Permanent Evidence of Life And Death in Pompeii 79 AD August 24, 2010

Mt. Vesuvius in a Plinian eruption as described by Pliny the Younger in 79 AD

Last Vesuvius Eruption in 1944 Looks Very Similar to Pliny's 79 AD Observations

On This Date in History:  Italy is in some regard the cradle of Western Civilization, though the roots of modern Western culture can be traced to many regions around the Mediterreanean Sea.   Mixed in with the history of Italy and the Roman Empire are episodes of tragedy that were largely man-made.  However, some disasters were simply human tragedy.  The Bay of Naples in Southern Italy has a beautiful location for a town in the Campania region of the Napoli Province at the mouth of the Sarno River at the base of a giant mountain.  What could be better than a port near a river that gave access to inland markets on a bay that is a gateway to the rest of the world?   Sometimes a hidden menace can spoil what appears to be prime real estate.

Impact Zone from Eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD

In the early part of the 1st Century, earthquakes in the region were quite common and accepted as just a way of life.  Most were merely a nuisance but in 62 AD there was a violent tembler,even by Italian standards.  In 64 AD, the Roman Emperor Nero was in Naples performing when another major earthquake struck.  While life went on, it took quite a bit of time for the town to recover.  In 79 AD, the town was still recovering from the earthquake in 62 AD and, to a lesser extent, the one in 64 AD.  Around that time, more earthquakes rattled the area but this time something strange happened.  The wells and springs all dried up.  By the time August rolled around, the earth had cracked.  In late August, the sea became rather turbulent and the animals in the area began to behave in a very strange manner.   The residents of the town, probably more appropriately called a city, were somewhat alarmed but not so much that they thought to leave their home at the base of Mount Vesuvius.  Had they known what the mountain was telling them, they most likely would have left their city of Pompeii because on this date in 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted violently.

Poor Dog Captured Forever in Image of Death

This single event is responsible for making Mt. Vesuvius one of the more well known volcanoes in the world.  However, it’s not so much for the event as to what was discovered 1700 years later.  In fact, the modern world may have been ignorant to the great eruption in 79 AD had it not been for the writing of a young man known as Pliny the Younger.  He was the nephew of a Roman offiical who had charge of the Roman Navy in the region.  His uncle, Pliny the Elder, was not only a military and political leader, but he was also a naturalist.  He also raised his nephew.   As a naturalist, Pliny the Elder habitually recorded many scientific observations and his nephew followed in his uncle’s footsteps.  Pliny the Younger wrote to the Roman historian Tacitus about the events of August 24, 79 AD.  He lived with his uncle about 18 miles from Pompeii in the town of Misenum where the fleet was stationed.  At one in the afternoon, the Younger’s mother urged his uncle to look at the strange cloud rising from a distant mountain.  He said that it ”was ascending, the appearance of which I cannot give you a more exact description of than by likening it to that of a pine tree, for it shot up to a great height in the form of a very tall trunk, which spread itself out at the top into a sort of branches.”   

What Appears to Be A Family Frozen in Time from 79AD

The Elder thought he’d take a small boat out to make an observation and asked the Younger if he’d like to come along but the young man was too busy with his studies.  Before the Elder could leave on his scientific excursion, he received a note from a relative that said her home at the foot of Mt. Vesuvius was in great danger and that there was no escape except by sea.  The Elder took off his scientific hat and took on the role of Roman citizen and Prefect and ordered his fleet to sea.  As he neared the city, his ships were pelted by falling stone and pumice as well as burning cinders.  Though his ships were in grave danger, he ordered them to shore.  When his pilot advised that they turn back, Pliny the Elder responded by saying, “Fortune favours the brave; steer to where Pomponianus is!”

An Embrace That Has Lasted Since August 79 AD

Pliny the Elder died that day in the firestorm.  Mt. Vesuvius buried the city of Pompeii under 10 feet of ash while the neighboring town of Herculaneum found itself 75 feet below the surface.  The eruption happened so suddenly that thousands of people died, many of whom were entombed as they attempted to flee.  Mt. Vesuvius erupted about every 100 years thereafter until about 1037 when the volcano went silent for about six centuries.  It awakened from its slumber in 1631 resulting in the deaths of about 4000 people.  As I said in the beginning, volcano notwithstanding, it was  a great place for a city so the rebuilding began.  While the city continued its rebirth over a century later, excavations uncovered the ancient city of Pompeii beginning on March 23, 1748.   The excavation work continues today.  

