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How to escape from an erupting volcano

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Re: How to escape from an erupting volcano

#21
post #6

> So instead, you and the rest of the Pompeiians find yourselves 6 miles from the vent of Vesuvius with only two options: Run north, or run south. I dunno, I checked the map and you can run to east and then south without any mountains towards Cava de tireni and you will be further from Vesuvio than in Naples plus you can cross small hills and end up in Salerno with unlimited path further on coast.

I don't know what kind of considerations drove the author to exclude east. We know that from Pompeii to Nuceria (now Nocera Inferiore) there was a road, but probably not well maintained. Consider that at the time this was probably, a huge forest. Nocera itself was only interested by the earthquakes and not by any pyroclastic event, nor gases. Here's an image of the eruption of the time: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ea/Mt... So probably the author felt that travelling to Nuceria was more dangerous, because you would be exposed to the winds that could bring the gases to you at any time. I'll try to reach out to the author and ask him directly why the east road was excluded.

Re: How to escape from an erupting volcano

#22
post #6

> So instead, you and the rest of the Pompeiians find yourselves 6 miles from the vent of Vesuvius with only two options: Run north, or run south. I dunno, I checked the map and you can run to east and then south without any mountains towards Cava de tireni and you will be further from Vesuvio than in Naples plus you can cross small hills and end up in Salerno with unlimited path further on coast.

I don't know what kind of considerations drove the author to exclude east. We know that from Pompeii to Nuceria (now Nocera Inferiore) there was a road, but probably not well maintained. Consider that at the time this was probably, a huge forest. Nocera itself was only interested by the earthquakes and not by any pyroclastic event, nor gases. Here's an image of the eruption of the time: https://upload.wikimedia.org/w…

I don’t know whether it is true, but FTA: “Mountains block your path to the east“

Re: How to escape from an erupting volcano

#23
post #10

And yet protagonists survive after going through a pyroclastic flow routinely in the movies, such as Jurassic World: FK and 2012. It is a recurring trope in movies!

Call me old school, but I prefer to have Pierce Brosnan as my pyroclastic flow chaperone.

Re: How to escape from an erupting volcano

#24
post #5

An interesting animation related to this topic: A Day in Pompeii - Full-length animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY_3ggKg0Bc

The animation is awesome because it shows it would be quite hard to tell that something extreme is about to happen in the morning (when the article details you must have left to survive).

Re: How to escape from an erupting volcano

#25
post #13

When I visited Pompei and Herculaneum my first thought is I couldn't help but to think how stupid humans are for rebuilding those towns in exactly the same place, and even closer to the volcano than the ancient destroyed towns. Farms, I get it -- fertile soil -- but why cities? Did people not learn from the historical records of their time, to draw lines around the boundaries of destruction and not build again within…

Hi there, I live around 30 km from Pompeii and I'm in a "safe zone". I'm only expected to receive some ashes in case of eruption (if the eruption is like the one of 1600, that is more probable but less strong than the one of 79BC). After a few years after the eruption, nobody knew the exact location of Pompeii and Ercolanum, and also for quite some time these two areas were unhabitated and used only for farming. The…

Aren't there multiple volcanoes in that area? I thought the biggest risk at the moment was supposed to be the Phlegraean Fields rather than Vesuvius

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlegraean_Fields

Re: How to escape from an erupting volcano

#26
post #24
post #5

An interesting animation related to this topic: A Day in Pompeii - Full-length animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY_3ggKg0Bc

The animation is awesome because it shows it would be quite hard to tell that something extreme is about to happen in the morning (when the article details you must have left to survive).

It probably depends on your mode of transportation.

If you need to reach Naples by 2pm on foot, then yes, you need to leave in the morning. If you have a horse, though, you can probably hang around until lunchtime and still have time to spare.

Re: How to escape from an erupting volcano

#27
post #6

> So instead, you and the rest of the Pompeiians find yourselves 6 miles from the vent of Vesuvius with only two options: Run north, or run south. I dunno, I checked the map and you can run to east and then south without any mountains towards Cava de tireni and you will be further from Vesuvio than in Naples plus you can cross small hills and end up in Salerno with unlimited path further on coast.

I don't know what kind of considerations drove the author to exclude east. We know that from Pompeii to Nuceria (now Nocera Inferiore) there was a road, but probably not well maintained. Consider that at the time this was probably, a huge forest. Nocera itself was only interested by the earthquakes and not by any pyroclastic event, nor gases. Here's an image of the eruption of the time: https://upload.wikimedia.org/w…

but it's closer than Neapolis and more logical for most people than going towards the volcano

Re: How to escape from an erupting volcano

#28
post #5

An interesting animation related to this topic: A Day in Pompeii - Full-length animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY_3ggKg0Bc

Judging by animation it would be quite obvious to leave at 1PM and you still have plenty of time until 5PM before things get really bad, heck in 2 hours you can get at least 12km away to Nocera inferiore, where you would be already pretty safe and in another hour to Cava de tirreni where you would be completely safe

Re: How to escape from an erupting volcano

#29
post #8

i had such a hard time reading this article. the text kept moving up and down because of the adds, I eventually hit control a and copied everythign to a notepad to read..... wow that was an awful experience.

It managed to crash the new Firefox. Altho, that is not saying much.

I mean what is not crashing the new firefox, browser choice of the masochists.

edit: I see it hurt feelings of those few diehard fans left, who still didn't abandon this Titanic.

Re: How to escape from an erupting volcano

#30
post #8

i had such a hard time reading this article. the text kept moving up and down because of the adds, I eventually hit control a and copied everythign to a notepad to read..... wow that was an awful experience.

no issues reading it in chromium browser with ublock
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