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The Massive Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1944
George Winston
Mount Vesuvius is among the most famous natural spectacles in the world. It is also one of the most feared. Having erupted seventy years ago, it has yet to erupt again. Famed for its destruction of Pompeii, many fear that the large volcano may go off again at any time. Following Pompeii’s tragic destruction, Mount Vesuvius has only erupted approximately thirty times.
When the volcano erupted in 1944, it was near the site of an Italian base used by Allied forces in World War II, meaning there were several witnesses to the event. In some ways, Mount Vesuvius and its eruption were much welcomed by the Allies, as it was one of the few things some of them were able to tell their families about. This was especially true since the year of the event was the same year there had been increased concentration on cracking the Enigma machine, a German encryption device which had only recently been captured from a German U-boat.
Mount Vesuvius can be seen from miles away, and Allied soldiers noticed that, even with the top of the volcano covered in snow, smoke was constantly issuing forth from the top. It was when the smoke output increased that soldiers became wary that an eruption might be near. What some might not know about volcanoes is that an eruption is not a brief event. The volcano spewed forth lava for several days, something it had not done for over a decade at that point. Luckily, the slow process was not as unexpected as the tragedy of Pompeii, and the most populated areas were easily evacuated, The Telegraph reports.
Wartime reporters soon found they had something to talk about besides the horrific deaths of those at battle. What Mount Vesuvius did to the nearby town of San Sebastiano was unlike anything the Japanese had done at Pearl Harbor. The eruption left nothing of the land in its path, but still there were several brave reporters willing to catch the carnage from as close as possible. After over a week of molten lava, the volcano began its stage of erupting with ash and rock, the fallout of which could be felt from several miles. This was the phase that became deadly, claiming twenty lives before its end.
The 1944 eruption of Mount Vesuvius created as much as it destroyed. Volcanic ash has a tendency to make the lands around it much more fertile, and this was no exception. While there were eventual benefits to the ordeal, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius is still an event that many people fear going into the future.
http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/mount-vesuvius-erupted-seventy-years-ago.html
https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-march-17-1944-most-recent-eruption-mount-vesuvius
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Vesuvius
Additional video footage :
https://youtu.be/iZc7Mtid9a4
@ col mikel COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Stephen F. LTC (Join to see) Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Maj Marty Hogan SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas TSgt Joe C. SrA Christopher B. SFC William Farrell SSG Robert Webster @ sgt jim SGT Jim Arnold @ sgt david SGT (Join to see) SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth SP5 Mark Kuzinski @ cpl dave CPL Dave Hoover SPC Mike Lake SPC Margaret Higgins Alan K. Cynthia Croft
George Winston
Mount Vesuvius is among the most famous natural spectacles in the world. It is also one of the most feared. Having erupted seventy years ago, it has yet to erupt again. Famed for its destruction of Pompeii, many fear that the large volcano may go off again at any time. Following Pompeii’s tragic destruction, Mount Vesuvius has only erupted approximately thirty times.
When the volcano erupted in 1944, it was near the site of an Italian base used by Allied forces in World War II, meaning there were several witnesses to the event. In some ways, Mount Vesuvius and its eruption were much welcomed by the Allies, as it was one of the few things some of them were able to tell their families about. This was especially true since the year of the event was the same year there had been increased concentration on cracking the Enigma machine, a German encryption device which had only recently been captured from a German U-boat.
Mount Vesuvius can be seen from miles away, and Allied soldiers noticed that, even with the top of the volcano covered in snow, smoke was constantly issuing forth from the top. It was when the smoke output increased that soldiers became wary that an eruption might be near. What some might not know about volcanoes is that an eruption is not a brief event. The volcano spewed forth lava for several days, something it had not done for over a decade at that point. Luckily, the slow process was not as unexpected as the tragedy of Pompeii, and the most populated areas were easily evacuated, The Telegraph reports.
Wartime reporters soon found they had something to talk about besides the horrific deaths of those at battle. What Mount Vesuvius did to the nearby town of San Sebastiano was unlike anything the Japanese had done at Pearl Harbor. The eruption left nothing of the land in its path, but still there were several brave reporters willing to catch the carnage from as close as possible. After over a week of molten lava, the volcano began its stage of erupting with ash and rock, the fallout of which could be felt from several miles. This was the phase that became deadly, claiming twenty lives before its end.
