pompeii Worked 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.760 Hey, everybody, we're going on tour in eighteen, and where 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.320 are we going? On April four, we're going to be 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:08.600 in Boston at the Wilburg. You can get tickets at 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:11.600 the Wilber dot com, Chuck. And then on April five, 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:13.800 we're gonna be in d C at the Lincoln Theater 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:15.640 and you can get tickets for that at ticket fly 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:17.680 that's right. And then we're going to two new cities, 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.920 right yep. On May we're gonna be in St. Louis. 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:23.480 You can get tickets on ticket Master. And on May 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:25.640 twenty three, we're gonna be in Cleveland and you can 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:28.120 get tickets there at playhouse Square dot org. And then 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:30.159 there's one more, Chuck, that's right. We're gonna wrap it 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:34.160 up in Denver, specifically Inglewood, Colorado at the Gothic Theater 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:37.560 on June and possibly adding a show on the twenty seven. 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:39.760 Stay tuned for that, yep. And you can get ticks 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:42.680 at a x S dot com. So come see us live. 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:47.000 We'll have a good time. Come on out. Welcome to 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:57.080 Stuff you should know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:02.120 and welcome to the podcast. I'm josh Ark. There's Charles W. Chuck. Bryant. 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:06.959 There's Jerry over there. We're all wearing togas, which makes 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:11.960 this stuff. You should know, the Ancient Roman edition or 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:16.560 the Animal House edition. Yeah, it could be. I'm blueto. 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:22.000 I just saw that that movie, that Netflix movie about 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:26.320 Oh yeah, Doug Kenny and then Lampoon. Is it good? Well, 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:32.759 the documentary is better? Oh is this like a biopic? Uh? Yeah, 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:36.960 I mean yeah, it's a movie movie. I got you. Yeah, 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:40.679 I judge my UM. What I watch on Netflix just 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:43.920 based on like the illustration or the drawing or the art. 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:46.920 And sometimes that's a good rule of thumb, in other 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:49.400 times it's not. But that one I kind of avoided 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:52.520 it because of the art. Yeah, I mean it's not great. 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.560 I kind of enjoyed it because I like all the 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:58.760 people and it's kind of fun seeing someone be Bill 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:01.320 Murray and someone beach I E. Chase and John Belushi 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:03.840 in a little bit of the making of Animal House 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:07.040 and Caddyshack. But ultimately the documentary is much better. What's 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:12.720 the name of the documentary, um a drunk, stoned, brilliant dead, 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:15.359 or some combination of those words. I'm not sure I've 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.639 come across that. Yeah, that's that's really good, but brilliant 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:22.040 and feudal gesture. Feudal and stupid gesture. Yeah, that's right, 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:27.040 is uh? I give it two stars. I don't know 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:30.120 how out of how many, though, I've just been steady 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.720 consuming Riff tracks as fast as they'll clear him on 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:38.400 Amazon Prime. Really, yeah, that stuff never gets old. It 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:42.720 really doesn't. It really really doesn't. All right, Chuck. Now 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:46.200 that we've gotten our initial tangent a k a. The 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:51.320 introduction out of the way recommended viewing, right, Um, let's 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:56.480 talk POMPEII. Yeah, because I mean that's what we're doing today. 0:02:56.480 --> 0:03:00.560 And frankly, it's two thousand and eighteen. We been doing 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:03.320 this for almost a decade. Now we're coming up on 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.240 a decade in a few months April. Yeah, and we 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:10.480 this is the first we're doing on Pompeii. And that 0:03:10.720 --> 0:03:13.280 is just utterly mind blowing to me. It really is, 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:19.720 considering we've done shows on both volcanoes and super volcanoes. Um, 0:03:19.800 --> 0:03:26.120 and our our show on tiny volcanoes all right, Little 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:30.000 is the Littlest volcano that was so good. It is 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.080 weird that we're finally getting around to us. Yeah, it 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:34.760 really is. Because we've also done like the Seven Wonders. 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:38.440 We've done tons of archaeology stuff. It's it's strange. We 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:41.920 did one on the real Atlantis. Remember that one. Nope, 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:44.120 it was a good one. You should go back and 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:49.120 listen to it. Yeah. Yeah, I was like, oh, Monopoly, 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:51.000 we haven't done one on that and looked it up, 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:52.800 and yet we sure have. I do remember that one. 