VESUVIUS (MOUNT)

Italian Vesuvio, active volcano that rises above the Bay of Naples on the plain of Campania in southern Italy. Its western base rests almost upon the bay. The height of the cone in 1980 was 4,198 ft (1,280 m), but it varies considerably after each major eruption. At about 1,968 ft a high semicircular ridge, called Mt. Somma, begins, girding the cone on the north and rising to 3,714 ft. Between Mt. Somma and the cone is the Valle del Gigante (Giant's Valley). At the summit of the cone is a large crater about 1,000 ft deep and 2,000 ft across; it was formed in the eruption of 1944. More than 2,000,000 people live in the area of Vesuvius and on its lower slopes. There are industrial towns along the coast of the Bay of Naples and small agricultural centres on the northern slopes. Vesuvius originated during the late Pleistocene Epoch, probably somewhat less than 200,000 years ago. Although a relatively young volcano, Vesuvius had been dormant for centuries before the great eruption of AD 79 that buried the cities of Pompeii and Stabiae under ashes and lapilli and the city of Herculaneum under a mud flow. The writer Pliny the Younger, who was staying at a place west of Naples, gave an excellent account of the catastrophe in two letters to the historian Tacitus. Between the years 79 and 1631, several eruptions were reported. Confirmed eruptions occurred in 203, 472, 512, 787, 968, 991, 999, 1007, and 1036. The explosions of 512 were so severe that Theodoric the Goth released the people living on the slopes of Vesuvius from payment of taxes. After some centuries of quiescence, a series of earthquakes, lasting for six months and gradually increasing in violence, preceded a major eruption that took place on December 16, 1631. Many villages on the slopes of the volcano were destroyed; about 3,000 people were killed; the lava flow reached the sea; and the skies were darkened for days. After 1631 there was a change in the eruptive character of the volcano and activity became continuous. Two stages could be observed: quiescent and eruptive. During the quiescent stage the volcano's mouth would be obstructed, whereas in the eruptive stage it would be almost continually open. Between 1660 and 1944 some 19 of these cycles were observed. Severe paroxysmal eruptions, concluding an eruptive stage, occurred in the years 1660, 1682, 1694, 1698, 1707, 1737, 1760, 1767, 1779, 1794, 1822, 1834, 1839, 1850, 1855, 1861, 1868, 1872, 1906, and 1944. The eruptive stages varied in length from 6 months to 30 3/4 years. The quiescent stages have varied from 18 months to 7 1/2 years. Scientific study of the volcano did not begin until late in the 18th century. An observatory was opened in 1845 at 1,995 ft, and, in the 20th century, numerous stations were set up at various heights for making volcanologic measurements. A large laboratory and a deep tunnel for seismo-gravimetric measurements were also built. The slopes of Vesuvius are covered with vineyards and orchards, and the wine grown there is known as Lacrima Christi; in ancient Pompeii the wine jars were frequently marked with the name Vesuvinum. Higher up, the mountain is covered with copses of oak and chestnut, and on the northern side along the slopes of Mt. Somma the woods proceed to the very summit. On the western side the chestnut groves give way above 2,000 ft to undulating plateaus covered with broom, where the crater left by the great eruption of the year 79 has been filled in. Still higher, on the slopes of the great cone and on the inner slope of Mt. Somma, the surface is almost barren; during quiescent periods it is covered by tufts of meadow plants. The soil is very fertile, and in the long period of inactivity before the eruption of 1631 there were forests in the crater and three lakes from which pasturing herds drank. Vegetation on the slope dies off during eruptive periods because of the volcanic gases. After the eruption of 1906, forests were planted on the slopes in order to protect inhabited places from the flows of mud that usually occur after violent eruptions, and in the fertile soil the trees grew rapidly. In 73 BC the gladiator Spartacus was besieged by the praetor Publius Claudius Pulcher on the barren summit of Mt. Somma, which was then a wide, flat depression walled by rugged rocks festooned with wild vines. He escaped by twisting ropes of vine branches and descending through unguarded fissures in the crater rim. Some paintings excavated in Pompeii and Herculaneum represent the mountain as it looked before the eruption of AD 79, when it had only one peak.