The 1944 eruption of Mount Vesuvius created as much as it destroyed. Volcanic ash has a tendency to make the lands around it much more fertile, and this was no exception. While there were eventual benefits to the ordeal, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius is still an event that many people fear going into the future.
http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/mount-vesuvius-erupted-seventy-years-ago.html
https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-march-17-1944-most-recent-eruption-mount-vesuvius
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Vesuvius
Additional video footage :
https://youtu.be/iZc7Mtid9a4
@ col mikel COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Stephen F. LTC (Join to see) Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Maj Marty Hogan SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas TSgt Joe C. SrA Christopher B. SFC William Farrell SSG Robert Webster @ sgt jim SGT Jim Arnold @ sgt david SGT (Join to see) SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth SP5 Mark Kuzinski @ cpl dave CPL Dave Hoover SPC Mike Lake SPC Margaret Higgins Alan K. Cynthia Croft
WWII World War Two
World History
Natural Disaster
Mythology
Italy
Posted >1 y ago
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Thanks SGT John " Mac " McConnell for reminding us both that (1) Mount Vesuvius is an unstable mountain subject to volcanic eruptions and even in the face of a world wide war other tragedies can rise to prominence be they the influenza epidemic of 1918 in the Great War or tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes and volcanoes in WWII.
Mount Vesuvius erupted in March and August 1944.
Image: 1944-08 Vesuvius erupting in 1944; 1944-03 Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in March of 1944 Naples Lava; 1944-03 Eruption of Vesuvius from Paul Roales
"Mount Vesuvius, on the west coast of Italy, is the only active volcano on mainland Europe. It is best known because of the eruption in A.D. 79 that destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, but Vesuvius has erupted more than 50 times.
Mount Vesuvius facts
Vesuvius in 2013 was 4,203 feet (1,281 meters) tall. After each eruption, the size of the cone changes, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. The volcano also has a semicircular ridge called Mount Somma that rises to 3,714 feet (1,132 m). The valley between the cone and Mount Somma is called Valle del Gigante or Giant's Valley.
Mount Vesuvius is considered to be one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of its proximity to the city of Naples and the surrounding towns on the nearby slopes.
The volcano is classed as a complex stratovolcano because its eruptions typically involve explosive eruptions as well as pyroclastic flows. A pyroclastic flow is a high-density mix of hot lava blocks, pumice, ash and volcanic gas, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Vesuvius and other Italian volcanoes, such as Campi Flegrei and Stromboli, are part of the Campanian volcanic arc. The Campanian arc sits on a tectonic boundary where the African plate is being subducted beneath the Eurasian plate.
Under Vesuvius, scientists have detected a tear in the African plate. This "slab window" allows heat from the Earth's mantle layer to melt the rock of the African plate building up pressure that causes violent explosive eruptions. In the past, Mount Vesuvius has had a roughly 20-year eruption cycle, but the last serious eruption was in 1944.
WWII eruption
On March 17, 1944, a two-week-long eruption began with lava from the summit of Mount Vesuvius. In an article by Life Magazine, Giuseppe Imbo, director of the Mt. Vesuvius Observatory, is quoted as saying, "A marvelous thing, my Vesuvius. It covers land with precious ash that makes the earth fertile and grapes grow, and wine. That's why, after every eruption, people rebuild their homes on the slopes of the volcano. That is why they call the slopes of Vesuvius the compania felix — the happy land."
During the eruption, soldiers and airmen of the 340th Bomber Group were stationed at the Pompeii Airfield just a few miles from the base of the volcano. Diaries record the awesome sights and sounds they witnessed in this latest major eruption. Guards wore leather jackets and "steel pot" helmets to protect themselves from rains of hot ash and small rocks. Tents collapsed or caught fire when hot cinders were blown over them.