Preservation Was So Exact that Expressions of Agony Can Be Seen on the Victims

The observational recordings of the Mt. Vesuvius eruption by Pliny the Younger , preserved by Tacitus, resulted in the earliest detailed description of a volcanic eruption in human history.  That in itself makes the volcano noteworthy.  But, the discovery of the buried city is what really put the mountain and the city on the map as the ash preserved the city in a virtual snapshot of time.  From the ruins, it has been determined how Romans in the 1st century lived and they provide some clue as to how the people of Pompeii died.  Not only were the buildings and examples of advanced Roman engineering maintained as a model for archaeologists and anthropologists to study, but human remains were suprisingly left behind.  Stone like figures that appeared to be sculptures of people and animals in the throws of death were found.  The descriptive skill of Pliny the Younger and the heroic effort of his uncle led to the characterization of eruptions similar to that of Vesuvius as “Plinian.”  A typical Plinian eruption features the ejection of tephra into the atmosphere in a cloud that resembles a mushroom cloud, or as the Younger described it, a pine tree.  In 79 AD, it is speculated that the cloud rose to about 66,000 feet and pumice and ash rained on the countryside for 18 hours.  Under the weight of the ash buildings collapsed and then a blast of gasses and extreme heat engulfed the city.  Some speculation as to the ultimate demise of those who could not escape by sea centers around the excessive heat. 

US Army Air Corps Suffered More Damage From Mt. Vesuvius in 1944 than from the Germans and Italians

Now, Mt. Vesuvius has erupted about 50 times since that fateful day in 79 AD yet, as I’ve said, its a great place for a city and today there are nearly 3 million inhabitants of the region at the foot of Mt. Vesuvius.  It has got to be one of the most vulnerable and dangerous of all the world’s metropolises.  The last time it erupted was right in the middle of World War II.  The Mt. Vesuvius eruption in 1944 came just as the allies were attempting to take control of Italy from Mussolini and Hitler and, at times, the erupting volcano was more of an enemy than the facist soldiers.  Since 1944, the volcano has remained silent yet is still considered as an active volcano.  One day it will awaken again.  If it does, then you can have a birds-eye view from the webcams now situated on and around Mt. Vesuvius.

Weather Bottom Line: I told you that I thought that we’d turned the corner on the excessive heat and it would seem that we’re getting a little more evidence that there is a seasonal change coming.  Now, I’m not saying that we won’t get to 90 degrees again this year, but I am saying that the upper 90s are probably gone as well as the extreme humidity.  When we do get to 90, which we may this weekend, it won’t be so dog gone humid.  As it stands, we have a cold front coming through on Wednesday afternoon or evening followed by a secondary push of Canadian air.  That means that the latter part of the week we may see highs only in the low to mid 80s as we enjoy the front side of the Canadian high pressure system dropping down.  Our mornings will be in the mid to upper 50′s.  When the high drifts off to the east for the weekend, then we get a return flow and warm back up.  It’s a nice break and an indication that the times they are a changin’.

Leaning Tower of Pisa, A Magnificent Engineering Failure August 9, 2010

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is a Magificent Engineering Failure

On this Date in History:  In Medieval Italy, a cathedral complex was begun in Pisa, Italy.   Ultimately,the complex would include four structures and be  known as the Campo dei Miracoli or Piazza dei Miracoli, which means Fields of Miracles.  If you are going to build a cathedral complex, it’s probably best to start with the cathedral and so the first building constructed was Duomo di Pisa.  It’s a fabulous example of Roman architecture and is set upon a white marble pavement.  Just to the west of the cathedral dome, the baptistry was constructed.  The third part of the Campo dei Miracoli was the bell tower, more properly referred to as the campanile.    While  the entire complex is considered by many experts to be the most spectacular assembly of Roman (Romanesque) architecture (though the cathedral is topped with an Islamic-style dome), the bell tower has become one of the world’s iconic structures and iconic engineering failure.

Photographer Dan Heller Provides a Look Inside the Cathedral in Pisa

The tower’s design called for a 185 foot tall, circular, eight-story column made of white marble.   The bottom floor consists of 15 arches with the next 6 stories containing 30 arches each and the top floor utilizing 16 arches for structural integrity probably more than asthetics.   A spiral staircase of 297 steps leads to the top floor which houses the actual bell chamber.  Truly, it is an astonishing engineering feat when one considers that construction was begun on this date in 1173.  The tower was perhaps the tallest of its type in all of Europe and was not built for any religious purpose.  Instead, it’s construction came about as a symbol of the wealth of the city.   This was the time of the rise in the city-state in Italy that eventually led to the Renaissance.  Pisa went to war with many of its city-state neighbors, including its chief rival, Florence.  The first order of business was the foot of the tower but the effort was halted due to the outbreak of war with Florence.  