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:57.480 I was scouring my brain like, okay, what what was 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:00.200 this episode? Like? What did we talk about? Not? Then 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.880 it's like it never happened. I mean, maybe we should 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:05.680 just go back and re record some of these for 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:10.640 our own benefit. Okay, reboot our own show, right just 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:15.800 for us. So um, okay, well, we are finally talking POMPEII, 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:19.000 and to do that, we have to go back the 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:23.600 way Back machine and we should probably bring helmets and 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:28.000 the dog attack outfits that those those trainers wear. Yeah, 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:30.279 and also we need to fuel the way Back with 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:33.520 olive oil on this trip. Let's we need to retrofit 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:36.080 it because we'll be in big trouble if we don't. Well, 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:38.880 let's use the good stuff, like the really high grade stuff, 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:41.360 because it burns my throat. I like the mid grade 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:43.880 e v O O. So let's save that for eating, 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:47.479 use the high test stuff for traveling. Oh you don't 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:51.280 like really get alive wood. No, I don't. I want 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:53.080 to say that I do, but I don't. It burns 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:58.160 my throat. Yeah, like when you just do shots of it. Yea, 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:01.680 maybe that's the problem. Shot of olive oil, shot of 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:07.120 crank case soil. Well, you know what they say, olive 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:10.920 oil before crank case oil never sicker. No, it's the other. 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:20.320 Oh god, alright, So we're in the way back machine. 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:24.359 We have our our rescue gear. We have our olive oil. 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:28.800 It's our dog attack gear. Sure why because the dogs there? No, 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:31.800 because of the falling pummice in stone that's about to 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:35.120 hit the area. Yeah, but there. I just wondered because 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:37.960 the very famously was a cast of a dog. And 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.520 there's actually a very famous mosaic that says cave conum, 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:46.880 which is aware of dog. So yeah, there are dogs there. Well, 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:51.200 good thing, we got that suit right in our nice dispositions. 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:55.480 Good dog. Okay, So we're we're here. It's pretty nice. 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:58.760 It's a very nice area. It's pretty well populated. This 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:02.360 is Pompeii itself, and Pompeii is one of several towns 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:04.960 right around here on the Bay of Naples. And if 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:09.800 you look up over here, that giant, almost cartoonishly volcanic 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:15.360 volcano over there, that's Vesuvious. It's like an eight year 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:18.080 old drew a volcano and put it in Italy at 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:21.520 the Bay of Naples by Naples, and uh, that's it. 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:27.120 That's that's vesuvious. It's a it's what's called a strato volcano. 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:31.240 That's right. Uh, And well, I guess we should. You 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:36.320 can go back and listen to volcanoes from December two 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:40.159 thousand ten or super volcanoes just last April. But for 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:42.279 those of you don't know, a strato volcano is sort 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:46.159 of if you think about the just the run of 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:50.280 the mill traditional volcano and a cartoon where it just 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:54.559 pops like a champagne bottle, that's a strato volcano. Yeah, 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:58.240 And it's it's actually just built up from previous explosions. 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:00.839 So the very presence of a strato Voultan cano indicates 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:03.279 that there's been a lot of activity in that area 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:06.280 and it's blown straight up into the air and then 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:08.279 come down and settle down around it, and now you 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:10.800 have a new layer and it just builds up as 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:13.560 a cone. And the thing about the strato volcanoes, like 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:15.880 you said, it pops like a cork. The reason it 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:18.640 does that is because the lava that's kind of slowly 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:22.720 growing and building up over time, UM has gases that 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:25.480 it seeps into the rock, the surrounding rock that makes 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:30.000 up the volcano, right and Um. When those gases finally 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:33.200 overcome a certain threshold, the pressure threshold, that's when that 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:37.160 cork goes off. And it's about to happen, because it's 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:46.760 either August or September or October, and we're here in Pompeii. Yeah, 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:49.160 and we should also mention to you there are other 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:53.040 volcanoes around if you look around, because this isn't a 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:58.160 unique area of Europe. That is called the companion arc. Uh, 0:07:58.200 --> 0:07:59.920 And there are quite a few, well not quite a few, 0:07:59.920 --> 0:08:04.440 but there are several volcanoes. Vesuvius obviously the most active 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:08.960 and deadly um and famous. But uh, what the companion 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:13.920 arc is or companion is there's a process called subduction 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:17.600 where basically a tectonic plate bumps up against another one 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:21.480 and moves down into the mantle beneath the other plate. 