Sgt. Robert F. McRae wrote in his diary on March 20, 1944, according to the American Geosciences Institute, "As I sit in my tent … I can hear at four- to 10-second intervals the loud rumbling of the volcano on the third day of its present eruption. The noise is like that of bowling balls slapping into the pins on a giant bowling alley. To look above the mountain tonight, one would think that the world was on fire. The thickly clouded sky glows like that above a huge forest fire. Glowing brighter as new spouts of flame and lava are spewn from the crater. As the clouds pass from across the top of the mountain, the flame and lava can be seen shooting high into the sky to spill over the sides and run in red streams down the slopes. ... Today it is estimated that a path of molten lava 1 mile long, half a mile wide, and 8 feet deep is rolling down the mountain. Towns on the slopes are preparing to evacuate. Our location is, apparently, safe. At any rate no one here, civilian or Army authorities, seems too much worried. Lava has not started to flow down this side of the mountain as yet but is flowing on the other side toward Naples."
On March 22, they were forced to evacuate, leaving behind 88 Allied aircraft. After the volcano subsided, they returned on the 30th to find the planes were a total loss. Engines were clogged by ash, control panels were useless tangles of fused wire, canopies had holes from flying rock or were etched to opacity by wind driven ash.
One airman of the 489th Bomber Squadron complained in his diary when Axis Sally broadcast a radio show dedicated to the "survivors" of the Vesuvius eruption (actually the most severe human casualty was a wrist sprained during the evacuation). She told all of Europe that "Colonel Vesuvius" had destroyed all of them. The diarist was justifiably proud of the work he did with his fellows in recovery. By April 15, the planes had been replaced and the 340th Bomber Group was back to full strength and ready to fly missions from their new base.
Though no soldiers were killed, 26 Italian civilians died and nearly 12,000 were displaced by the 1944 eruption, according to the American Geosciences Institute.
Current status
Since 1944, there have been hundreds of minor earthquakes in the region around Mount Vesuvius. The most serious earthquake rocked Naples in October 1999. The magnitude-3.6 quake was felt as far as 15 miles (24 km) from the base of the volcano and was of the same magnitude as a quake that occurred 17 years prior to the last truly major explosion that devastated Naples in 1631.
In 2016, excavations on the outskirts of Pompeii revealed more victims of the volcanic eruption. Archaeologists discovered the remains of four people, including one teenage girl, in the ruins of a shop, according to a statement from the Soprintendenza Pompei, the Italian authority in charge of managing the ancient site."
https://www.livescience.com/27871-mount-vesuvius-pompeii.html
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Ivan Raiklin, Esq. Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown CW5 (Join to see) SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SSgt Robert Marx SSgt (Join to see) TSgt Joe C. SP5 Mark Kuzinski SPC (Join to see) SrA Christopher Wright Cpl Joshua Caldwell SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
Mount Vesuvius erupted in March and August 1944.
Image: 1944-08 Vesuvius erupting in 1944; 1944-03 Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in March of 1944 Naples Lava; 1944-03 Eruption of Vesuvius from Paul Roales
"Mount Vesuvius, on the west coast of Italy, is the only active volcano on mainland Europe. It is best known because of the eruption in A.D. 79 that destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, but Vesuvius has erupted more than 50 times.
Mount Vesuvius facts
Vesuvius in 2013 was 4,203 feet (1,281 meters) tall. After each eruption, the size of the cone changes, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. The volcano also has a semicircular ridge called Mount Somma that rises to 3,714 feet (1,132 m). The valley between the cone and Mount Somma is called Valle del Gigante or Giant's Valley.
Mount Vesuvius is considered to be one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of its proximity to the city of Naples and the surrounding towns on the nearby slopes.
The volcano is classed as a complex stratovolcano because its eruptions typically involve explosive eruptions as well as pyroclastic flows. A pyroclastic flow is a high-density mix of hot lava blocks, pumice, ash and volcanic gas, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Vesuvius and other Italian volcanoes, such as Campi Flegrei and Stromboli, are part of the Campanian volcanic arc. The Campanian arc sits on a tectonic boundary where the African plate is being subducted beneath the Eurasian plate.