Aerial View of Campo Dei Miracoli

In fact, construction of the tower was interrupted so often that it was not completed for 136 years.  Work was restarted in 1180 and the first 3 floors were completed 5 years later.  Funding ran out about that time because the city-state’s treasure was being put toward another war with Florence.  It was in that very year that the incomplete tower began to lean.  While the builders looked for a solution to the lean,  they put bells on top of the 3rd floor so that at least they would have a bell tower.  The battles with Florence and other city-states were frequent enough that construction was not restarted until 1275 when the wars were at such a manageable level that the work was able to continue for 9 straight years.  But, in 1284 the Navy of Pisa was decimated by that of Genoa partly due to the betrayal of Pisa’s own count, Count Ugolino della Gherardesca.  The count and his family were put into a prison tower and the folks in Pisa literally threw the key to the tower of Gualandi into the Arno River.  The disgraced family died of starvation and the tower has been known as the Torre della Fame (tower of hunger) ever since.  Dante started a story that the count was found gnawing on the bones of one of his dead kids and he has been referred to as the ”Cannibal Count,” though recent evidence may have determined that the count was not a cannibal.   By 1319, the tower was finally completed.  But the symbol of Pisa’s power didn’t last long because in 1392, Florence bought the entire city-state of Pisa.  I suppose one might say that is when it became a tourist attraction.

Inside the Bell Tower

However, it is not known as the Campanile of  the Campo dei Miracoli or the Bell Tower of Campo dei Miracoli.   Instead, it is most often referred to as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  No one knows for certain who designed the tower but he must have been someone of great skill, capability and guts.  But, it seems when they began the footing, they only went to a depth of about 10 feet on a dry stone bed.  When they finished the third floor and construction was halted, the building had sunk by about a yard (40 cm) and there was a lean of 5 cm.  If you think about it, a lean of a couple of inches is not that obvious to the naked eye so they had to have reasonably sophisticated capability to determine if a building was level. 

False Report of Tower's Demise

Short of tearing it down and starting over, the staircase design and weight of the material didn’t leave much room for fixing the lean.  When they got to the 6th floor, one side of the upper floors were raised to try and correct the lean which was then obvious to the eye as it had grown to 90 cm or about 7 feet.   Curiously, it is thought that the numerous delays in construction due to war or political unrest allowed the structure to settle to a relative state of stability.  Over the years, many people have come up with ways to correct  the lean.  One suggestion was to dismantle the tower and rebuild it at a different location.  If that had been allowed to come about, I doubt that the tower would be nearly as famous as it is today.  In the 1920′s,  a cement solution was injected into the foundation that may have provided extra stability.  Apparently,  Benito Mussolini also tried to add cement to the foundation but it sunk the clay. 

Cable Scheme Proposed to Save Tower

Today, the tower leans about 14 feet from center and it is estimated that the lean grows at about 1 mm per year.  Maybe it’s still settling.  It’s six feet shorter than it was originally and some estimates say that it will fall in about 175 years.    Efforts to find a permanent stablization method continues today, including the use of steel cables to hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  That might keep it from falling down but it sure wouldn’t look too good.   The tower was closed from 1990 to 2001 while a solution was sought.  More stablization work was done and the tower reopened in 2001. Italian engineers claim the work means the Leaning Tower of Pisa won’t fall for 300 years.    Some say the 800 year mystery of the Leaning Tower of Pisa has been solved.  But, it does continue to lean further each year.     From time to time, the bell tower has been closed to the public but its open in the 21st century and remains an iconic tourist destination that gives people an extra reason to visit the small town of Pisa.  Perhaps the folks in Florence knew that they had their own Disneyland when they bought their enemy out.

Weather Bottom Line:  Hope you enjoyed the weekend weather because the heat and humidity is back.  We’ll be talking upper 90′s to near 100 and as the week goes on, the humidity will get worse and worse until Wednesday becomes pretty tough.   A front may get close enough on Wednesday to help destablize things enough and work with the afternoon heat to trigger some t’storms.  The ridge appears to re-establish itself on Thursday so that would mean more limited chances and then on Friday, we have another front that again gets close enough to raise the prospects of t’storms and rain.  Biggest difference between this week and last is that it doesnt look like the front will be able to make its way through and bring a break in the heat.