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:24.320 And that's what's going on here where the African plate 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:27.840 is meeting the Eurasian plate. Right, so there's like all 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:30.960 that um hot molten earth that's kind of bubbling up 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:33.920 through that seam. And one of those holes is the 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:37.760 volcano that we know as Vesuvius. Right, Yes, okay, so 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:40.000 we got here just in time to look around for 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:42.360 a little bit and kind of take in the the 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:47.560 culture of the area before the volcano. It is very nice. 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:52.080 It was like a very very wealthy town, but not 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:54.560 really an important town as far as the Roman Empire 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.760 was concerned, but there were there was an inordinate amount 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:02.800 of wealthy people, and those wealthy people were inordinately wealthy. Um, 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:05.040 and they spend a lot of money on the town. 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:09.600 There's lots of statues everywhere. There's a good number of temples. Um. 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:13.320 There's one to isis. Uh, there's one a Jupiter. Um. 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:17.600 There's a big amphitheater and a big theater as well, 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:21.679 two separate things. Yeah, there's one that holds twenty thou people, 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.280 which um at its peak, that's how many people lived 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:28.800 in Pompeii, which is a very democratic thing to do 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:33.040 to say that, hey, uh, we're gonna host a show 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:35.480 here and we want everyone to be able to come right, 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:37.760 and and that that's pretty cool that they did do 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:40.800 that because there's a pretty mixed population in Pompeii at 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:45.520 the time, Pompeii and suburban Pompeii, which included Herculaneum, uh, 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:51.480 Stabia and um, what was the other one, Chuck, there's 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:58.559 uh plazas plazas aplanis okay, Okay, So there's a string 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:00.840 of towns, but Pompeii is to finally the biggest of 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:03.240 all of them, and that's kind of like the center 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.440 of the area, right, But there's a lot of different people, 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:08.679 a lot of different type of people who were kind 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:11.840 of who kind of gravitated towards Pompeii. It was like 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:15.280 a cosmopolitan area, right, So you had wealthy people, you 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:18.319 have poor people, you have people from different areas. That's right. 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:22.240 And it was also kind of unique for its time 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:24.320 and that it was it was a bit of a 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:31.000 resort town, so wealthy people all around Italy. Actually some 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:33.679 of them would have I guess what you would call 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:36.440 it now would be a vacation home. Uh. And that 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:38.840 kind of got me down a rabbit hole of vacationing, 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:41.000 Like when did that actually begin? Because I had no 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:46.480 idea that the people of ancient Italy vacation. Yeah, but 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:49.000 apparently it's the thing. And even Nero is said to 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:52.240 maybe have had a place at Pompeii. Uh And I 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:54.000 guess it's just you know, the weather here is lovely. 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.600 There's wine and olive oil everywhere. Like I said, that 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:00.320 big theater they built that and said one day Pink 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:04.160 Floyd shall play here. Man, I watched that Echoes video 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:07.280 like ten times while I was researching this. It's pretty cool. 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:08.960 For those of you who don't know, Pink Floyd did 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:14.880 a very famous live concert, um, well not concert concert 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:19.920 for no one, a live performance um in front of whatever, 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:23.040 fifteen crew people that were filming it. Yeah, in the 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:26.840 middle of the Amphitheater at Pompeii. Yeah. It's a little trippy, Yeah, 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:31.240 just a dad um. But then David Gilmore a couple 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:33.040 of years ago, um, I think in two thousand and 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:36.400 sixteen did a show there with actual people there and 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:40.600 it was the first con like attended concert event there 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:44.440 since you know the volcano in Its really cool since 0:11:44.600 --> 0:11:47.400 the v I Yeah, but and that also is will 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.000 kind of see in a little while. That really gives 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:56.280 away like just how accessible Pompeii is the excavated ruined city. 0:11:56.440 --> 0:12:02.000 Um that you could go see a David Gilmour concert there. Yeah. Um, 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:05.040 Like I said, wine and olive oil