Under Vesuvius, scientists have detected a tear in the African plate. This "slab window" allows heat from the Earth's mantle layer to melt the rock of the African plate building up pressure that causes violent explosive eruptions. In the past, Mount Vesuvius has had a roughly 20-year eruption cycle, but the last serious eruption was in 1944.
WWII eruption
On March 17, 1944, a two-week-long eruption began with lava from the summit of Mount Vesuvius. In an article by Life Magazine, Giuseppe Imbo, director of the Mt. Vesuvius Observatory, is quoted as saying, "A marvelous thing, my Vesuvius. It covers land with precious ash that makes the earth fertile and grapes grow, and wine. That's why, after every eruption, people rebuild their homes on the slopes of the volcano. That is why they call the slopes of Vesuvius the compania felix — the happy land."
During the eruption, soldiers and airmen of the 340th Bomber Group were stationed at the Pompeii Airfield just a few miles from the base of the volcano. Diaries record the awesome sights and sounds they witnessed in this latest major eruption. Guards wore leather jackets and "steel pot" helmets to protect themselves from rains of hot ash and small rocks. Tents collapsed or caught fire when hot cinders were blown over them.
Sgt. Robert F. McRae wrote in his diary on March 20, 1944, according to the American Geosciences Institute, "As I sit in my tent … I can hear at four- to 10-second intervals the loud rumbling of the volcano on the third day of its present eruption. The noise is like that of bowling balls slapping into the pins on a giant bowling alley. To look above the mountain tonight, one would think that the world was on fire. The thickly clouded sky glows like that above a huge forest fire. Glowing brighter as new spouts of flame and lava are spewn from the crater. As the clouds pass from across the top of the mountain, the flame and lava can be seen shooting high into the sky to spill over the sides and run in red streams down the slopes. ... Today it is estimated that a path of molten lava 1 mile long, half a mile wide, and 8 feet deep is rolling down the mountain. Towns on the slopes are preparing to evacuate. Our location is, apparently, safe. At any rate no one here, civilian or Army authorities, seems too much worried. Lava has not started to flow down this side of the mountain as yet but is flowing on the other side toward Naples."
On March 22, they were forced to evacuate, leaving behind 88 Allied aircraft. After the volcano subsided, they returned on the 30th to find the planes were a total loss. Engines were clogged by ash, control panels were useless tangles of fused wire, canopies had holes from flying rock or were etched to opacity by wind driven ash.
One airman of the 489th Bomber Squadron complained in his diary when Axis Sally broadcast a radio show dedicated to the "survivors" of the Vesuvius eruption (actually the most severe human casualty was a wrist sprained during the evacuation). She told all of Europe that "Colonel Vesuvius" had destroyed all of them. The diarist was justifiably proud of the work he did with his fellows in recovery. By April 15, the planes had been replaced and the 340th Bomber Group was back to full strength and ready to fly missions from their new base.
Though no soldiers were killed, 26 Italian civilians died and nearly 12,000 were displaced by the 1944 eruption, according to the American Geosciences Institute.
Current status
Since 1944, there have been hundreds of minor earthquakes in the region around Mount Vesuvius. The most serious earthquake rocked Naples in October 1999. The magnitude-3.6 quake was felt as far as 15 miles (24 km) from the base of the volcano and was of the same magnitude as a quake that occurred 17 years prior to the last truly major explosion that devastated Naples in 1631.
In 2016, excavations on the outskirts of Pompeii revealed more victims of the volcanic eruption. Archaeologists discovered the remains of four people, including one teenage girl, in the ruins of a shop, according to a statement from the Soprintendenza Pompei, the Italian authority in charge of managing the ancient site."
https://www.livescience.com/27871-mount-vesuvius-pompeii.html
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC Ivan Raiklin, Esq. Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown CW5 (Join to see) SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT MSG Andrew White SFC William Farrell SSgt Robert Marx SSgt (Join to see) TSgt Joe C. SP5 Mark Kuzinski SPC (Join to see) SrA Christopher Wright Cpl Joshua Caldwell SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
Mount Vesuvius & Pompeii: Facts & History
The only active volcano on mainland Europe is famous for destroying the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
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