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20th Century’s Deadliest Disasters

Khalid Elhassan October 26, 2020 32 min

1976 Tangshan earthquake - Tangshan — A bridge destroyed by the Tangshan Earthquake. China Underground

27. Vesuvius Vomited Lava That Incinerated All That it Encountered

Lava sweeping down from Vesuvius. Thing Link

There had been tremors for days, but they were not unusual. The tragic episode kicked off around noon on August 24^th, when a cloud appeared atop Vesuvius. About an hour later, the volcano erupted and ash began to fall on Pompeii, 6 miles away. By 2 PM, pumice, or volcanic debris, begin to fall with the ash. By 5 PM, sunlight had been completely blocked and roofs in Pompeii began collapsing under the accumulating weight of ash and pumice.

Spread of the ash and pumice from the Vesuvius eruption. Wikimedia

Panicked townspeople rushed to the harbor seeking any ship that would take them away. By midnight, the volcano was spewing a hot deadly column over 20 miles up into the air. In the meantime, lava flowed down the mountainside in six major surges, as Vesuvius vomited molten rock in a rapid flow that incinerated all that it encountered.

Also Read: Interesting thing about the Tragic Town of Pompeii and the Volcanic Eruption.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.