was kind of 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:07.199 one of the main trades. But it was just a 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:11.920 a very rich farmland area because that volcanic soil is 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:15.520 so rich in nutrients. And they were right there by 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:19.000 the water with the Sarno River and then right there 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:23.080 on the bay, and they just like life live in 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:26.800 life there was pretty good and even the slaves apparently 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:29.920 could earn money and potentially even by their freedom, which 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:33.720 was pretty unusual. Um. I have to say, also, you 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:35.680 mean and I went to Pompeii, as I've told you, 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:39.400 and I can attest about that that farmland and the 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:43.760 fertility of it. They have lemons, no joke, the size 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:46.679 of your head, Like they look like you shouldn't you 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:48.920 shouldn't stand too close to them. What do you do 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:51.679 with that much? I don't, I don't know. I mean 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:55.400 make lemonade, I guess if you're an optimist. Yeah, but 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:57.840 it's just like you get one lemon and you've really 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:01.760 got fourteen lemons pretty much. Mm hmm. I think you're 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:05.280 just slowly but surely cut away at it, squeeze it 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:09.560 into your face, pick up another piece, do it again. Gotcha? 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:15.160 Should we take a break? I think that we weren't 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:17.480 ready for a break yet until that last joke, and 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:20.120 now we are. Okay, So yeah, all right, we'll be 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:23.280 back right after this and talk a little bit about 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:34.800 the v I. Watch my sk but you should know 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:50.040 sk alright, Chuck, what is the v I? The volcano 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:54.479 incidet Oh? Okay, I didn't realize it had been abbreviated. 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:57.160 Or the b O the big one. That's a good 0:13:57.160 --> 0:14:00.240 one too, So let's go with the let's go with 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:04.440 the b oh okay. So um Pompey. It's this nice 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:07.760 driving city of twenty thousands. It's a resort area to 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:14.840 um and on. I guess the morning of August, and 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:17.600 we should say that date is actually up for debate. Well, 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:19.400 I guess we'll talk about it a little more later, 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:22.280 but we're going with August because that's the date that's 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:27.479 still in use. Um there was a rumble from Vesuvius. 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:29.440 There was an earthquake in the area enough to like 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:33.720 get everybody's attention, but supposedly that wasn't a very infrequent 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:38.720 occurrence that that Vesuvius caused earthquakes pretty pretty frequently in 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:41.400 the region, and it wasn't a big cause of panic. Yeah, 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:44.920 Like one reason so many people died because I think 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:47.800 because they were used to that kind of activity and 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:49.520 they were like a big deal, We're used to the 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:53.200 earth moving under our feet. No reason to flee the town, right. 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:56.760 There have been a pretty substantial earthquake sixteen years before 0:14:56.760 --> 0:15:00.800 and I think sixty three CE, where they had to 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:03.920 reconstruct a lot of stuff, like entire temples and things 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:07.040 have been knocked out. So I'm sure they were like, 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:12.520 that's nothing compared to old sixty three, the quakes sixty three. Yeah. Yeah, 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:16.800 and they also, um, they weren't panicked because they are 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:21.160 the previous eruptions no one really knew about. There were 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:24.320 no records of those. There wasn't even they didn't even 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:27.320 say volcano. There wasn't a word for volcano, right, So 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:30.960 it wasn't really on their radar as Hey, this thing 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:34.960 has happened before on a grand scale. Uh. They were 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:37.520 just kind of enjoying their life. Yeah. There weren't cartoons 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:41.320 back then to be like that's a cartoonishly volcanic volcano 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:44.600 that's right. So they that's kind of ironic too that 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:46.920 they didn't realize that there was a long history of 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:51.080 volcanic activity there, because it turns out that modern volcanologists 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:55.080 and geologists and archaeologists are pretty sure that there are 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:58.800 plenty of human settlements that were covered over by the 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:02.720 volcano that by the time Pompeii was built, it was 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:05.800 built atop these old settlements that have been covered over. 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:09.800 So it's like lost city thanks to the volcano. Everybody forgets. 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:11.920 Somebody's like, oh, this is a nice area, will come 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:15.280 build here, covered over by volcano. Everybody forgets in the 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.800 cycle repeats again, and that's where Pompeii found itself and 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:25.200 by s and so on this day the earth rumbles 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:28.240 And I want to direct you to this really great 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:31.960 website called open Culture and just search Destruction of Pompeii 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:34.400 Open Culture, and they have a video it's like eight 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:37.280 minutes long, which is basically like a It's like they 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:40.440 placed a camera in the c g I world of 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:45.040 um Pompeii just and trained it on Vesuvius and left 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:48.800 it running for twenty four hours. And um, it really 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:51.680 gets to point across of how destructive this this event 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:53.760 would have been. Yeah, I think we I think you 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:56.800 shouted that very same thing out on super Volcanoes. Had 0:16:56.840 --> 0:16:59.320 to have It's a really cool video. If you have 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:01.600 you seen it, Yeah, yeah, I saw it after you 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:04.600 shouted it out. Yeah. I watched it again this morning, 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:07.040 and I think just from researching all of this stuff, 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:09.440 that really drove it home even more. It was kind 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:12.720 of unsettling to watch this time, you know for sure. 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:19.119 So uh, a little afternoon on is when this, um, 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:23.640 when this when the champagne cork popped. Uh. And they 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:26.840 were not ready for this. Uh, Like we said, just 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:30.080 because of all the aforementioned reasons. Um. And the only 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:33.760 account or one of the only accounts we have is 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:37.119 we've talked about Plenty the Elder and his nephew, Plenty 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:41.080 the Younger before. Uh, they were not there. They were 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:45.600 in my see Him, which is not too far away. 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:47.840 It was on the northwestern edge of the Bay of Naples, 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:50.879 but that's where Plenty the Elder was stationed. And then 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:53.639 Plenty of the younger and his mom were there as well. Uh. 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:57.040 And apparently when this started to go down, Um, Plenty 0:17:57.080 --> 0:18:00.240 the Elder got a message from a friend saying, hey, 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:03.880 can you come and get me. It's going down. And 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:07.040 he took off to go, and plenty the younger was like, no, 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:10.560 I'm gonna stay here, which was a pretty smart move. Yeah, 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:12.960 and and what how do you pronounce that town? I 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:17.600 never tried my scene him? Is that right? Okay? So 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:21.439 he and his mom were there, and it's not really close. 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:25.320 I mean, as far as like Pompeii is concerned. Pompei 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:28.320 is way closer to Vesuvius than mycene him is. But 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:32.800 they still had an extremely harrowing um experience there on 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:37.400 mycene him too, just from the fallout from Vesuvius um, 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:41.840 even though Pompeii and Herculaneum and um uh Stabbia all 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:45.760 got the worst of it um plenty the younger's account, 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:49.639 it's the only firsthand account of the eruption of Vesuvius. 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:53.000 Then um it's pretty scary stuff. Like he says, like 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:56.920 the sky went dark, but not dark, like the moon 0:18:57.040 --> 0:18:59.560 wasn't out, or there weren't any stars. He said, It's 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:02.199 suddenly got dark like somebody put a light out in 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.440 an enclosed room, like that kind of dark, like apparently 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:08.040 you couldn't see people just a few feet ahead of you. 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.159 They just got real dark, real fast. Yeah, and you 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:13.480 can you can read his entire account online. But here's 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:17.200 another nice pull quote. You could hear the shrieks of women, 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:20.200 the wailing of infants, and the shouting of men. There 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:22.520 were some who prayed for death. In their terror of dying, 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:25.520 many besought the aid of the gods. But still more 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:28.280 imagine there were no God's left, and that the universe 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:32.320 was plunged into eternal darkness forever more. It's pretty grim, geez. 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:37.360 So this is again in Messenti Um, I think I'm 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:41.280 not saying that right still him my seeing him um 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:44.639 and Pompeii, the situation is much much, much worse. And 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:46.720 Pliny the Younger was saying that they were kind of 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:49.520 huddled in I think a house or something somewhere. But 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:52.960 even in this house, the ash that was like accumulating 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:54.960 around them and on top of them was so much 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:56.760 that they had to stand up every once in a 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:59.880 while and shake it off. It was again much worse 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:03.159 in Pompeii itself. There's a lot of ash falling and 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:08.280 covering people inside their houses and under structures, and either 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:11.000 you stay there and start to worry about getting buried, 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:13.880 or even worse, you start to worry about the roof 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:17.800 collapsing under the weight of all that gathering ash and pummice, 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:21.000 or you risk going out and being hit by one 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:23.760 of those pummice rocks, which if you've ever picked up 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:27.119 a volcanic rock, it is way lighter because it's very porous, 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:31.119 way lighter than a like a sedimentary rock of the 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:33.679 same size. But you still wouldn't want to get hit 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:35.880 in the head by one of those things after it's 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:38.760 falling twenty miles out of the sky. And this is 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:42.040 actually what they think. Um the height that this ejective 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:45.399 coming out of the volcano reached was twenty miles or 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:48.560 something like thirty two kilometers, I think. Yeah, So here's 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.600 here's a couple of stats for you. Um ash was 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:54.240 falling at a rate of about six inches an hour, 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:58.880 which is, you know, that's if you imagine that as rain, 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:01.160 and if you've ever seen a rain like that, that's 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:04.840 an unbelievable amount of rain. So imagine that is ashuh 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:09.280 lava was flowing at about sixty eight miles an hour 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:13.400 by the time it started sailing down the hillside, right right. 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:15.359 So so you've got a few things you've got the 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:18.280 first explosion, the eruption, where like you said, the court 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:21.920 goes off, the ejective goes into the air. Pliny described 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:23.920 it as like a great pine tree with a big 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:26.960 long trunk, and then way up high it branches out, 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:30.840 and those are now called pliny in eruptions um. And 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:35.560 then later on from all this activity, the the cone 0:21:35.640 --> 0:21:40.600 of the volcano collapses, and when that happened, it shot 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:44.240 out this pyroclastic flow, which is made up of ash 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:47.560 and hot gas. From between. I think I saw four 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:53.080 hundred to fiftundred degrees fahrenheight, which is um a substantial 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:59.040 amount in celsius too. That's the that's the that's the translation, 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:03.040 and it's it's like you said, flowing. I saw a 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:06.280 hundred miles an hour. You saw sixty three miles. But 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:08.440 I mean that's one of those that's one of those 0:22:08.440 --> 0:22:11.240 things that I'm sure you know they can't really tell exactly, 0:22:11.359 --> 0:22:14.399 but at any rate that it's going to be super fast, 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:19.280 super fast, super hot. And they think now, before they 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:21.879 thought that everybody in Pompeii died from being covered in 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:24.920 ash um, they think now that they actually died much 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:28.000 more quickly than that. Right when that priorro clastic flow 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:30.960 was anywhere near them, especially when it overtook them, it 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:33.600 would have killed them instantly, which actually is we'll see 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:36.240 accounts for some of the faces that we've have been 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:41.359 found around on the people of the Pompeii victims. Yeah, 0:22:41.400 --> 0:22:44.360 and they even think, and by the way, we went 0:22:44.440 --> 0:22:46.840 right past the fact that pyrocastic flow is a great, 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:51.280 great band name. It really is. Uh but they even 0:22:51.320 --> 0:22:53.960 think now that most of them died from head injuries 0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:57.640 even before that even happened. Oh really, I hadn't seen 0:22:57.680 --> 0:22:59.879 that one. Yeah, well we'll get to that. I'll just 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:04.640 though there's a tease. Uh. So this is shortly after 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:09.160 midnight is when herculan a Um was covered and obliterated. 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:12.400 About six thirty a m. The following morning is when 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:16.000 Pompeii started getting hit with this flow. The whole thing 0:23:16.640 --> 0:23:19.719 takes about twenty five hours for all, for about two 0:23:21.560 --> 0:23:25.200 plus square miles to get completely destroyed. Yeah, and it 0:23:26.240 --> 0:23:30.120 in nineteen hours. It shot out something like one cubic 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:34.840 mile of rock and ash out of that volcano a 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:38.920 cubic mile. Imagine looking up and seeing a mile cube 0:23:39.440 --> 0:23:41.760 and it's just all coming down on you well, and 0:23:41.840 --> 0:23:45.439 again seeing this and not like not even knowing what 0:23:45.520 --> 0:23:49.919 a volcano is, Yeah, it makes it any scarier, I guess. 0:23:49.920 --> 0:23:53.720 But they must have thought the world was ending. Well yeah, 0:23:53.760 --> 0:23:55.480 I mean if they thought there were no more gods, 0:23:55.520 --> 0:23:58.080 I would guess that that that they would think like, well, 0:23:58.119 --> 0:24:02.199 this is it, this is the end of middle um. Uh. 0:24:02.320 --> 0:24:06.360